$13.5-Million Deal Saves Key Wildlife Area

A key wildlife corridor connecting Chino Hills State Park on the north side of the Riverside Freeway with the Cleveland National Forest south of the freeway now belongs to the state, officials said Monday.

The state Department of Parks and Recreation bought the 32-acre parcel for $13.5 million, including about $2.5 million in donations from private conservancies.

Escrow closed late Friday. The state had purchased 649 acres of wilderness in Coal Canyon south of the freeway last year for $40 million.

“It was a huge effort” to pull the deal off, said Ron Krueper, superintendent of Chino Hills State Park. “Everybody came together.”

The transaction barely met a Friday deadline that was crucial to securing $3 million in state funding for the project.

A news conference to announce the milestone is set for 1 p.m. today on the property.

The 32-acre parcel is critical to the health of Chino Hills State Park wildlife, officials said. Had development isolated the park from nearby wilderness areas, its gene pool would have diminished over time because its wildlife wouldn’t have been able to breed with wildlife outside the park, officials said.

“This is a huge step” toward preserving the park’s well-being, said Claire Schlotterbeck of Brea, the president of Hills for Everyone, a coalition of citizens groups that helped create Chino Hills State Park in the early 1980s.

It’s particularly the larger species, such as mountain lions and deer, that need the space to roam and find mates, she said.

If the park’s mountain lion population declined from inbreeding, for example, it would lead to a population explosion among their natural prey, including opossums, raccoons and skunks. These animals prey on birds’ eggs, so growth in their population could reduce the park’s avian population. That, in turn, would hurt the spread of plant seeds, Schlotterbeck said.

No area of comparable size in the United States has a greater diversity of plant and animal species, she said.

At the time of the Coal Canyon purchase south of the freeway last year, state parks Director Rusty Areias said it was probably the most critical biological corridor in California.

Three conservation biologists, Reed Noss, Paul Beier and William Shaw, said in 1998 that restoration of a natural linkage under the freeway would be a first.

“It’s a global precedent, I think, because we’ve developed this freeway” that blocks the connection between the wilderness areas on either side “and we’re returning it [the connection] to the wildlife,” Krueper said.

All parks, Schlotterbeck said, “are at risk unless we connect them” to other wilderness areas.

Two long, dark tunnels were the only connection between the two sides of the freeway until the deal closed. While mountain lions used the tunnels, deer would not.

A horse stable and a dirt bike track are on the property purchased by the state and are expected to be removed. State parks officials envision removing a roadway beneath the freeway and restoring it to its natural condition, Krueper said.

Schlotterbeck said Caltrans plans to tear down the onramps and offramps at Coal Canyon. Caltrans officials didn’t return a call seeking comment Monday.

State parks officials must perform an environmental impact report and put together a management plan for the property, Krueper said.

Public and private officials were scrambling to close escrow up until the last minute--5 p.m. Friday, Schlotterbeck said.

At one point, she and a state official were ready to go to the nearest automated teller machine to withdraw $75 of their own money to meet a shortfall that cropped up, she said.

The state had set aside $3 million in a three-year trust that expired Saturday. If the money hadn’t been spent by then, it would have been lost for the purchase, Schlotterbeck said. “It’s just been really nerve-racking,” she said.

Park users may never notice the wildlife corridor’s impact, but they would have noticed the impact of failing to secure it, she said.

“In 50 years, they’ll be thanking us,” she said, “because deer will still be there and golden eagles will still be there.”