Legal Fund: Donate Today!
HELP NOW WITH $25, $100, $1000 DONATION!
We rapidly raised $35,000 over the past 2 months, but we still need $15,000 to support our fantastic attorneys.
We succeeded in getting The Irvine Company to stop grading the hills until late May when a hearing for a preliminary injunction will determine if a new environmental review will be required for endangered species, wildfire hazard, traffic congestion and tribal cultural resources!
We have made significant progress thanks to our amazing environmental attorneys, Winter King and her team at Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger! BUT, AMAZING ENVIRONMENTAL ATTORNEYS COME AT A BIG COST!!
If you regularly visit Peters Canyon or Irvine Park and you drive up and down Jamboree or Santiago Canyon Rd, you won’t regret preserving the beautiful hills as a CRITICAL WILDLIFE CORRIDOR instead of putting thousands of new residents in harm’s way of the next catastrophic wildfire.
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Speak at City Council & Send Letters
In response to the catastrophic wildfires, please speak at Orange City Council Meetings and send letters of concern about the fire danger presented by the Orange Heights development. Building in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone puts people, pets, livestock and wildlife in harm's way.
WHEN/WHERE: Orange City Council Meetings are on the 2ND & 4TH TUESDAYS, 6PM @ 300 E Chapman Ave, Orange, CA 92866. Please try to arrive 15 minutes early, so you can fill out a public comment card.
EMAIL COMMENTS: Send your comments in advance of meetings via email ccpubliccomment@cityoforange.org
SEND LETTERS: Cut and paste from our LETTER TEMPLATE to send a letter to the mayor and councilmembers.
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Need Volunteers
WE NEED YOUR HELP WITH:
OUTREACH TABLE - host a table at farmers markets, grocery stores, trails, events, school campuses, etc.
DISTRIBUTE FLYERS - hand out flyers at local businesses, schools, community gathering places, neighborhoods, etc.
BIOLOGICAL SURVEYS - take photos of wildlife and plants around the perimeter of the 400 acres and submit to iNaturalist.org
FUNDRAISERS - Organize fundraisers and ask for donations
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Lion Killed on Santiago Canyon Rd.
SEE LION PHOTOS & OC ANIMAL CARE REPORT
On Tuesday, January 21, between 6:30 and 7:00 PM, an older female mountain lion (F421) without a tracking collar was hit by a car along Santiago Canyon Rd., between the northbound exit of the 241 Toll Road and Irvine Lake, immediately southeast of the Orange Heights proposed development site. We’re planning a memorial ceremony, so stay tuned for event details. Images provided by CA Dept of Fish & Wildlife.
It took 22 days of phone calls, emails and public records requests to obtain photos and the following information. The driver who hit the lion called it in and waited for CA Highway Patrol (CHP) to arrive. The lion died shortly after CHP and OC Animal Care responded to the incident. The driver left the scene with minimal damage to the vehicle. CA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) environmental scientist Connor Basile arrived after the body had been relocated from the road to the OC Animal Care truck.
Basile took photos and advised that someone from UC Davis would come to OC Animal Care for a more detailed examination. UC Davis wildlife biologist Lina Vu examined the lion and said that she planned to take the body to the lab in order to take blood samples and conduct a necropsy. We’re awaiting the results.
A Population Viability Analysis for the Santa Ana Mountain population found that there is a 11–21% risk of extirpation (local extinction) in the next 50 years due to demographic, stochastic, and environmental factors, and a near certain likelihood of extirpation within a median time of 12 years if inbreeding depression should occur (Benson et al. 2019).
The California Fish and Game Commission is currently reviewing a petition to list the Southern California/Central Coast Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU) of Mountain Lions as Threatened under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA). As a result, mountain lions in this proposed ESU are CESA-protected during the review period.
The outdated SEIR from 2005 for the Orange Heights proposed development did not take into account the declining population of lions in the Santa Ana Mountains due to habitat fragmentation. CDFW recommended that the Irvine Company submit an application for an incidental take permit (ITP) for the mountain lion, but the Irvine Company declined.
Barefoot Joel Robinson
No Orange Heights (NOH)
714-798-4392 (text/voice from my laptop)
714-639-8480 (landline)
jrobinson@naturalist-for-you.org
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