Decision to Buy Refuge Delayed Until After 3 Condors Go Free

The Interior Department, settling a heated internal dispute, announced Thursday that it will release three endangered California condors over a remote mountainous region in Kern County next April to see how they fare in the wild before deciding whether to buy them a multimillion-dollar refuge.

The department previously had planned to acquire a 13,800-acre site in Kern County as a refuge for the rare birds. But Interior officials balked at spending more than $5 million for a refuge without any guarantee that the condors could survive out of captivity.

Assistant Interior Secretary William Horn, who is responsible for fish, wildlife and parks, said the government is still interested in buying the site, known as the Hudson Ranch, which is situated near the border of Ventura and Kern counties.

Concern for Financial Commitment

“Deferral of the ranch acquisition for a short period of time will not measurably affect the condor recovery program,” Horn said. “But (it) will enable us to assure a greater chance of success before sizable financial resources are irretrievably committed to any one option.”

Interior officials said they will try to negotiate an agreement, possibly a lease, with the landowners to prevent them from selling or developing the parcel until next September. The owners already have rejected a department offer to buy the land for $5.3 million.

The owners, based in Seattle, then made a counteroffer to sell the department 3,000 acres for $5.3 million and allow only limited development on the other 10,800 acres. But the department rejected that counterproposal.

David Klinger, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said that without an agreement, the department is faced with the prospect of condemning the property and allowing a court to set a price. “Before we commit millions of dollars of federal money to buy this land, we want to make sure that the release goes successfully and that those birds’ position in the wild is secure,” he said.

When asked if the department will release the birds without any agreement from the landowners, Klinger said: “Then we’d have a hurdle. We just have to deal with that when we get there. At this point, I don’t think I can say what we’d do.”

“The issue should be looked at very carefully so that we are not releasing birds into a hostile environment that would lead to their demise,” said Hal Cribbs, executive secretary of the California Fish and Game Commission. Only 27 condors are believed to still exist. Six live in the wild, and 21 are housed in the Los Angeles and San Diego zoos. The three birds planned for release in April are young females that have been raised at the zoos.

Bill Grenfell, assistant chief of wildlife management for the state Fish and Game Commission, noted that the birds may not be physically strong enough to be released in April.

“Before they are released, they have to have had no human contact, and they have to be in such a mental state that they do not want to congregate around people or follow people around,” Grenfell said. “Those things will need to be determined first.”

David Phillips, director of the California field office for the environmental group Friends of the Earth, praised the department’s decision.

“I actually think the birds should be released regardless of whether they buy the land,” Phillips said. “In the past three years, every single egg and every single nestling has been taken out of the wild into captivity. . . . To keep the wild condor culture going, you’re going to have to release the birds.”