Woman Southern California is around the globepot areas which are areas of extraordinary biological diversity. Man if we just think about l. A. County, youre going from sea level to 10,064 feet when you get up to mt. San antonio. When you think about that elevational range, elevational range county in the united states, theres a diverse suite of habitats in there, and that includes habitat that might be righ along the busiest freeway in the country. But it also includes places where Mountain Lions live. I mean, its just this place of absolutely incredible diversity ouen it comes to thinking types of habitat and types of species that are thriving here. Man hey, i thought i toldou you guys to get t of here. Now, go. Come on. Get out of here and her kids all going for a nice, refreshing swim all atac the exsame time. Woman there is a hidden jungle in cities like los angeles, and a hidden savannah and hidden wetlands, and other kinds of ecosystems. Pauly theres no magic line where nature stops and city begins. Its all a giant matrix. St and in the rbanized parts of los angeles, you can still find literally thousands of species of plants an imals. Heise the conventiol wisdom used to be that cities are biodiversity wastelands, and were now beginning to rethink that in two major ways. One is that actually, theres a much more so than we had originally known. Thother challenge is to think about how we might make this environment that was built by us in terms of buildingsin terms of the parks that weve planted, in terms of the gardens that some of us take care of on a daily basis. How could we make this habitat species . [coyote barks] [barks] pauly understanding how species are adpting to urban areas is an area of research that people are really just starting to geserious about studying. Things like coyotes and Mountain Lions and bobcats, species that we may not always think about as being city dwellers bufact, with a little bit of research, you realize are actually part of the story of a big city like los angeles. Heise the reason that they now inhabit what weder to be our spaces is that the city has expanded out into their habitat. But coyotes are also one of those species that do make use of human settlements in often quite ingenious ways in at they obviously have learned when to cross streets and whento noross them. It turns outcoyotes are very smart about actually observing the change of traffic lights. Ma so, this is the backside of the park here. There are almost no limits to coyotes ability to adapt to the urban environment. Because South Central l. A. Is prosynonymous with the most innercity ighborhoods in the worl finding coyotes here is just just amazing to me and exciting every time im able to collect some more scat. Here in south l. Wetlands, theres proof that coyotes use this area because m finding coyote scat inside tences. Coyotes are species that mostno peoplelive in the l. A. Area, but people think that they live in the mountas mountainous areas or Griffith Park, where theres more open space, but really donthink of them as animals abl to this type of landscape. [car alarm beeps] back to the ranger station. Yeah, so, were in Griffith Park, and here iser one right here. This park is surrounded by yreeway, by urbanization, some mbarriers for wildlife. So, we just saw two, mae 3 coyotes within this picnic area. So, they know that this resource is here on a regular coyotes are doing pretty well in this urbascape thanks to their adaptability, but the Mountain Lions are another story. They really need solp if theyre going to have a populhere for multiple generations to come. I use camera traps, which are motionactivated cameras that have a sensor in front thats ggered by motion or heat that allows me to document wildlife that is using a particular area. And each photo or each image is time and datestamped to tell me activity levels of certain species. Oh, there he is. Walking right pastme on the rail. Yeah,. Hes looking healt hes walking really well, which is great to see. Griffith park, and when i say kind of adapted, i mean that he has retained the samef behaviors rural counterparts in patagonia and in the western santa monicas. But at its core, his story is aboutis survival. And a lot people can relate to a story where its about an individual basically facing some very, seemingly insurmountable odds and feating them. His ability to get into this park, cross through freays that have killed multiple Mountain Lions before. A and live pace that is an unprecedented amount of space for a Mountain Lion to survive in. Usually, a male Mountain Lion neout 200 square miles of space to itself and Griffith Park only oers 9 square miles. Pauly we know that the level of urbanizationre that weringing to this landscape is causing immense fragmentation. What are the pacts of freeways like the 405 and the 101 and the 5 going to do in terms of lowing these populations to continue to have uene flows so that were not facing massive iof inbreeding . Ordenana im sure theres a lot of times where hes a lot clser than we think. But hes doing what pumas do best, which is avoiding people at all costs. And thats why theyve been around l. A. For so long. Thats why theyve been able to survive in this area surrounded by people. Hes not now, because he lives in Griffith Park, going after peoples chihuahuas and pet cats or kind of gotten used to outdoor lighting. Hes retaining his behavior as far as eating deer, but hes somehow, and we dont know how hes doing this,d hes g enough prey and hes able to