Last night, I drove home to Felton from San Francisco in torrential rain. It was terrifying: the visibility was almost non-existent, the road was slippery, and there was all sorts of debris in the road. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I reached Highway 17 – which featured all of the above plus curves and extreme darkness – and I started to panic. I made it in one piece, but only because I was lucky.

Highway 17 is treacherous even in good weather, and wildlife collisions are one big reason why. Laurel Curve – three miles south of Summit Road – is the most frequent site of animal crossings on the Santa Cruz County side of Highway 17, according to data compiled by Caltrans. It’s also the deadliest: mountain lions, bobcats, coyote, skunks and deer are regularly struck on the stretch of highway traveled by more than 65,000 motorists each day. This is a problem for animals, but it’s dangerous for people too! Nationwide, over a million car crashes a year are caused by wildlife collisions, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

In a previous Story of the Week, we shared the exciting news that Caltrans is ready to move ahead with construction of a wildlife crossing at Laurel Curve in the Spring. The Land Trust’s work on that project did more than just catalyze one highway crossing project: on October 8, Gov. Newsom signed into law SB790 (Stern), which will make wildlife crossings easier to implement statewide. The bill used the mitigation credit framework developed by the Land Trust in partnership with Caltrans and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife as the model for a mitigation system that Caltrans can use throughout California. This system creates an incentive for Caltrans to partner on projects that improve wildlife connectivity across state roads and highways by offering mitigation credits in exchange for those projects.

I’m so excited by this new law, because it is an example of how the Land Trust works to incubate innovative conservation concepts that can take root and provide benefits statewide. We anticipate a robust partnership with Caltrans here in Santa Cruz County and encourage other Land Trusts to follow our example!