Land Trust of Santa Cruz County

A Wildlife Crossing for the Southern Santa Cruz Mountains

Looking west from the edge of Rocks Ranch down at Highway 101. Easy for cars, deadly for wildlife. Photo by Mike Kahn.

“The Santa Cruz Mountains are almost like an island,” Bryan Largay, the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County’s Conservation Director, explains. “And islands are where extinctions happen.” But there is hope being generated in places like Rocks Ranch.

Donations Doubled for Wildlife Crossing

A male puma pictured near Highway 17 in August 2014. Pathways for Wildlife photo.

Donate $100 to the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County's Wildlife Crossing campaign and help a mountain lion find a mate who isn't his cousin.

The Great Land & Trail Campaign

The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County wants to build 45 miles of trail in the next five years. Paul Zaretsky photo.

The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County’s biggest fundraising campaign ever aims to raise $43 million to protect farmland and wildlife and build new trails.

They Did It!

Laurel Curve will soon see traffic of another variety. Land Trust photo.

With a $1 million fundraising goal 85 percent met, the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County has moved to fulfill a key condition of Caltrans' plan to construct a wildlife crossing under Highway 17.

Why Does The Puma Cross The Road?

The "McDougal mountain lion," named for property Land Trust seeks to purchase for a wildlife crossing, on Aug. 9. Pathways for Wildlife photo.

The instinct to roam is key to the mountain lion's evolutionary success. Conservationists hope a wildlife crossing under Highway 17 will make the journey less deadly for the pumas of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Wildlife Crossings: Good for Deer, Too

Wildlife cam image of a black-tailed deer crossing safely under a  highway courtesy Road Ecology Center.

The number of deer killed on California highways has doubled in the last year. Looks like mountain lions aren't the only animals that stand to benefit from wildlife bridges and underpasses.