On Monday it was very important to Wildlife Wildlings crossing Although it still looks like a bridge anywhere in the 101st highway, where more than 300,000 cars flow not to the end of each day.
Nearly three years after the start of the project, the critical teacher was visible to government officials, scientists and long supporters who went up to the summit: soil.
And not only any soil. Over the next few days, they will add 6000 cubic yards of specially manufactured soil to cover the crossing, a mixture of sand, silt and mud that has been vaccinated with a little fungal fertilizer and growing fungi, carefully designed and tested to imitate biological makeup of the original soil around the site.
The plan is to add 6000 cubic yards of the soil, surrounded by different depths, to the top of the Wallis Anneberg Wildlife crossing. (Al Sib / Times)
Chicago and the landscape engineer that oversees the project said that adding soil is great because it means that we are approaching the end of the first stage, when the top is planted and then planted with original and perennial bushes, this summer must be completed.
But we are still ways to finish, which was now scheduled at the end of 2026, after about a year of planned at the beginning due to the delay in heavy rains in 2022 and 2023.
Stage 2, the final stage, will connect the structure to the hills in the north and south so that the wildlife is like The famous Kogar, the famous, P-22, It can be used. This stage will begin to bury the facilities lines along a section of the Agoura Road, south of the crossing, and the water lines of the recycled water used for irrigation.
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In late 2025 or early 2026, the Agoura Road will be closed for a few months so that the road can be covered with a tunnel and a lot of soil collected from the Lake Malibu area. The goal is to create natural slopes from the crossing – an additional area of 12 acres of the area that will be planted with original bushes, perennial, herbs and trees to make the transit mixture as much as possible with the surrounding hills.
Beth Pratt, the left, the regional executive director of California of the National Wildlife Union, Beni Silvertter, Central, the mayor of Agora Hills, Jeremy Wolf, Yamen, mayor of Hills Pro Tim, bothering while throwing the first soil at the top of Wils Annberg wildlife in Araga. (Al Sib / Times)
“They are basically the mountain to be preparing for what it was before, so the wildlife will not even cross the highway,” said Jeremy Wolf, the mayor of the professionals of Agora Hills, who was among the many government officials and preachers who came to celebrate the arrival of the soil on Monday.
“Humans created this problem,” Wolf said in an interview. “We have created a islands from the fragmentation of habitats through our ways and our housing in deeper and deeper infringement in the wild urban interface, and now we fix this problem using human creativity for good purposes.”
Beth Pratt, California Regional Director of the National Wildlife Union, to the right, is shown in P-22 Cougar to celebrate with Robert Rock, a landscape engineer who oversees the construction of Wallis Annenerg Wildlife Crossing, where the soil finally begins to flow on crossing. (Al Sib / Times)
There was a lot of ingenuity and innovation along the way and a lot of attention to detail. For example, even before construction began in 2022, the project built a nursery and sent gardening who walk the hills around the site to collect about one million seeds of about 30 species of original plants. These seeds were planted and sponsored in Gallon 1.
Fungiologists (biologists who study fungi) collected useful fungi and other microbes from the region to pollinate the soil used to develop plants, and cover the upper part of the structure.
They also tested what the original seeds interacted better with these fungi, and chose four to plant as a coverage crop before adding plants to help “start running” useful innate growth in the soil, which helps the plants reach the nutrients and water they need to prosper. Rock said that these seeds will be planted later this month: Golden Yaru ((Eriophylum Convertiflorum)and California poppy ((Eschscholzia California))and Wildrye giant ((Elie intense) and Santa Barbara milk Vetch ((Astragalus Trichopodus)Which supports more than 20 butterfly, including endangered Balos Ferdes Blue Butterfly.
Media, scientists, government officials and supporters long collected a muddy slope from the Agoura Road to the 101st Highway so that they could walk to the top of the Wallis Annenerg Wildlife crossing. (Al Sib / Times)
It took nearly a year preparation year to obtain the top of the soil by building 12 -foot thick walls to reduce traffic noise and vision and add a special drainage system to ensure that water is not assembled on the structure, and a rubber water -resistant lining, and then from 9 to 30 inches from the total light weight known as expanded rocks to enhance drainage, not resemble most of the original factories.
Meanwhile, the soil was mixed and “matured” at a location in Lopez Canyon, north of Bakuima, where it was analyzed and modified to ensure the balance of pH levels and chemical compounds. Rock said that the final mixture has slightly high levels of chlorine, so they had to water deeply to help reduce this excess chemical compound.
Fran Pavly, a former Senate and Senate member, was the first mayor of Agora’s hills when the city was established in 1982, and fought to preserve the unparalleled land on both sides of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, more than 40 years before the start of the project. (Al Sib / Times)
On Monday, a small army of supporters and the media climbed to the top of the temple to see the soil spread. Among the former Senator visitors and member of the association, Fran Pavly, was the first mayor of Hills wages after the city was founded in 1982, who fought to preserve the wild areas on both sides of the 101st Highway for a kind of wildlife; Biologists in wildlife Miguel Ordenana (which was discovered p
A view of cars that drive under the crossing of wildlife. (Al Sib / Times)
Shortly before 8 in the morning, the long narrow transportation started withdrawing the soil from the trucks on the northern side of the highway up to 60 feet up, as it was published around the structure with the compressed loaders, and the small ground engines that use the tracks instead of the wheels to reduce the pressure of the soil.
The upper part of the structure is 174 feet – wider than the football field. Rock said that if the soil is spreading uniformly, it will be the depth of 18 inches, but the goal is to imitate the adjacent hills, so the soil is specific from 1 to 4 feet, with some pockets of small sandstone rocks. The next month or so, some large volcanic rocks will also be moved to the top, to suit the geology of the region, which includes a small series of volcanic rocks.
These holes are where the volcanic rocks will be placed later. (Al Sib / Times)
Rock said that after seeds have an opportunity to grow and stimulate the soil, mature and perennials will be cultivated, perhaps in mid -May. These plants, which are grown from locally collected seeds, include black wise, wise white and purple wise, buckwheat in California, long black wheat and wild grapes. Narrow milk sheet, California Bush sunflower; Deerweed Penstenon, Toyon, Laurel Sumac and CEANTHUS.
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They will also keep an acute eye open to the invasions that can collect the newly -cultivated original plants, and aggressive plants such as black mustard, which already germinate along the southern border of the corridor. Black mustard grows quickly and will soon send the seeds that can easily invade the virgin soil to the structure.
But in this regard, the builders of the largest wildlife corridor in the world are in the same boat as the gardeners everywhere. “We will just have to live it even [native] He said: “The sad reality is that there are few plants that we cannot do.”
This story was originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.