Wallis Annenberg Crossing Planting, On Track 2026

Teams this week planted the first native species on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills, the initial installment of roughly 5,000 plants grown from more than a million locally collected seeds in a dedicated nursery. The foliage will create a nearly one-acre habitat atop the 165-foot‑wide structure that spans all 10 lanes of the 101 Freeway to reconnect the Santa Monica Mountains and provide safe passage and resources for mountain lions, bobcats, deer, bats, birds, monarchs and other wildlife. Ecologists say the bridge surface was built with specially engineered soils inoculated with microbes and mycorrhizal fungi and seeded with cover crops to kick-start ecosystem functions without chemical fertilizers. Nursery staff spent years overcoming heat, pests and extreme weather to raise the plants, and officials say construction is now in its final phase though complex utility relocations remain. The $92 million project is on track for completion and a ribbon‑cutting in late 2026 (officials have cited November 2026), and designers emphasize sound walls, nonreflective finishes and layered subsurface engineering to make the crossing visually and ecologically continuous with adjacent hills so animals will use it rather than the freeway.