| On a glorious September morning, a scientist emerged cheerfully from the depths of a corrugated metal tunnel under a remote stretch of Highway 395 north of the town of Bridgeport. |
| It wasn't a planned encounter. I happened upon Ben Carter, of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, as I toured the area with a couple of Caltrans employees. |
| Carter was switching out the SD cards from cameras installed to document animals that might be using two wildlife crossings recently constructed under the highway near Sonora Junction. |
| "We've got some deer sign coming through here, which is great," he said, referring to cloven hoof prints pressed into the soft earth. He'd looked through a few photos at the other culvert and saw deer there, too, and perhaps a coyote. |
| The effort comes at a critical moment. Mule deer in the region have declined in recent years, sparking concern among hunters. Getting hit by cars or trucks is the second biggest cause of deer death, not counting unknown causes. |
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| Some hunters would like the state to control the population of mountain lions in the area to help the deer, which the cougars eat. But state wildlife officials aren't allowed to do that. |
| The big, charismatic cats are a "specially protected species" in the Golden State. (Officials are permitted to kill mountain lions in limited circumstances, including to protect endangered bighorn sheep. They recently began doing that again after a long hiatus, which I wrote about in a story this week.) |
| So wildlife crossings could be a win-win solution. Both hunters and conservationists are especially keen to see one rise along a stretch of the 395 that runs past the Mammoth Yosemite Airport — the top roadkill hot spot in the Eastern Sierra. |
| There are plans to put one there, but getting it off the ground is estimated to cost more than $65 million, according to Caltrans, which is leading the project. |
| Brian Tillemans, a hunter and former watershed resource manager for the L.A. Department of Water and Power, who has called on the state to help deer, said the crossing can't come too soon. |
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| "If there's ever a spot for a deer crossing, it's up here," he added, driving near the proposed site. |
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| Ben Carter, of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, checks a trail camera at a wildlife undercrossing recently installed near the town of Bridgeport. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times) |
| At the other crossing, about 70 miles to the north, Carter expressed both hope and concern. |
| It's among the top three roadkill hot spots in the region because deer migrate across the highway. But the project area didn't perfectly align with their route, according to Carter. That's because the undercrossings were put in opportunistically, as part of a shoulder-widening endeavor spearheaded by Caltrans. |
| Beth Pratt, of the National Wildlife Federation, who joined a tour of the crossing, was optimistic the animals would use it. |
| "I feel like word's gonna get out," she said. "I know they are really loyal to their migration sites. On the other hand, they can start being loyal to this." |
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| The trail cameras will determine if she's right. |
More recent animal news |
| It's been a sad few weeks for real-life animal mascots in the northern part of the state. |
| Last week, Claude, a striking albino alligator living in San Francisco's California Academy of the Sciences — where he served as unofficial mascot — passed away from liver cancer at the age of 30, my fellow Times reporter Hailey Branson-Potts reported. During his 17 years at the science museum, the ghostly white reptile became a cultural icon, appearing in children's books, city advertisements and a 24/7 livestream. "Claude represented that core San Francisco value of seeing the beauty & value in everyone, including those who are a bit different from the norm. Rest in peace, buddy," state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) tweeted. |
| A month earlier, a beloved bald eagle named Hope was fatally electrocuted on power lines near a Milpitas elementary school where she and her mate presided as mascots. The feathered local celebrity's unceremonious end — covered by my colleague Susanne Rust — is not a one-off. Every year, as many as 11.6 million birds perish on wires that juice our TVs and blow dryers, according to a 2014 analysis. PG&E, which operates the power lines that killed Hope, said it took measures to make lines and poles around the eagle's nesting area safe for raptors. (As for Hope's widower, he may already have a new girlfriend.) |
| It's not all doom and gloom for animals in the Golden State — and around the world. |
| The Los Angeles Zoo recently welcomed the birth of a baby gorilla, the fifth and latest addition in a baby boom of adorable great apes that includes three chimpanzees and an orangutan, writes Times staffer Andrea Flores. |
| Meanwhile, a global treaty has extended trade protections to more than 70 shark and ray species who have seen sharp declines, according to the New York Times' Alexa Robles-Gil. She writes that the agreement includes a full international commercial trade ban for oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays, and whale sharks. |
A few last things in climate news |
| Soon, the country's largest all-electric hospital will open in Orange County, my editor Ingrid Lobet reports. It's only the second facility of its kind in the U.S., and offers an alternative to the way that buildings contribute to climate change: burning natural gas. |
| Not far away, the city of Los Angeles is shifting away from the power source most harmful to the environment. Times staffer Hayley Smith writes that the L.A. Department of Water and Power has stopped receiving any coal-fired power. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass called it a "defining moment" for the city. |
| There are plans by the Trump administration to pump more water to farmlands in the Central Valley from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, per my colleague Ian James. California officials said the move could threaten fish and reduce the amount of water available for millions of people in other parts of California. |
| A nonprofit is trying to create a 1.2 million-acre national monument centered on the Amargosa River, which runs through the bone-dry Mojave Desert, according to Kurtis Alexander of the San Francisco Chronicle. Early this year, former president Joe Biden designated two massive national monuments in the Golden State, including one covering a large swath of the desert. |
| This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our Boiling Point podcast here. |
| For more wildlife and outdoors news, follow Lila Seidman at @lilaseidman.bsky.social on Bluesky and @lila_seidman on X. |
