Clearing a Path for Wildlife

Just as patchwork housing makes for bad urban planning, conservationists have learned that patchworks of open land are a poor way to preserve wildlife in Southern California. That’s why there’s talk about wildlife corridors -- bridges of open space that connect isolated parcels.

That’s also why a proposal to build 3,600 homes on 3,000 acres straddling Los Angeles and Orange counties should get a critical eye from planners. The land has been identified by the Nature Conservancy as an important link between the northern tip of Chino Hills State Park and 4,000 acres of open space in the Rowland Heights area that contain wildlife.

For all its uniform brownness in summer, the region’s coastal hills are home to an extraordinary variety of wildlife. Large predators such as mountain lions need vast areas to roam. A raging fire in an isolated spot of coastal sage scrub could wipe out scores of plant species there, allowing noxious weeds to take over.

As separate as humans seem from nature in this sprawling region, our fates are tied to those plants and animals. Ever wonder why the rate of Lyme disease is so low in California? During the nymph stage, young insects in this state most often feed on the Western fence lizard. A substance in the lizard’s blood kills the spirochete that cause Lyme. That’s just one of the many ways human fates intertwine with those of wildlife.

Housing developer Aera Energy agrees that its plans must include some form of a wildlife corridor, but its proposed solution includes a golf course featuring native vegetation that would attract wildlife. Local opponents want to stop any development on the site, or limit it to 300 houses. Unless they plan to pay Aera a hefty sum for the land, that isn’t a practical stance.

A better tactic for this and similar development proposals would be a pragmatic, science-based approach to saving essential habitat. The design of viable wildlife corridors is an emerging and complicated field of expertise. One successful corridor, linking Chino Hills State Park with Coal Canyon, consists of a former freeway underpass.

The two sides should agree to hire top minds -- from such places as the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara -- to consider the many factors at stake and create a plan for linking wildlife habitats. L.A. County planners, and eventually the county Board of Supervisors, which will vote on the housing project, should demand nothing less.