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Gavin Newsom’s ‘Cougar Crossing’ Is the Perfect Symbol of Californication

Posted on | March 19, 2026 | No Comments

Behind schedule and over budget and probably doomed to failure — this is a succinct summary of what is officially known as the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, but is now being sarcastically called the “California Cougar Crossing,” a monumental waste of California taxpayers’ money. In January, World Animal News published a happy tale:

A groundbreaking conservation initiative is nearing completion in Southern California. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, the world’s largest wildlife bridge over a freeway, is almost ready to welcome animals, and now the public can get a rare preview before it officially opens.
Currently under construction in Agoura Hills, California, the massive crossing spans 10 lanes of the 101 Freeway, reconnecting a critical wildlife corridor in the Santa Monica Mountains that has been fragmented for decades by development. The wildlife crossing is expected to open in late 2026, at which point the bridge will connect wildlife habitat on both sides of the 101 Freeway, allowing animals to safely move between once-isolated landscapes.
The crossing aims to prevent local mountain lion extinction by enabling safe passage across the freeway and restoring genetic diversity between isolated populations.

Note that it is “nearing completion” and “almost ready,” which are euphemisms for overdue and running behind. The project was supposed to have been completed in 2024 and, having failed to meet their original deadline, the people in charge of it are now promising to finish by the end of this year, but if past performance is any predictor of future results, it won’t be done before 2028, by which time Gov. Gavin Newsom’s presidential campaign will have collapsed in ruins.

The crossing will span the Ventura Freeway (U.S. 101) west of Calabasas, and began with environmental activists because, “Since 2002, at least a dozen mountain lions have been killed on the freeway.” Originally, the idea was that it could be funded almost entirely by private donations:

In 2014, the National Wildlife Federation, the Santa Monica Mountains Fund, and the #SaveLACougars campaign began to raise money for the project. . . .
In 2014, the California Wildlife Conservation Board gave a $650,000 grant to the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains for the design of the crossing.
In 2015, the California Coastal Commission gave a $1 million grant to Caltrans for environmental assessment. Private donors were encouraged to contribute. The project stalled for years due to lack of funding. In May 2021, the Annenberg Foundation pledged to donate another $25 million once the project raised $35 million. As of mid-April 2022, donations totaled more than $87 million, with more than 5,000 people, foundations, agencies, and businesses contributing expertise and donations.
In February of 2026 Governor Newsom announced that an additional $18 million would be provided by California from general funds in addition to the funds allocated by the California Transportation Commission from the Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation Program. . . .
A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Earth Day in April 2022 with Governor Gavin Newsom, Wallis Annenberg, wildlife biologists and members of the public along with local, state and federal legislators. Caltrans set the beginning of construction for spring 2022 with construction to be completed within two years.

So, it was supposed to be completed by spring 2024, but was still unfinished last month when Newsom threw an extra $18 million in taxpayer money at the project which, we are now told, will finally be open for wildlife traffic by the end of this year. It’s been nearly five years since the Annenberg Foundation pledged $25 million for the #SaveLACougars project and yet, so far, the number of cougars saved is still zero.

Like the infamous “Train to Nowhere” project, this is a boondoggle, an excuse to throw away money based on idealistic goals without regard for questions of necessity or efficacy. People who think in grandiose terms of “saving the planet” cannot be expected to do reasonable cost-benefit analyses, or look for cheaper ways of doing things. The larger goal gets infused with quasi-religious morality, and anyone asking questions — “Can we really afford this? Is there some way of accomplishing the goal without such costly interventions?” — is denounced as a heretic: You hate the environment! You want animals to die!

Ultimately, however, it’s a personnel problem. What kind of people do you think would be in charge of something like this? Christopher Rufo and Kenneth Schrupp of City Journal asked around:

What was supposed to be the world’s largest wildlife crossing has become a jobs program for environmentalists, with taxpayers on the hook for what WAWC leader Beth Pratt told us is an overpass “for everything from monarch butterflies to mountain lions.”
Pratt, a cougar-sweater-wearing environmental activist who serves on WAWC’s Partner Leadership Team, is the program’s public face. She is also a regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation. . . .
This past January, donning a hard hat and a “#SAVELACOUGARS” jersey, Pratt announced a possible $21 million overage. She effectively blamed President Trump, attributing the multimillion-dollar overrun to “tariffs, inflation, [and] labor problems.”
“There’s no boondoggle,” she said. “Given the times we’re living in,” a potential $21 million overage is “not that bad.”
In response to our request for comment on the cost increases, Pratt argued that they were consistent with those faced by other construction projects.
Within days of Pratt’s announcement, the California Transportation Commission funneled another $18.8 million to the project, well exceeding the governor’s $10 million cap. The project’s total price tag now reaches about $114 million, reportedly including some $77 million in state funds. . . .
Why has a project primarily consisting of a bridge for animals cost over $100 million? One reason is that Newsom and WAWC’s philanthropic supporters apparently don’t mind it becoming a patronage program. As the WAWC-endorsing Wildlife Crossing Fund notes, citing the California Department of Transportation’s estimate, “for every $1 billion spent” on wildlife crossings, “13,000 jobs are created.”
Some of these jobs are absurd. The National Wildlife Federation’s WAWC website claims that “[o]ur Native Plant Nursery” — apparently funded by the nonprofit SAMO Fund and other “partners” — “has prioritized hiring Indigenous team members to help steward the plants that will vegetate the bridge.” The nursery’s co-manager said she makes an “offering” after collecting seeds, sometimes including pieces of her hair.

It’s a freaking DEI project! They’re hiring “Indigenous team members” to do some kind of shamanistic ritual offerings while collecting seeds!

Imagine doing a home-improvement project, and hiring a landscaping contractor who tells you, “Well, first we need to collect the seeds.”

These California kooks actually hired a full-time staff to run a nursery to grow plants from scratch for landscaping on the cougar crossing, as if the animals (who are the intended beneficiaries of the project) would have been disappointed if they’d just gone out and bought some ordinary bushes at Home Depot. Because I’m insanely curious, I had to Google the name “Jewlya Samaniego,” and discovered that she is “an ethnobotany expert” who “is also a proud member of the Tataviam tribe from the Siutconga village and has ancestral ties to the Chumash through the Tapuu village.” Translation: Julia’s a college graduate from Encino.

There’s no explanation for why she’s now spelling her name “Jewlya,” and I don’t claim to be an expert, but I think “ethnobotany” is basically Critical Race Theory applied to plants. The point, however, is that these are the kind of people who get hired when Gavin Newsom decides to pump $77 million into a project, and if you’re wondering why the project is over a year behind schedule, that’s why. When City Journal tried to get an explanation from Newsom’s staff, the response was insulting.

While I would never make the mistake of underestimating the stupidity of Democratic primary voters, I have a hard time believing they would actually nominate Newsom, given the spectacular failures of his administration in California, of which this “cougar crossing” boondoggle isn’t even in the Top Five. While polls show Newsom a leading contender in the 2028 Democratic primary field, that just means there will be a giant target on his back when the debates start in mid-2027. Every other candidate on that debate stage is going to be pointing out what a wreck Newsom has made of California. If Democrats were smart (which obviously they’re not), they would get behind Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Conservatives in Pennsylvania can give you a long list of problems with Shapiro, but at least he hasn’t completely ruined Pennsylvania the way Newsom has ruined California.



 

Category: California, Environmentalism

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