A Call to Renew the Habitat Conservation Fund

California is home to an incredible wild heritage. I can observe with wonder across the state: humpback whales breaching in the Pacific Ocean, monarch butterflies clustering in trees on California's coast, Chinook salmon spawning in the Sacramento River, mule deer migrating in the Eastern Sierra, and mountain lions roaming the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles. This abundance, with no doubt, can be attributed partly to the Habitat Conservation Fund.

The Habitat Conservation Fund

Yet preserving the wild world takes leadership and commitment. And public support. In 1990, California voters showed how much they value wildlife when they ushered in Proposition 117, which established the Habitat Conservation Fund (HCF).

With an annual state appropriation of $30 million, it has left a mark on every corner of the state, from restoring vital wildlife habitat, preserving open spaces, and expanding public access to parks and trails that define the California experience. Over the last 35 years, the HCF has invested in restoring and acquiring more than half a million acres of California's most treasured landscapes.

Yet this important source of funding may vanish if we don't take action-threatening the wild heritage Californians have fostered.

Working on the frontline of wildlife conservation for over thirty years, I've seen firsthand the many ways wildlife-and people-have benefitted from the HCF. These funds have made possible projects such as the trail gateway into Redwood National and State Parks, an ancestral land-return in San Bernardino County and open space protection projects and wetlands restoration projects across the Sacramento and Central Valleys.

Among the many projects HCF has funded, one is near and dear to my heart. It started with the unexpected journey of a lonely mountain lion, P-22, who crossed two major freeways to find a mate, only to find himself trapped in Griffith Park. P-22 made the park his home, living amid millions of people in one of the largest cities in the country.

His plight inspired the building of the largest wildlife crossing in the world, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 Freeway in the Los Angeles area. The HCF helped ensure that this bold, visionary crossing-now under construction-became a reality.

The HCF is not just about big projects. From wetlands in the Central Valley to urban greenways in Los Angeles, from oak woodlands in Northern California to neighborhood parks across the state, the HCF has touched every corner of California. It ensures that communities-rural and urban alike-have access to nature, clean water, and the many benefits that healthy ecosystems provide. And it has helped preserve our wildlife heritage, and ensured that everything from mountain lions to monarch butterflies continue to have a future in the Golden State.

Expiration of the Habitat Conservation Fund

Sadly, the HCF fund is set to expire. At a time when habitat conservation is more important than ever, we can't afford for this funding to run out. We don't need to look far to see the urgency. Increasing development is causing wildlife to run out of space.

The impacts of climate change-increasing droughts, flooding, and fires-across California's landscapes are a sobering reminder that both people and wildlife are suffering from these climate extremes. Our forests, wetlands, and coastal zones are world renowned for their beauty. But they are also life support systems. And they're in peril.

This is why SB 427 matters.

SB 427-a vote to protect HCF-matters to the mountain lions and mule deer running out of habitat. It matters to the salmon struggling to spawn in rivers with lower flow. It matters to the burrowing owl losing its home because of increased urbanization, and the monarch butterfly seeking out dwindling food sources of milkweed.

California's wealth is its natural beauty and biodiversity, which HCF has safeguarded for over three decades. SB 427 matters because it protects what's already working and it renews our promise to future generations-and to the wild world we cherish.

The above link will direct you to the NWF Action Fund website.