FORUM: Save the Santa Ana mountain lion

| Wednesday, June 25, 2008 12:13 PM PDT ∞

Norman Block -- Temecula resident

I want to speak for the mountain lion. We have many glorious creatures that roam freely in Southern California, but none is as magnificent as the mountain lion. These muscled beauties are the champs; king of the hill; top of the mountain food chain. And yet, the lions roaming our Santa Ana Mountains just north of Temecula may face extinction. But we can prevent this from happening.

Mountain lions are solitary and elusive animals that are active early morning, dusk, and at night when they hunt for prey. They require lots of room and are strongly territorial. They avoid other cats except during courtship. These shy carnivores may travel long distances in search of food. A male may cover 25 miles in one night and its home area can cover 25 square miles or more. Females often have smaller ranges than males. A mountain lion will not mate until it has established a home territory.

Mountain lions need to migrate to survive. Those in the Santa Ana Mountains are under great stress from ever expanding human encroachment and without migration of new lions from the Palomar Mountains into their territory they will become isolated and, over time, extinct. This would disrupt the entire ecosystem.

Four years ago, San Diego State University with a number of groups and agencies identified a strip of land along the county line as a critical wildlife corridor ---- the Santa Ana-Palomar Linkage ---- connecting the Santa Ana Mountains to the north of Temecula with the Palomars to the south. This is the only viable wildlife habitat corridor connecting the two ranges, which are located in sections of the Cleveland National Forest. The private lands connecting these two ranges are not granted the protection of the National Forest.

In order to migrate, however, the mountain lions must cross a formidable barrier, Interstate 15. They do this by staging themselves close to the freeway for roughly 24 to 48 hours while assessing their surroundings and risk before attempting to cross during a traffic break at night. These large cats, as opposed to smaller mammals, do not utilize the utility and drainage culverts that wind their way under the interstate.

Now the problem: Granite Construction Co. plans to develop one of the nation's largest hard-rock granite quarries, Liberty Quarry, on a relatively sizeable parcel of land in the middle of the narrowest part of the Santa Ana-Palomar Linkage. Their proposal calls for an open-pit mine a mile long as well as an aggregate processing facility, two asphalt plants, a ready mix concrete plant, and a recycling facility. They propose operating 20 hours a day, six days per week, blasting the hillside to mine 5 million tons of granite a year for 50 years.

It is highly unlikely that migrating lions will attempt to both cross Interstate 15 with its heavy traffic while also confronting the noise, bright lights and blasting emanating from the quarry. This could dramatically alter the age-old migration pattern of these wonderful animals and lead to the extinction of the Santa Ana Mountain lion.

Don’t let this happen. Join me. Now is the time for all of us to speak on their behalf. If we don't, who will?

Norman Block lives in Temecula and is president of the Santa Margarita River Foundation and a member of the Mountain Lion Foundation.

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