🚨 Breaking news: 3 mule deer have been confirmed crossing California's first-ever wildlife overpass.
The deer, captured on trail camera in late May, didn't wait for the official ribbon-cutting. The $20 million wildlife overpass in Siskiyou County, designed to reduce the staggering number of deer and elk killed on Route 97, was apparently usable enough. The bridge will officially open in fall.
We reached out to the 3 mule deer for comment but have not yet received a response.
Wildlife collisions cost the US about $8 billion a year in vehicle damage, injuries, and human deaths. A well-placed crossing pays for itself in reduced accidents within a decade.
A study of 89 wildlife crossings across North America, Europe, and Australia found they reduced wildlife mortality by up to 90% in well-designed projects.
Fencing is doing half the work. A crossing without funnel fencing leading animals toward it is dramatically less effective. The California project includes 3 miles of 8-foot fencing along Route 97.
California has about 100 wildlife crossings planned over the next decade. This one is the first. The Liberty Canyon overpass over the 101 in LA (currently the largest in the world by area) is set to open in 2026.
What kind of government brings back cyanide bombs onto public land after years of documented deaths and outrage?
The devices are called M-44s. They’re baited with scented lures designed to attract coyotes and other animals. But they don’t know the difference between wildlife, pets, or children.
One tug releases sodium cyanide into the victim’s face. Moisture turns it into deadly hydrogen cyanide gas. The result is often convulsions, paralysis, and a horrifying death.
These are the same devices that killed a 14-year-old Idaho boy’s dog in front of him in 2017 and sent him to the hospital.
The Biden administration banned them from Bureau of Land Management lands in 2023. But in 2026, Trump’s agencies quietly reversed course, reopening roughly 245 million acres of public land to their use. Then House Republicans pushed language to fully restore the program through the USDA.
Wildlife Services’ own records show thousands of animals killed with M-44s in a single year, including accidental deaths of protected species and non-target animals. Family dogs, wolves, grizzlies, even condors have been caught in these traps.
This isn’t conservation. It’s poison hidden across public lands for the benefit of livestock interests.
Americans should not have to worry about cyanide devices near hiking trails, campsites, or places where children and pets roam.
They brought them back quietly because they knew the public would be horrified.
Someone who nobody has ever heard of, declined 8 debates, and took $20 million in donations from Israel “won” a primary from an 8 year constituent.
We’re cooked.
BREAKING: Millville, New Jersey just blocked the LARGEST proposed data center project ever stopped in the state. The 2.6 million sq. ft. 1.4 gigawatt hyperscale campus would have used enough electricity to power over 1 million homes.
Students and farmers stopped this!!
Thomas Massie in his concession speech: "While gas is almost $5 a gallon and diesel is almost $6, they're talking about this big ballroom...It looks like the Roman Empire."
We learned how to build cities, create technology, and chase life beyond the stars yet we still act careless with the one planet keeping us alive. The oceans, the forests, the air we breathe… none of it can be replaced. Earth isn’t just where we live. It’s the reason we live. 🌍