onteora hill's native wildlife and corridor

The Onteora Way property hosts a broad range of species from coyotes to raptors such as hawks and owls. The land base also shelters burrowing owls, a variety of snakes, skunks, raccoons, opossums, weasels, lizards, gophers, squirrels, a large variety of different species of wild birds and the very occasional bobcat. There is a coyote corridor on the north and east slope of Onteora Hill that runs along the homes east of Kerwin Place.

Time is running short for our region’s iconic wildlife as they struggle for survival in an increasingly developed and fragmented landscape.
Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Los Padres ForestWatch

— ONTEORA HILLSIDE DEVELOPMENT THREATENS THE EXISTING WILDLIFE CORRIDOR —

Onteora Hill in Eagle Rock is one of the remaining areas of undeveloped land to become an isolated “island” to the wild animals who will be pushed out of their natural habitats. The area is remotely linked to the eastern Santa Monica and directly to the western slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains. The open space corridor facilitates movement of coyotes and other wildlife between the foothills above Hill Dr., nearby Poppy Peak, Walnut Canyon, and some of the last remaining other green spaces in Northeast Los Angeles. The proposed development has seemingly by-passed a city ordinance that requires developers to build pathways or leave space through properties to serve wildlife corridors.

- - The Onteora open space is a necessity that plays an important functional role in the filtration of water and protecting wildlife habitats.
  - It would be a terrible public policy to punish these animals for bad planning.
  - Wild habitats in a “green infrastructure” and open space should be given the same level of attention and concern as the “gray infrastructure of road, sewers, utilities.
  - The Onteora development would cause Eagle Rock to lose a critical ecosystem that supports array of wildlife especially coyotes and raptor birds who hunt daily on the property.