Los Angeles Daily News: Southern California becoming a hub for wildlife crossings
In the Morongo Basin near Joshua Tree National Park, two wildlife crossings are planned over State Route 62 at the Morongo and Yucca grades between Morongo Valley and Yucca Valley.
The crossings are intended to restore habitat connectivity between the San Bernardino Mountains and Little San Bernardino Mountains, preserving an ecological corridor linking the Mojave Desert, Coachella Valley and nearby protected lands, including the Sand to Snow National Monument.
From October 2019 to November 2020, there were 232 fatal wildlife-vehicle collisions on State Route 62, including mountain lions, black bears, bighorn sheep and mule deer, according to the 2021 Morongo Pass Wildlife Connectivity Study commissioned by Caltrans.
The Mojave Desert Land Trust has secured more than $6 million in state grants to plan and design the crossings, including a $5.5 million grant from the California Wildlife Conservation Board in February and a $512,000 grant from the Coachella Valley Mountain Conservancy in May.
State Route 62 has become a significant barrier for mountain lions moving between the San Bernardino Mountains and Little San Bernardino Mountains, leaving already vulnerable populations increasingly isolated, said Kelly Herbinson, executive director of the Mojave Desert Land Trust.
“There’s 10 left in the Eastern Peninsular population,” Herbinson said. “These numbers are really dwindling, and that is just great evidence of how much impact that particular stretch of the highway is having on this arguably very important species for that area.”
Traffic on SR-62 has also increased significantly over the past decade because of a threefold increase in visitors to Joshua Tree National Park, from about 1 million annually to more than 3 million now, said Geary Hund, project manager for the SR-62 wildlife crossings project.
“It’s really almost become impenetrable for wildlife to cross,” Hund said.