August 1, 2022
For years Sierra Club has worked behind the scenes to secure funding and move forward with an initiative that seeks to protect wildlife and the corridors for movement they require for survival. Wildlife connectivity is important to link areas of crucial habitat and facilitate movement, thus reducing the negative impact of fragmentation and allowing greater flexibility to adapt to stressors such as increased urban development and climate change.
The initiative, first proposed by LA City Councilmember Paul Koretz, a longtime friend, and champion for Sierra Club issues of importance, will require natural resource protection standards for hillside development, guidelines for fencing and grading, as well as the establishment of buffers around habitat resources, such as rivers and streams.
Once adopted, the regulations will be extended beyond the pilot area to ALL proposed Protection for Wildlife Areas (PAWs) across the city, which will link important ecological areas together to further enhance wildlife connectivity and biodiversity in the region.
With the goal of having the ordinance heard by the City Planning Commission in the fall of this year (2022), there was a big public hearing recently that the City of LA Planning Department convened. Several Angeles Chapter activists testified at the 4-plus-hour hearing attended by over 500 people. Longtime Chapter Leader, Marcian Hanscom, was quoted with a small group of others who gave testimony in this piece by the Daily Breeze.
Now is the opportunity for Sierra Club supporters to voice their support for wildlife and wild places in LA. The City has left the record open until August 22, 2022, so if you'd like to write a letter of support, we're currently working on a Sierra Club AddUp campaign (stay tuned). We're hoping the Ordinance goes before the LA City Planning Commission in September and is adopted and extended to the rest of the City by the end of the year.
We can thank Wendy-Sue Rosen, Co-Chair - Conservation Committee, LA City Councilmember Paul Koretz and his staff, CLAW - Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife - for significant heavy lifting to get this measure as far as it is today. And thank you to Sierra Club CA rep Jim Hines, Angeles Chapter Santa Monica Mountains Task Force rep Eric Edmunds, West LA Group Chair David Haake, and the Committee including reps from West LA Group, San Fernando Valley Group, Central Group who have met regularly with City to make this all possible.
Header Image: Los Angeles City Planning all rights reserved