S.D. County Habitat at Issue : Least Bell’s Vireo Listed as an Endangered Species

Federal wildlife officials have decided to put a small California songbird on the federal endangered species list--a decision that could delay or alter at least 13 large public-works projects in Southern California, most of them in San Diego County.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service intends to announce today its decision to list the least Bell’s vireo, a species once common in California that has dwindled to an estimated 300 breeding pairs because of farming, urbanization and predators.

But the service has not decided whether to designate 43,000 acres in five counties as “critical habitat” under special protection. Critics have complained that the habitat scheme would jeopardize development and damage local economies.

“There was so much comment and data supplied to us during the public hearing process . . . we felt that we needed more time to study the ramifications of critical habitat,” said David Klinger, an agency spokesman in Washington. The public comment period will be reopened today for 90 days, and the service will have a year to decide.

In San Diego County, Caltrans officials say four highway and bridge projects could be hampered by the listing: the Oceanside bypass on California 76, the San Luis Rey River bridge at Bonsall, the extension of California 52 and the Sweetwater River Bridge on California 94.

Oceanside officials say the listing could also affect the long-planned San Luis Rey River flood control project--and the 4,000 homes in the flood plain. It might also influence the giant Pamo dam and reservoir project.

For those reasons, elected officials and others in San Diego and beyond begged the Fish and Wildlife Service in public hearings last summer to postpone a decision on critical habitat to give them time to work out voluntary vireo-protection programs.

The decision Thursday means that the vireo will be protected by the Endangered Species Act, which makes it a criminal offense to harm a member of the species. In addition, all federal or federally licensed projects on vireo land will come under the scrutiny of the Wildlife Service.

But without a critical-habitat designation, officials say, the protection for the time being will be limited. Critical habitat would have to be protected even if the bird were not there, such as during fall and winter months when the species migrates south.

“There’s also, I think, a psychological situation,” said Nancy Kaufman, Wildlife Service supervisor for Southern California. “We at the service are told, ‘If the service is serious about protecting an animal, it will designate critical habitat.’ I keep getting the question from developers, ‘Well, is this nesting ground critical?’ ”

Habitat Shrinking

The least Bell’s vireo is a small, gray bird that nests in low thickets along willow-lined waterways. Once abundant from Northern California through Baja California, the species has shrunk as woodlands have been destroyed and brownheaded cowbirds have invaded its territory.

About 75% of the remaining U.S. population of the birds is believed to exist in 43,000 acres in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. The 10 areas of proposed critical habitat fall in those counties.

They are along the Sweetwater, Tijuana, San Luis Rey, Santa Margarita and San Diego rivers and Coyote and Jamul-Dulzura creeks in San Diego County; the Santa Clara River in Ventura and Los Angeles counties; the Santa Ynez River in Santa Barbara County, and the Prado Basin-Santa Ana River in Riverside County.

Kaufman said she already knows of 13 federal or federally licensed public-works and other projects that have been proposed for those areas and would be affected by the listing.

“There could be many more. I don’t have any way of judging that,” Kaufman said. However, she pointed out that no private projects fall under the act unless they require a federal permit. For example, under the federal Clean Water Act, any developer proposing to dredge or fill a waterway must seek approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Under the Endangered Species Act, the Wildlife Service determines whether a development proposal might harm an endangered species. If it finds that it would, the service must recommend “reasonable and prudent” alternatives.

Alternatives Possible

In the case of the least Bell’s vireo, Kaufman said such alternatives could include requiring the developer or agency to move a stretch of highway out of the bird’s habitat or moving the location of a bridge up or down the river.

“That doesn’t mean that the bridge won’t be built,” she insisted.

The Wildlife Service might also ask an agency or developer to set up a cowbird-trapping program or replace habitat by grading adjacent land and planting willows and other vegetation that the species uses.

David Harlow, of the service’s Sacramento endangered species project, said the vireo listing and critical-habitat proposal have proven unusually controversial, largely because of the extraordinary pressure for growth and development in Southern California.

Nearly 400 people turned out at public hearings in San Diego, Anaheim and Oxnard last summer. The service also received 219 sets of comments in the mail. While most supported the idea of listing, many objected to designating critical habitat.

“Of course, critical habitat is more of a yardstick or a guide than anything else,” said Klinger, the service spokesman in Washington. “It doesn’t establish a sanctuary and it doesn’t put a blanket prohibition on activities of other agencies.

” . . . People tend to think that projects are going to be halted, that handcuffs will be placed on development. But that’s not the case.”