avoid people even though theres so much more activity in his habitat than other Mountain Lion habitat. P22 has gone through a lot of misadventures. Because hes a celebrity, hes beenble to kind of survive a lot of these rcumstances. One of those incidences was himc getting stuck under a house and wildlife officers shting him with beanbag rounds and tennis ball guns. He kept his cool to the point where he waited for those peop to tire themselves out before he left, and he without anybody seeing him. And thas him being able to kind of use those natural skills of being elusive to keep his distance and stay safe. Even the most adaptable specs out here, arguably the coyote or the raccoon,ave trouble in this landscape because of roads and of a lot of other urban dangers. Pauly and the reality is the decisions that we make today a going to be all the difference as to whether those Mountain Lions are in the l. A. Area 100 years from now. Heise we have been overall, over the last 150 years, been very successful at displacing especially a lot of the animals out of the city that were to egree harmful to human health and wellbeing. But were now also realizing that in some sense we have t overdot. Ordenana i believe its our responsibility to facilitate their coexistence with us. And for mounta lions and wideranging species that also include er, we need to allow for safe passage across these very formidable barriers that weve created. Whats being proposed along the 101 freeway in agoa hills is to build a crossing, a wildle crossing. This is not a new concept. A lot of other countries have already built these wildlife crossings. What these are not just bridges, but theyre bridges that are vegetated, that have nice restoration thats done leading up to these crossing points and fencing th funnel these animals. Heise the cost is comparative. So, its 50 million that we will invesountain lion habitat that we wont invest in something else. So, i think there needs to be democratic on making and extensive consultation about whether we want to do this and wor will raise the money this, who will pay for this. What do we owe Mountain Lions, what do we owe to other species of plants and animals . Pa y manmade structures act as barriers for lots of species in urban areas. But some aspects of ourre infrastrucctually allowre nonnative species to thrive. The big moment for thinking about water in los angeles is 1913. Once you have permanent water on the landscape, lots ofn tive species, if they get introduced, can now make it. Isso, whats happenehat nonnative species that get introduced to Southern California, that are maybe from a more tropical place, now can make it here because theres much more water. And one of the ways that a lot o ithese species are comingn is actually via the nursery plant trade. [animals calling] things like brown anoles and green anoles and various thing called the coqui frog. Coqui, coqui, coqui, and it might do this all night long. So, if you live in a neighborho with a coqui frog, you might find it incredibly aggravating. So, the coqui frog was 1980s. Once they get established in hawaii, theyom startg into california on nursery plants. And so, now we have them establied at two nurseries here in Southern California. Currently have 15 people out helping us search for these coqui frogs, and that includes biologist with the california departmenof fish and wildlife as well as biologist with the Natural History museum. But theres these real implications of these coqui frogs showing up and havis these impacts and it just all because theyre doing what a lot of other species are doing, which ihitchhiking a ride into the nursery plant trade. As a biologist, my interest is understanding how species are dealing with urbanization, whether those are native species that are trying settings, or whether these are nonnative species that have been introduced as a result of human activity and are alsory g to find a way to make it here in the los angeles area. We were here specifically to look for slender salamanders. Give me a hand grabbing these. And we were able to find 7 slenr salamanders, and on to of that we found two other native speciesa western fence lizard and a southernator lizard. You got a brahiny blind snake . No way theyre super squirmy. Woman yeah, so, weve got a brahminy blind snake here. Pauly yeah, we dont have any i dont have any reports of s righty blind sna around here. With those slenr salamanders, we were able to use some swabs hoto swab their skin, and swabs will then bethe dna ins thbs will be sequenced. In addition to that, we were able to take some measurements, some length asurements and some weight measurements. Woman go. Yeah. 5 grams. Pauly certainly was hopeful that we would get one species today. I never imagined that we would get 4 species. In urban places, you have thes huge matrices of private properties, just a giant jigsaw puzzle of private propty, and so, as a biologist, every 10 steps, im on a new piece of privaoperty. What we found is that the best way to do Biodiversity Research urban areas is to enlist the help of literally thousands of ople. Greg and emily han and other Community Scientists that have participated in our programs are what allow us to do urban Biodiversity Research. Greg han i was just, i dont know, staring off in the distance while scrubbing dishes and i saw this little bit of nbright blue that did ot look like anything you would see in your backyard. Emily han our claim to fame is we discovered a population of previously undiscoveresnails