S.D. Endangered Species Vanishing : Loss of Rare Animals, Birds and Plants Causes Little Stir

From the oryx to the panda, San Diegans strongly support their world-famous zoo in its efforts to save endangered animals around the world.

But when it comes to the numerous animal and plant species endangered within San Diego County itself--many of which exist nowhere else in the world--attention and organized efforts drop off noticeably.

There are, for example, no public testimonials for the Stephen’s kangaroo rat, or the least Bell’s vireo, or the Cuyamaca larkspur or Encinitas coyotebush. They are among the nine animal species and 22 plant species in the county designated as threatened or endangered by state and federal environmental agencies.

These endangered plants and animals are usually either ignored or considered nuisances in the way of progress by most people. Their names don’t have the exotic ring or sound as impressive as the California condor, or the Borneo orangutan or the African northern white rhinoceros or the California redwood, and the fact they might die out isn’t viewed as a tragic loss to San Diego or the world.

Most local species live or grow only in certain areas of San Diego, primarily in coastal regions where natural habitats have been the most rapidly altered or destroyed by development. Scientists believe that other San Diego-area plants and animals qualify for the endangered designation but they have lacked money to make required studies. Less than $1 million annually is available to state officials for identifying endangered species statewide.

While small programs do exist to save habitats for some local species, they suffer from insufficient funding in most cases and often run up against opposition from developers irritated that what they consider an insignificant bird or bush can hold up their work.

“For the most part, we are in the business of documenting the decline of species rather than arresting the decline,” said John Gustafson, a biologist with the California State Department of Fish and Game.

“The plight of plant species especially is pretty bleak in San Diego, because they aren’t well-known and they aren’t condors,” said Steve Nicola, another biologist with the department’s endangered species program.

“You never know if you are going to be the last person to step on a certain plant,” said Gerald Collier, a San Diego State University biology professor who has been investigating the status of the Bell’s vireo. “The problem especially (in San Diego) is that people have not been here for long enough to have a connection with the land . . . they don’t know about native plants and animals which are spectacular (in their own way) but (which) are going out of business.”

The Mission Valley bluecup no longer grows in Mission Valley but is restricted to a small area in Lakeside. The long-eared kit fox no longer exists, having long since disappeared from its coastal range because of development.

“Who knows what is being lost even before it is discovered?” asked Tom Oberbauer, a biologist with the San Diego County planning department.

Of the nine animals considered threatened or endangered in the county, five are birds: the light-footed clapper rail, the California black rail, the California least tern, the least Bell’s vireo, and the Belding’s Savannah sparrow. The others are: The magic gecko, the Stephen’s kangaroo rat, the desert pupfish and the peninsular bighorn sheep.

The Stephen’s rat, for example, has a known habitat only in northern inland San Diego County and southern Riverside County. Gustafson said it is losing its habitat because of development, adding that preservationists are trying to get a few preserves set aside for the animal.

In addition, Marine Corps officials at Camp Pendleton--who have earned praise for actively preserving habitat for animals and plants--are conducting a survey on the rat in its area.

Birds predominate on the active endangered list because their salt marsh and river bottom habitats are in most cases along the coast or on the coastal plain most popular for housing developments and freeways. Most are migratory and depend on San Diego coastal lagoons as stopping points on their semiannual migrations. As the resting spots disappear, so do the birds.

Recovery plans call for preserving at least some of the Tijuana Estuary and certain county lagoons to provide refuges for the shore birds. The least Bell’s vireo is benefiting from surveys required along the Sweetwater River bottom before a proposed road there can be considered further.

But before recovery plans can even be drawn up, a species must qualify for either state or federal listing. And biologists fear that many animals already in trouble may not have their plight documented in time to save them.

“There are people from the Audubon Society and other groups always poking around on the look for declines, something like baseball scouts, and they then pool information for university or other scientists to become active,” Collier said. The process can require several years, however--from the time detailed studies begin to the official listing by state or federal agencies.

