LETTER: LV to LA train must include a corridor for bighorn sheep

California Gov. Gavin Newsom should demand the proposed Los Angeles-Las Vegas railway have wildlife corridors to protect desert bighorn sheep. This would give sheep a path to safely go over the tracks.

Bighorn sheep contend with mounting threats to their survival. Freeways and housing developments shrink their habitat. Warming temperatures from climate change dry up seasonal springs they use for water. A type of pneumonia spread from domestic sheep is deadly to bighorn. As they lose habitat and climate change intensifies, bighorn need to move to find food and water. Traveling to different mountain ranges gives bighorn the ability to mate with other populations of sheep. This strengthens their gene pool.

Even in favorable conditions, a bighorn lamb has a less than 50 percent chance of surviving its first summer. In addition to the threats of disease and predators such as mountain lions, freeways sever wildlife corridors for bighorn sheep and can prevent them from breeding with other populations to create a strong gene pool.

That’s why having wildlife corridors is important. Promoting a project without them as sustainable is misleading. It’s not sustainable for bighorn sheep.