Letters to the Editor: Rename roads after dead mountain lions. Maybe then drivers will care

To the editor: While I was sad to read of another mountain lion fatality, I greatly appreciated your editorial on the need to protect wildlife from cars and rodenticides. I am in complete agreement with you on this subject.

This is an issue of statewide importance. Wildlife crossings over or under our roads and highways are needed across California. They are certainly needed to connect the Santa Monica Mountains, the Simi Hills, the Santa Susana Mountains, the San Gabriel Mountains and the Verdugo Mountains.

I would like to propose that a portion of one Los Angeles-area freeway be renamed for the mountain lions lost to vehicle strikes on our roadways. It might help motorists realize that they share these great landscapes with other beings that deserve to live unimpeded by humans in a hurry.

We still need to plan and build those wildlife crossings. But let us not forget the fatalities that have occurred as a result of our presence and our hubris.

Robert C. Pavlik, San Luis Obispo

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To the editor: The headline for your editorial on another dead mountain lion is as pathetic as the announced effort to bridge major thoroughfares in Southern California with wildlife corridors.

This is kind of like dealing with homelessness: Grandiose plans are announced, and the results are indifference and ineptitude, with the predictable tragic results. This is unconscionable, of course, but unsurprising given all the shameful local governance.

It is past time to root for the critters.

Gary W. Dolgin, Santa Monica