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Why does the State of California constantly pretend to build things that never get built? Because in its most recent pursuit to build a butterfly and mountain lion crossing bridge, the project is now $21 million over budget and past due.

According to City Journal:

In 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom broke ground on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing (WAWC), a project featuring an overpass for animals atop ten lanes of the 101 Freeway in Southern California. At the ceremony, Newsom boasted that the state had committed $54 million. He promised to “complete the job within another $10 million,” before seeming to hedge on whether that final sum would do the trick. Officials projected a 2025 completion date for the overpass, and estimated that the entire project—which includes the bridge and other ancillary developments—would cost $92 million, some of it coming from private philanthropists.

Nearly four years after the ceremony, the bridge is past due and the project some $21 million over budget. What was supposed to be the world’s largest wildlife crossing has become a jobs program for environmentalists, with taxpayers on the hook for what WAWC leader Beth Pratt told us is an overpass “for everything from monarch butterflies to mountain lions.”

Pratt, a cougar-sweater-wearing environmental activist who serves on WAWC’s Partner Leadership Team, is the program’s public face. She is also a regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation. In 2021, the group received a $25 million grant from “Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation” for the bridge that bears the late philanthropist’s name.

Despite the project receiving generous gifts, it has yet to come to fruition. Rather than blame the blatant incompetence, Pratt decided to assign blame to Trump, as if he had anything to do with it.

That money apparently was not enough. This past January, donning a hard hat and a “#SAVELACOUGARS” jersey, Pratt announced a possible $21 million overage. She effectively blamed President Trump, attributing the multimillion-dollar overrun to “tariffs, inflation, [and] labor problems.”

How do they even know the butterflies and mountain lions will use the bridge?

The project is even worse than being a day late and a dollar short. According to Chris Rufo, the state is “funneling cash to indigenous activists who perform 'offerings' of native tobacco and human hair to their sacred 'plant relatives.’"

It really cannot get any worse than this.

Why does it always seem as if the more the state spends on something, the worse it always gets?

It’s great that activists want to save the lions and butterflies, but is it really worth it at this cost? If I did not know any better, I might say this could be another leftist money laundering scheme. I do know better, however, so I will not be saying that. I will conclude, though, that the state does not have a great track record. From pretending to house the unhoused to the recent hospice fraud investigations, California's wildlife bridge does not give the people much hope, does it?

It is unclear when or if the bridge will ever be built, but at this rate, don’t expect it.

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