California’s Habitat Conservation Fund escaped the budget axe for the past two years — but this week, the state Senate is considering a bill to extend it through 2035.
The money goes to buy land to establish wildlife corridors and keep habitat pristine.
Beth Pratt, California regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation, said the fund benefits species all across the state.
“Whether you’re a humpback whale in the Pacific Ocean, a monarch butterfly overwintering on California’s coast, a Chinook salmon spawning in the Sacramento River, or mountain lions roaming in L.A.’s Santa Monica Mountains,” said Pratt, “this fund is critical to ensuring that wildlife have a future in California.”
In 1990, voters approved Proposition 117, which established the Habitat Conservation Fund and allocated $30 million per year.
It has been central to the new wildlife crossing, currently under construction, over the 101 Freeway in Southern California. The crossing will allow mountain lions access to other breeding populations.
Since 1990, the fund has provided more than $1 billion to conservation efforts and has protected more than 1.2 million acres. State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, authored the bill.
“Our entire state budget is $320 billion,” said Blakespear. “So this $30 million every year for habitat conservation is not going to make a difference in that overall budget, but it is critically important to support our ecosystems.”
Other projects made possible by the Habitat Conservation Fund include the trail gateway into Redwood national and state parks, open-space preservation and wetlands restoration across the Sacramento and Central valleys, and the return of ancestral land to tribes in San Bernardino County.
