Land Trust purchases 280-acre parcel for wildlife crossing

Last Monday, Dec. 22, the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County purchased a 280-acre parcel of land for its proposed Highway 17 wildlife crossing.
In January of last year, the Land Trust acquired a 10-acre piece of property on the east side of Highway 17 at Laurel Curve, said Calah Pasley, development and outreach manager for the Land Trust.
“The 280 acres is basically a wildlife corridor where the animals will be able to connect between protected lands to the north and south of our county,” Pasley explained, “and ultimately under Highway 17 via tunnel and onto a third property that we are working to protect.”
This new property is also on the east side of Laurel Curve on Highway 17 and includes a 10-acre parcel on the west side of the highway.
“So, we have protected both the entrance to the tunnel and the future exit to the tunnel already,” Pasley said.
With two of the needed properties down and one more to go, the Land Trust is working on protecting a third piece of property, which is also located on the west side of Highway 17 and spans 190 acres.
That piece of land will be protected through conservation easements as opposed to direct acquisition of the property, she said, and that phase of the project is not expected to reach fruition until sometime in 2016.
The wildlife crossing is a Caltrans project that will require several components before construction can actually begin. First, all three properties will have to be protected and then Caltrans will have to request funding approval from the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission.
“It’s looking like everything will be all said and done by 2020,” Pasley said, adding that Caltrans has four years to complete the project once construction has officially begun.
Building the tunnel should only take a few weeks, and Highway 17 would not need to be shut down in order for the tunnel to be constructed.
Since 2007, thirteen mountain lions have been struck and killed by vehicles on Highway 17, the majority of which were at Laurel Curve.
“We have had a mountain lion hit at Laurel Curve every year for the past five or six years,” Pasley said. “One was killed in October … right at Laurel Curve about 100 yards from the future site of the tunnel.”
The Land Trust has partnered with Pathways for Wildlife, which has wildlife camera stations up and down the Highway 17 corridor. Video footage revealed that many animals try to cross at Laurel Curve.
“They are using the natural drainage at Laurel Curve and they are just walking straight up to the highway … so that’s why we chose that site for the tunnel,” she said.
As of Tuesday, Dec. 30, the Land Trust still needed to raise approximately $55,000 by the end of 2014 to reach its million-dollar goal. Pasley is confident that the goal will be met by the deadline.
“The money is kind of rolling in and any extra help that we could get to push us to the end would be great.”