State biologists are now trying to evaluate whether the San Diego horned lizard and the orange-throated whipped tail lizard in northern San Diego County should be listed. The two lizards live along chaparral growing on the coastal plain, where tract housing has largely destroyed the native brush.

“The whole environment is tied together in these things,” said John Brode, a state biologist supervising the survey. “The horned lizard feeds primarily on a few particular species of large black or red ants and as people scrape the ground clean of the ants (for clearing), that is detrimental to the lizards.”

Amadeo Rea, curator of birds and mammals at the Natural History Museum, is documenting the disappearance of the cactus wren, a bird which thrived until recently--more than 80% have died--in coastal sage areas now being used for new housing.

“We really should consider habitat as the approach to saving our natural heritage rather than the species-by-species approach,” Rea said. “We graze the daylights out of every hillside, not caring about watersheds, river beds, etc. and so we lose the animals and plants that go along with those areas, some endangered, some not.”

The problem is particularly critical for plants, because 27 grow in San Diego County and nowhere else. Most are now on endangered lists. While a developer must allow 10 days for state biologists to try to remove an endangered plant to another habitat, the plants in most cases cannot survive transplantation.

“You can’t move these things around like people in condos,” Collier said.

“And as plants disappear, so do the animals that live among them, because remaining habitats are not large enough to support an animal population,” Oberbauer said. “But animals raise more concerns among people. They like warm-blooded animals better than birds, and birds more than plants.

“The plans to save vernal pools (shallow depressions on coastal mesas that contain numerous endangered plants at certain times of the year) are being violated all the time, but people are not up in arms as they would be if the same thing happened to a condor preservation plan.” Oberbauer said that more than 95% of the vernal pool habitats have been lost in San Diego, along with the plants they supported.

Plant consultant Mitchell Beauchamp said that many plants have acclimated themselves to specific soils and climates that occur in San Diego. For example, several species grow only in soils known as gabbro, a black granite type of soil in foothill areas with manganese and other chemical concentrations. Others can live only in clay soils on coastal plains.

The San Diego spine mint, the threadleaf filifolia, the San Diego thorn mint, the Encinitas coyotebush are but a few native plants whose habitats are being systematically eliminated, Beauchamp said. The threadleaf is found only in eastern Carlsbad, where it is being bulldozed for an industrial park, and in a small preserve in the midst of a San Marcos industrial complex.

Beauchamp said that many other plants considered threatened in urban areas do not receive endangered designations because they could cause unwanted problems for developers. “A lot of things that get listed are in remote areas where no one gets politically upset,” Beauchamp said. The Otay area, with the Otay tar plant and the Dunn’s mariposa-lily among other endangered plants, will soon be urbanized, with the disappearance of several species likely, he said.

“Again, it’s the habitats, more than really the plants themselves, which are endangered. Our natural history heritage is going down the tubes.”

The laws giving protection to officially-listed plants do not offer complete protection in many cases. There is no mechanism for developers to know what may be fragile or threatened in an area proposed for construction in advance of a government review, Oberbauer said. Large projects that require environmental impact reports usually bring in a consultant only in the later stages of planning.

Beauchamp, who does extensive consulting for developers who need to develop mitigation measures, said that most companies look at such plans as the price of getting a permit. Few builders would show much sensitivity to the environment if regulations did not require them to do so, he said.

“It takes a lot of pressure from the public to steer development away from environmentally sensitive areas,” Oberbauer said.

“Why not try to leave enough habitat instead of our always trying to mount a last-ditch effort?” asked the natural history museum’s Rea.

Collier said that a lot more could be done to save habitats and their species without necessarily requiring tremendous amounts of money.

“We’re not trying to be the type of people who are off the wall, lying down in front of tractors,” Collier said. “But human beings can and should get a great deal of satisfaction out of doing something good and affordable to save an animal or plant.”