Excerpt: “Surviving millions of cars amid the spaghetti tangle of Southern California’s freeways is just one peril that mountain lions and other wild animals encounter in our ever-growing state. Combine this threat with other risks, such as more frequent and intense wildfires, pollution, habitat loss and fragmentation, and you get a true appreciation for why thousands of California voters in 1990 invested permanently in habitat conservation by supporting Proposition 117. That initiative created the Habitat Conservation Fund, which has enabled the state’s Wildlife Conservation Board to invest in restoring and acquiring more than half a million acres of California’s most treasured landscapes in every corner of the state through an annual state appropriation of $30 million. Unfortunately, that fund and the progress we’ve made is in jeopardy.”
By Catherine Blakespear
