Investments in wildlife crossings continue to increase nationwide, and states continue to see success reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions through these projects.
Now, wildlife crossings are coming to Joshua Tree National Park.
In addition to the enormous Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing that will soon open over the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills, five more wildlife crossings are planned for Southern California.
Two crossings are being planned in the Mojave Desert, and three other structures will span Interstate 15.
Those Mojave Desert crossings — which will pass over State Route 62 — are years in the making, Kelly Herbinson, a wildlife biologist and executive director of the Mojave Desert Land Trust, told KTLA earlier this year.
“This highway runs between two really important protected areas for wildlife, Joshua Tree to the east and Sand to Snow National Monument to the west,” Herbinson told KTLA. “It’s essentially fragmenting the habitat, effectively keeping species like bighorn sheep, deer, black bear, and mountain lions from being able to move from one area to another.”
In late April of this year, a healthy 18-month-old male cougar was struck and killed on State Route 62’s Yucca Grade. A month later, the Mojave Desert Land Trust received the funding it needed to get started.
In February, the group secured a $5.5 million grant from the California Wildlife Conservation Board. And in May, after the mountain lion was killed, a $512,000 grant from the Coachella Valley Mountain Conservancy.
Still, the final vision is years away.
“It’s a three-year project just to do engineering surveys, get through the environmental permitting process, and actually design what the crossings might look like,” Herbinson told KTLA. “After that, we’ll hopefully get funding to do that second phase, which is finalizing the designs and breaking ground.”
So, experts are getting started now.
Wildlife researchers have begun surveying the area to collect information on species like bighorn sheep — and later, mountain lions and bobcats — to guide in the planning of the two new crossings.
They will collect animal droppings for DNA analysis to study wildlife activity like movement and genetic exchange among these key species across the highway.
Detection dogs will soon join researchers to scout for animal scat. This work will give researchers more information to understand mating patterns across the highway, which will establish a baseline dataset to compare wildlife activity after the crossings are finally built.
“Generally, these genetic studies are long-term studies that can be informative for years to come and be used to track changes in genetic health as the crossings are adopted by wildlife,” Geary Hund, senior biologist and wildlife crossing project manager, told the San Bernardino Sun.
This study will run through April 2027. After that, another phase of study would run through December 2029, including roadkill surveys. A third study would then take place after construction.
All of this work is contingent on acquiring more funding.
According to a press release from the Mojave Desert Land Trust, the existing grant funding will bring two proposed crossing projects to 65% design completion, “setting the stage for implementation.”
The large state grant funds the technical studies and engineering work needed to design the structures and develop plans for environmental review. Once this work is complete, the land trust and its partners “will work to secure funding for the implementation and construction phase.”
“Desert communities exist at the intersection of people, wildlife, and wide-open landscapes. The proposed wildlife crossings would re-establish the natural movement of animals across the land, reduce dangerous wildlife-vehicle collisions, and strengthen the health of the ecosystems that sustain us,” Herbinson said in the press release.
“Thanks to the support of the Wildlife Conservation Board and our partners, we can invest in solutions that not just protect wildlife but support safer roads and more resilient communities that exist within, not apart from, nature.”
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Featured Image: Hannah Schwalbe/NPS
