ForestWatch’s Room to Roam campaign played a leading role in the enactment of the state’s first program designed to protect the pathways that animals use to move between Los Padres National Forest, Santa Monica Mountains, and other core habitat areas throughout Ventura County. The program—formally added to the county’s zoning ordinance—now protects mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, bears, and other wildlife, giving them safe passage across an increasingly fragmented and developed landscape.
Over the course of two years, ForestWatch attended stakeholder meetings, provided testimony at hearings, gathered support from other wildlife and environmental organizations, and generated hundreds of comment letters urging a strong wildlife protection ordinance. Industry lobbying groups opposed the ordinance, but they were no match against the strong outpouring of community support for our region’s wildlife.
The Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved the wildlife corridor ordinance in 2019. When the industry lobby launched a legal challenge to try to stop the ordinance from taking effect, ForestWatch helped to successfully defend the ordinance in court, securing legal victories at the Ventura County Superior Court and the California Court of Appeals.
The ordinance now serves as a model for other counties and cities in California, and throughout the U.S., to protect critical wildlife corridors from development and fragmentation.
