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Speaker 1: Let's say good morning too. The regional executive director of

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Speaker 1: the California National Wildlife Federation, Best Pratt, Good morning, Beth.

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Speaker 2: Good morning. Thanks for having me Andie.

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Speaker 1: Oh always we love to talk to you and get updates.

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Speaker 1: And you're taking the next steps and getting the wallas

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Speaker 1: Annenberg Wildlife Crossing complete. What are we doing now?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a really fun week. Last week. We

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Speaker 2: put the first plants from the native Plant nursery on

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Speaker 2: top of the one on one structure. And these are

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Speaker 2: plants that were gathered from a million hyperlocal seeds years ago.

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Speaker 2: They were tended to in our native plant nursery by

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Speaker 2: some incredible people, and after years they were able to

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Speaker 2: graduate and go to their final homes. So that was

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Speaker 2: such an amazing step to watch this habitat atop this,

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Speaker 2: you know, one of the world's busiest freeways really start

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Speaker 2: to take shape.

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Speaker 1: Okay, And why is it, Beth, that it's important that

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Speaker 1: we're not just creating a cement walkway. I mean, you

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Speaker 1: have to make it look like part of the landscape

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Speaker 1: in order for the animals to be not scared of

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Speaker 1: it exactly.

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Speaker 2: I mean, there's many things going on for this crossing.

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Speaker 2: And then The first thing, obviously, is we need to

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Speaker 2: get these animals across the road, right, and that has

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Speaker 2: to look inviting, that has to look like, you know,

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Speaker 2: you have to fake them out. You have to make

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Speaker 2: them think they're not crossing this freeway. And so matching

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Speaker 2: the native habitat, the sound proofing we're doing, the landscaping,

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Speaker 2: all that is really important. But the other thing that

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Speaker 2: is critical about this crossing is it's not just about conveyance.

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Speaker 2: We are reconnecting this entire ecosystem to the rest of

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Speaker 2: the world. Right. The Satamatic Mountains as a whole mountain

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Speaker 2: range is cut off once the one on one was

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Speaker 2: put in, and so that involves a really meticulous you know,

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Speaker 2: matching of the native landscape so that you have it's

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Speaker 2: reconnected from what it was severed, and that making sure

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Speaker 2: that this habitat is full of native richness, whether it

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Speaker 2: be the soil, biology, the fungi, or the plants you're

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Speaker 2: putting on top.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and you've taken some steps to make sure that

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Speaker 1: the planting is successful. I've heard that there's an irrogrant.

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Speaker 1: Is there irrigation up there too, or just there's drainage.

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Speaker 1: I know that you've taken some steps too, so the

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Speaker 1: plants can.

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Speaker 2: Thrive, absolutely, and I mean the intricacy and the layering

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Speaker 2: that had to happen before even the soil went on

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Speaker 2: to create a native habitat atop a freeway is pretty complex.

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Speaker 2: You know, you have to have you know, water drainage management.

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Speaker 2: But yes, there was an irrigation system that is up

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Speaker 2: there that it'll help these dative plants get established, as

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Speaker 2: well as obviously the soil, which you know, we had

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Speaker 2: a couple layers of soil up there that was inoculated

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Speaker 2: and cured over time to again make sure it was

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Speaker 2: ready for the plants. So it's up there, and boy,

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Speaker 2: like I said, it was really cool to see those

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Speaker 2: first plants going there after all this prepping.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and then I saw an aerial view of the

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Speaker 1: crossing and it looks like it's got some pretty tall

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Speaker 1: walls on the side of the crossing. Are those two

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Speaker 1: what are those for to kind of again take out

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Speaker 1: the animals?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, those sound walls. And it's again because this crossing

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Speaker 2: is different. A wildlife crossings are nothing new, you know,

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Speaker 2: you can see them in like Montana way, oh like damp,

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Speaker 2: but what is really different about ours. Well, there's a

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Speaker 2: few things, but is that we're putting it over one

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Speaker 2: of the world's busiest freeways. Some of these areas. I've

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Speaker 2: visited a lot of crossings across the US. You know,

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Speaker 2: they have almost no traffic. One crossing in Idaho, I

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Speaker 2: went to the guys like, we have a busy road.

