The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County this week launched a $1 million campaign to protect 280 acres around a proposed wildlife crossing at Laurel Curve on Highway 17. Situated in Santa Cruz County, two miles from the summit of Highway 17, Laurel Curve is one of those seemingly unending bends in the road. The undeveloped lands on either side of the curve teem with wildlife.
A Land Trust camera-trap study showed that countless animals, including deer, mountain lions, bobcats and fox, attempt to cross the highway at Laurel Curve, risking their own lives and endangering motorists.
Completed in 2011, the Land Trust’s Conservation Blueprint for Santa Cruz County called for improved connectivity between protected lands. The Blueprint identified Laurel Curve as a priority protection area due to its high risk for development.
Dozens of homes could be built there, and the resulting roads, traffic, lights, fencing and pets would deter use by wildlife. The likely presence of goats or other penned livestock could set up a “depredation trap,” essentially tempting mountain lions with goats, leading to depredation permits.
“Depredation permits are the largest cause of mountain lion deaths in the state. Vehicle collisions are the second largest cause,” said Land Trust Project Director, Dan Medeiros.
Medeiros also said that by severing the Santa Cruz Mountains in two, Highway 17 “poses a huge challenge to long-ranging species like the mountain lion, as they seek to secure territory, mate or find food.”
Biologist Tanya Diamond surveyed every possible location for a wildlife crossing along Highway 17 and determined that Laurel Curve is the most suitable location. Using data collected as part of its GPS collar study, the Santa Cruz Puma Project reached the same conclusion. Caltrans’ involvement in helping build the tunnel depends on the Land Trust’s success protecting land on either side of Laurel Curve. Land Trust Executive Director, Terry Corwin said, “The Land Trust has been talking to Caltrans since [their] first meeting on this project three years ago.” She adds, “The project is moving steadily through their process.”
In January 2014, when a critical 10-acre property at Laurel Curve suddenly became available, the Land Trust used its Opportunity Fund to buy it.
In May the Land Trust took a second, much bigger step, towards building the Highway 17 Wildlife Crossing, signing an option to buy 280 acres on the east side of the highway. The land is undeveloped, a mix of forests and creeks, and an ideal corridor between the larger blocks of habitat patches to the north and south.
The Land Trust’s option to buy the 280-acre parcel extends through December of this year. $1.8 million will be drawn from the group’s Opportunity Fund, $1.1 million will come as loans from the Gordon & Betty Moore and the David & Lucile Packard foundations. The Moore Foundation has also made a generous $600,000 grant toward the transaction.
The Land Trust is seeking to raise and additional $1 million by the end of the year to complete this purchase and fund other projects, like its San Vicente Redwoods Access Plan. More details are available on the Land Trust’s website: www.LandTrustSantaCruz.org.