in los angeles. So, we immediately started looking for more snails and found a bunch of other he put a picture oe snails. Th snails on instagram, and once notification that scientists and other snail enthusiasts snail find. Xcited about this woman it looks great back here, emily. Emily han thanks. Woman and i Contact Gregory to say, can i come out and get it because we dont have any of those spemens in the collection. Yep, thats xerotricha there. And whois little guy . Emily han is that a cochlicella barbara . Aeally teeny, tiny one . Vendetti yep, thats a juvenile. So, in february 1 of 2016, i came out here, the hans invited me, and we just did a little exploration of their backyard collected xerotricha conspurcata, so, the species were talking about, but then also this other species called cochlicella barbara, which also is a first reco for los angeles county. And then now, almost two years later, im back assessing are species still here. And they are. We literally are collaborators. Like, we have papers together with all of our names on it. E so, the things that that collaboration makes this specimen and citizescience and standing in this backyard a really meaningful thing. Es gonna go specimens that you see behind me, and other specimens all throughout this institution. Over 35 million specimens and historical collection objects. And those can basically be a time machine so that we can understand where species were found in the past. When we think about the greatest threats to biodiversity that our planet is currfacing, we think about things like climate change, and the reality is thate f the biggest threats is actually urbanization. So, we now know that as of 2009, 50 of the human population is now living in urban areas, andy, so, suddet becomes a huge imperative on people to understand hcan make urban areas more welcoming to native and desired species. And what better place to do that than los aeles . T [bell rings] man esperanza is located in one of the highestdensity neighborhoods of downtown los angeles. [kids speaking indistinctly] im the principal of esperanza elementary school, just east of thekyscrapers of downtown i the westlake neighborhood, downtown los angeles. Woman can you write the name and post it under the correct bird . Kiuse finch, mourning dove, european starling, brewers blackbird, redtailed hawk, american crow. Ri boy hooded oriole, gray egret, great blue heron, and a mbird. Rumble the students love this. They love charging in here andnd really getting to know at a very deep, profound level whats showing up in our bitat. We observe, we record, we all of these are important skills for our studens. So, at the very bottom, do you see the live spider in there . Kids yeah. Rumble im surrounded by deerweed, native sages encilia, but if you go back to 2014, i would have been standing on asphalt. Peel back that asphalt, allow the dirt to be there, to plant native plants and create a Living Laboratory for students to really explore. Girl my name is ramona ramino. I like the garden because we come here and explore nature in the garden. What i sein the garden is hummingbirds, mockingbirds, and flowers. Second girl my name is jimena lopez. Were trying to illustrate poppies and deer grass. Bo a the california poppy is flower native to california. Rumble it was a beautiful thing to have a burrowing owl be discovered ourthgrade student two winters ago. And even more incredible was that this little owl stayed think of this as a zoo without cages. I think of my students who live in those buildings right across. The stre they wake up in a concrete building. Ty go down concrete stairs. Theres a little patch of concrete maybe tunce a ball. They walk across a concrete sidewalk, an asphalt street, another concrete sidewalk, and thy come onto a campus which is largely asphalt. Then they go home and they do it again. They need this connection to nature like every human being. Now they have access to nature right here on their campus. Multispecies justice, so, its thinking about what is it right to do by people. How do we make this a more just, a more fair space for the different groups of people who inhabit the city, but how do wee also t a habitable place for the nonhuman species that are alrere . Pauly there has been this geral idea out there that you want to see nature, you need go to yellowstone or yosemite, and the reality is that thats not true. And everybody should kat thats not true because they just have to start looking around a they can see the incredible diversity of species that are around them at all time you dont need to travel anywhere to see nature. You just need to start obserng. Anno possible in part by the Orange County community foundationrv and the f foundation. To a new place called commonwealth kitchen. Woman hi. Im celeste. Nice to meet you. You are cute hi youre cute, too. Oh, thank you theyre gonna teach you how to make chutney. My marilynn mmongue just made a party for my mouth. [laughs] celepoe by profession, ilice officer. So[laughs] we better be on our best behavior, shehea. Hemakes chocolate chip cookies with hot sauce. Theyre called sweet heat. Heather i always say ill put anything in a cookie theyre callat least once. Its li fireworks. [laughs] im making savory rugelach. Sa marilynn ry . S ooh. Oh, that soundry i think its great to, like, mash it up. I think there are heople all over this kitc that are doing just that. Y i understare throwing a party. [cheering and applause] marilynn this is thornonleaning tower of srugelach