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Speaker 2: It's ten thousand cars a year. And I'm like, oh

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Speaker 2: my god, we get that, you know, we get that

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Speaker 2: in five minutes. So one of the things we had

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Speaker 2: to do that you might not see at other crossings

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Speaker 2: that just put up a chain like fits is we

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Speaker 2: had to put some soundproofing up because again for animals,

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Speaker 2: noise needs danger. And so those walls on the side

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Speaker 2: are vegetated side walls that help. And I'll tell you

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Speaker 2: when you're up there, you could whisper on top of

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Speaker 2: the crossing, but you walk outside those side walls and

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Speaker 2: you're yelling again, So they really work.

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Speaker 1: I love that. Okay, So then you're getting everything planted,

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Speaker 1: the irrigation, and then what's the next step.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well what's happening now? And people are like, well,

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Speaker 2: there's nothing happening. Well, it's because you can't see it.

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Speaker 2: For the freeway, but if you were to get off

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Speaker 2: on the side. So there is a gore road as

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Speaker 2: a parallel road to the one oh one, and the

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Speaker 2: structure needs to extend over out as well. But what

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Speaker 2: did we have in the way, And I'll tell you

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Speaker 2: this is the most complex part of the project and

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Speaker 2: also is about fifteen to twenty billion. We had to

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Speaker 2: raise that as well to relocate the utilities. There's a

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Speaker 2: whole utility line in between the two roads, electric, gas, telecom, water.

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Speaker 2: Those are right now being underground and relocated. So that'll

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Speaker 2: actually make the area more fire safe too. So you

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Speaker 2: can see that happening now. And they've already started on

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Speaker 2: the abutments or the support structure for the extending the

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Speaker 2: structure as well. So the utility relocation should be done

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Speaker 2: early next year. They can then finish off the agora

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Speaker 2: structure and we'll be ribbon cutting next fall. I love it.

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Speaker 1: So you basically you said finish the structure. You have

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Speaker 1: to put the on ramps on for the crossing, right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's obviously it's not connected to the landscape right

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Speaker 2: now because we don't want the animals on a bridge

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Speaker 2: to nowhere. But there's a whole secondary structure to build

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Speaker 2: over a gore road. Then we'll connect the ends and

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Speaker 2: we'll be ready to go.

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Speaker 1: Okay, awesome, Well, we're so excited to get this update.

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Speaker 1: I can't wait. I bet you guys, because you're working

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Speaker 1: with it every day, or just getting so excited that

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Speaker 1: in less than a year we're going to have we're

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Speaker 1: going to have a way for mountain lions to cross

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Speaker 1: safely over the world on one freeway.

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Speaker 2: It's amazing. You know that we're running out of milestones, right,

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Speaker 2: is pretty cool. But yeah, I can't wait. You know

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Speaker 2: that first moot line we're going to be excited about,

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Speaker 2: but I'm also going to be excited about the first

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Speaker 2: monarch butterfly that crosses as well. So it's going to

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Speaker 2: be pretty awesome. Love it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Well, then we will have to talk to you

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Speaker 1: again as we get closer and hit some more of

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Speaker 1: those milestones like that you said are getting fewer and

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Speaker 1: farther in between. Regional executive director of the California National

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Speaker 1: Wildlife Federation, Best Pratt, thank you so much for your

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Speaker 1: time and bringing us up to speed on the wildlife crossing.

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Speaker 2: Take care, Yeah, bye bye.

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Speaker 1: I'm so excited about that. So long in the making,

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Speaker 1: and what an amazing project privately funded. Got to love

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Speaker 1: that too,