Transcript
Jack Armstrong (0:00)
This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human
Joe Getty (0:06)
broadcasting. Live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Joe Getty (0:14)
Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty.
Jack Armstrong (0:30)
$54 million the state has put up for this program and will complete the job within another $10 million. By the way, I told Wallace we're not going to ask for any more money. We're good, we're good, we're good. I think we're good. I don't know. So the butterfly bridge. This is what we're going to talk about here. And it's a kind of a wacky idea and then it's turning into yet another money hole that we do in California and all over the country really. But we specialize it in California. You come up with a do gooder idea and then yet come up with a ridiculous budget and then you go way past the budget and you just keep asking for money. The butterfly bridge. It's officially the Wallace Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, also known as the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing in Southern California. It's a massive vegetated wildlife overpass going across 101 which is a big freeway in California. If you don't know that it's a giant overpass that they're going to grow
Joe Getty (1:37)
stuff on, it's sometimes called the Newsome Cougar and butterfly bridge. I hope there will be Chardonnay stations. So that is the cougars as they cross the bridge can get refreshments.
Jack Armstrong (1:50)
So the bridge connects habitats between the two areas of Southern California which will in theory help wildlife safely cross the busy freeway. If the wildlife happens to have a smartphone and are on waves navigation system of some sort that can tell them that this is the best way to cross.
Joe Getty (2:17)
You got two mountain lions, one's about to walk into the road, the other one says yo yo Jim, Jim, let's take the bridge, it's much safer.
Jack Armstrong (2:24)
So it originally came up because there was so much roadkill along the freeway or somebody decided there was more roadkill there than other places or whatever, including butterflies or all kinds of wildlife and that they needed some sort of like bridge for the, the beasts all everything from butterflies to mountain lions and everything in between could get across. And it's, it's about an acre. It's. So it's pretty big. I mean the overpass is an acre. If you can picture an acre, it's pretty damn big. Making it the world's largest wildlife crossing. You know why? Because nobody else has done this dumb idea that probably won't benefit a single ant anyway. It's behind on funding. It's as all these sorts of things happen. Let's hear from this Beth Pratt who's involved in the raising more money for it.