Free-range highways

And you think you’ve got commuting issues. Some of our wilder local residents can’t leave their neighborhoods for a bite -- or even a date. Rapid transit is a major issue for mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, foxes and other denizens of Southern California’s remaining pockets of wilderness. Cut off by heavily traveled freeways and roadways, these creatures are trapped in shrinking patches of habitat. “Without enough space, the wild animals in our mountains are doomed to extinction,” says Ray Sauvajot, a wildlife ecologist with the National Park Service. The answer, according to a group of scientists and academics meeting Saturday in Griffith Park at a free one-day conference, “Re-Enchanting the City III,” is a critter throughway, a network of wildlife tunnels, passageways and corridors that would stitch together the remaining fragments of wild spaces in the region. The Mountain Lion Project, one of Sauvajot’s passions, would create a system of tunnels, greenbelts and easements for the great cats to roam. From mountain lions to spotted skunks, the original residents of our foothills and mountains would gain safe passage among the roads and housing tracts that have eaten up their homes, and their chances of not ending up roadkill would improve. Marooned in small spaces, mountain lions often suffer from a lack of food, water and, most important, mates to diversify the gene pool. But Sauvajot is sure the Mountain Lion Project can find a way. “These animals are resilient,” he says. “They will survive, but only if we give them a fighting chance.” For information: www.gmrnet.com/ESTFSignup.html.

-- Veronique de Turenne