{"id":285447,"date":"2026-04-25T11:26:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285447\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T11:26:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:26:38","slug":"californias-wildlife-bridge-became-a-target-for-the-right-now-its-eyeing-the-finish-line-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285447\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s wildlife bridge became a target for the right. Now it\u2019s eyeing the finish line | California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atop a gigantic wildlife bridge in California<\/a> this week, butterflies filled the air. A red-tailed hawk sailed above as a slight breeze ruffled the 6,000 native plants, including poppies and purple sage. You\u2019d never guess that below the quiet expanse of rocks and plants, a 10-lane freeway ferries 400,000 cars each day.<\/p>\n

When the project broke ground<\/a> four years ago, enthusiasm was high. The wildlife crossing in northern Los Angeles county would be the largest of its kind in the world, providing safe passage for mountain lions, bobcats and lizards.<\/p>\n

But in recent weeks, the bridge has landed in the news for the wrong reasons. The Murdoch-owned California Post<\/a> published an op-ed in March, penned by two writers from the conservative Manhattan Institute, that criticized the $114m project for going over budget, calling it a \u201cjobs program for environmentalists\u201d and a \u201cmultimillion-dollar bridge to nowhere\u201d. Other conservative commentators piled on; from Fox News<\/a> to Trump\u2019s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Beth Pratt, California regional executive director with the National Wildlife<\/a> Federation and the public face of the crossing, said the backlash was swift. She began to receive messages painting her as a moron, a cat lady, and even threatening her physical safety. \u201cThe hate was really ugly,\u201d she says. \u201cWe had to contact law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the spate of rightwing hate, the wildlife crossing has found a finish line. The project will be officially \u201copen for animal business\u201d on 2 December, Pratt announced at an event for Earth Day this week.<\/p>\n

Beth Pratt speaks at the construction site of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 Freeway on Wednesday in Agoura Hills, California. Photograph: Mario Tama\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Pratt acknowledged not everything had gone to plan, due to environmental and economic factors. Initially, the project had a completion date of 2025, she says \u2013 but after breaking ground in 2022, there were two years of record rains and flooding. The group revised the construction schedule to factor in the impact of these disruptions and announced this delay with a new estimated completion date of 2026. \u201cWe have experienced no major delays since then,\u201d Pratt says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI welcome hard questions,\u201d she said of the Post\u2019s coverage, and showed the Guardian a 10-page response she sent to their inquiries about the project. \u201cThis was not that. They ignored the facts and literally printed misinformation.\u201d For example, she said, the bridge does indeed go somewhere \u2013 it is an active construction site that is connecting the Santa Monica mountains. And when citing the cost increase, the article neglected to break down the impact of inflation, she said.<\/p>\n

As for the cost, Pratt points out the budget for almost every construction project has increased. The National Highway Construction Cost Index, a figure calculated by the Federal Highway Administration, has increased 67% since 2021 \u2013 and is slowing down the rate of builds across the country.<\/p>\n

In the spring of 2025, as the wildlife crossing was collecting bids on the second stage of their project, inflation soared and \u201ceverything got more expensive overnight,\u201d Pratt says. Costs ballooned by 23% from $93m to $114m \u2013 still less than the average increase in highway construction during this time, she points out.<\/p>\n

Asked about Pratt\u2019s criticism of the California Post story, Christopher Rufo, one of the authors, told the Guardian that \u201cBeth Pratt seems like a quirky, well-meaning woman who has no business running a major infrastructure project\u201d, and reiterated concerns about the project running behind schedule and over budget.<\/p>\n

The National Wildlife Federation has now hired security and changed their protocols to keep Pratt and the other organizers safe at the crossing. \u201cNot everyone agrees on conservation projects, and we have always been transparent in talking about cost and timing,\u201d says Pratt. \u201cBut if bullies think they\u2019re going to stop the work, they don\u2019t know me. I\u2019m from Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n

But atop the concrete colossus, none of the online acrimony was apparent. At the Earth Day event, the crossing was surprisingly peaceful, blending into the hillsides around it. It was easy to imagine how a lizard or a mountain lion might use it to move through the landscape.<\/p>\n

Poppies bloom at the construction site of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing on Earth Day. Photograph: Mario Tama\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Already, butterflies and caterpillars have found their way to the plants, which is a welcome sign, says Jewlya Samaniego, who co-managed the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing Native Plant Nursery, where the thousands of native plants that cover the bridge were grown from seed, gathered by hand.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just pollinators \u2013 a western fence lizard named Bob lives at the top of the stairs to the crossing, and a rattlesnake (thus far unnamed) lives at the bottom. The fact that they have made homes here, with the work still ongoing, is a testament to the project\u2019s success at promoting biodiversity and coexistence. \u201cI just hope everybody can see how much love that we put into this,\u201d Samaniego says, looking out at the flora. \u201cWe really put our heart and soul into each plant that we grew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the freeway overpass, the construction continues. As we look out, workers are building a second large structure that will bridge a local road and connect the overpass with the surrounding steep hillsides. Once that\u2019s completed over the summer, they will haul in 3m cubic feet of soil \u2013 enough to fill half of SoFi Stadium \u2013 to bridge the gap between the overpass and the surrounding landscapes. The construction teams will also build berms to block out noise and light, and add wildlife-proof fencing along the freeway.<\/p>\n

Eventually, there will be more than 50 cameras on the crossing and the adjacent areas \u2013 ready to capture any creature that comes across, says Jeff Sikitch, with the National Park Service. He has been part of a two-year study of five target species that will benefit from the bridge. Researchers studied their movements and numbers before the crossing, and will do another study after it has opened, to compare. \u201cThe amount of available, protected habitat we do have in the Santa Monica Mountains is prime, great habitat for these species,\u201d Sikitch says. \u201cIt\u2019s even supporting our last remaining large carnivore, the mountain lion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pratt says it\u2019s an emotional moment to know that the project will soon be finished, despite the challenges and online hate. She teared up announcing the date. \u201cThis project that is decades in the making \u2013 open for business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atop a gigantic wildlife bridge in California this week, butterflies filled the air. A red-tailed hawk sailed above…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-285447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}