Michelle at P-22 Day with one of the ORIGINAL puppets used to care for baby California condors in the late 1980s.
It's been four days since I drove back to Sacramento from LA, and I'm still buzzing.
This year marked the 8th annual P-22 Day, a celebration of the miraculous mountain lion who traveled all the way to the middle of LA to make his home in Griffith Park, where the event is held.
This was the first year the eponymous cat wasn't roaming the park out of sight (he sadly died late last year), but the crowd's enthusiasm was still strong.
I would hazard a guess that over a thousand Angelenos showed up to celebrate a creature that would once have been viewed as a menace--a threat to the safety of surrounding neighborhoods, but who is now seen as a hero and as a reminder of how much work we have to do to protect the wild beings living around and among us, even in our most densely urban areas.
A Beacon of Hope
Robert Rock (in the black shirt), lead architect of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, pointing out some features of the crossing model at P-22 Day.
The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is still being constructed over the 101 Freeway just north of LA, but it's already a symbol of hope to countless wildlife enthusiasts and animal lovers in California and beyond.
The crossing, when finished, will be the largest wildlife crossing on Earth, and the team bringing it into existence has thought of just about everything when considering how to best serve wildlife.
The crossing will be covered with soil and native plants, and it will act as a light and sound barrier to make it more attractive to wary wildlife who may otherwise avoid a busy freeway and remain isolated from good habitat and potential mates.
I hiked up to get a look at the construction progress on Saturday night. You may have seen videos in my Instagram story of how out of breath this had me! But it was worth the steep hike in Birkenstocks for the view.
Friends of the Pod
I truly believe that I've gotten to meet and work with some of the best conservationists and best humans in the world in the course of creating this podcast. Here are a few friends of the pod I got to connect (or reconnect) with this weekend!
Miguel Ordeñana is the biologist who first discovered P-22 living in Griffith Park. He continues to research and advocate for urban wildlife to this day. Check his GSN episode on Urban Ecology and P-22 here.
These three make me smile. Left to right: Krystle Hickman (aka Beesip--native bee macro photographer and community scientist), Natalia Raegan (an absolutely hilarious primatologist and science communicator), and Jason Wise (aka Jason Journeyman, another fantastic science communicator with an emphasis on LA nature and queer ecology!).
Michael Hawk was my first ever pod friend, and I continue to learn so much from him. Check out his new project, Jumpstart Nature!
I also got to meet Beth Pratt, who is one of my conservation heroes and who has been an incredible spokesperson for P-22, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, and urban wildlife in general.
I didn't get a photo with Ben Goldfarb, who wrote Crossings, but he is wonderful, and I'm hoping to track him back down for an interview someday (and Beth, too!).
What a weekend!
Got questions? Leave them in the comments below!
And don't forget to check out Miguel Ordeñana's TWO episodes on Urban Ecology to learn so much more about the wildlife living among us (or us living among the wildlife?).
