Option 3 already exists but needs upgrading. It would make it more difficult to mix with lions east of Interstate 15, which is needed to stem inbreeding.A wildlife bridge (1) and two wildlife underpasses (2,3) have been proposed. The proposed 1,750-home Altair development in Temecula, outlined in red, failed to adequately address the welfare of mountain lions immediately to the west, according to a lawsuit. Fish and Wildlife Services filed over the environmental report. The brief also notes criticisms that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. The brief added that the project’s environmental report “fails to inform the public and decision-makers of the Project’s severe and permanent impact on the Santa Ana mountain lion population.” “The Santa Ana Mountain lions are the most at risk of local extinction of any lion population in California, and possibly the United States,” the environmental groups said in a court brief. While a handful of lions have been documented making it over or under the freeway in the area, the subdivision would make such trips less likely, according to environmentalists and mountain lion experts. A study earlier this year determined that they could become extinct in the area in the next few decades and that better access to the Eastern Peninsular ranges would greatly improve their odds. Largely hemmed in by development and freeways, Santa Ana Mountains cats face the threat of being unable to reproduce because of inbreeding and a lack of genetic diversity. Mountain lions are regularly photographed by trail cameras in the area of the proposed development and the project is adjacent to an existing underpass that could allow the animals to travel to and from the much larger Eastern Peninsular ranges east of the freeway. Rose’s group is joined in the suit by the Sierra Club, the Mountain Lion Foundation and the Cougar Connection. Rose afterward, adding that he was “encouraged” by the tentative ruling. “This project could be the final nail in the coffin for the Santa Ana Mountains lions,” said Center For Biological Diversity attorney J.P. Although the 270-acre project would not be the sole cause of extinction for the Santa Ana Mountain cats, it could contribute to it, according to suit. 31 to present written arguments in hope that Ottolia will reverse course. Lawyers for the city and the developer, Ambient Communities, spent much of the next hour defending the report.