Vasquez Letter on Gnatcatcher Status Assailed : Environment: Activists criticize the supervisor for telling federal officials of his concern that consideration of the tiny bird could hamper the proposed tollways.

Environmentalists reacted angrily Tuesday after learning that Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez wrote the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service questioning the agency’s consideration of the California gnatcatcher, which nests in the path of two proposed toll roads, for the endangered species list.

“I’m quite upset about the private communication by a public official to the federal agency,” said Ray Chandos of the Rural Canyons Conservation Fund and an opponent of many developments in south Orange County. “He’s saying that the Interior Department should check with the county before they put some species on the endangered list.”

The gnatcatcher, a rare and tiny bird, lives in the coastal sage scrub of Southern California and Baja California, including the area that would be traversed by the planned San Joaquin Hills and Foothill tollways.

In recent months, several environmental agencies have said they do not believe that environmental documents prepared by the county for the controversial roads adequately address the protection of wildlife, including the gnatcatcher.

Vasquez, a member of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency, said in his Feb. 5 letter to Fish and Wildlife director John F. Turner that he is concerned about the effect an endangered rating would have on pending county projects. Fish and Wildlife is a branch of the U.S. Department of Interior.

Placing the bird on the list, he wrote, “could have wide-ranging impacts to major public works projects now being planned and undergoing environmental review in Orange County.”

He also said there had been little communication between the federal agency and the county, which is conducting its own environmental studies on the areas affected by the proposed projects.

The $17.5-million San Joaquin Hills tollway cuts through the coastal foothills of southern Orange County, running from San Juan Capistrano to Newport Beach.

Sherry Meddick, a resident of Silverado Canyon and spokeswoman for Friends of the Canyons, said that Vasquez is trying to work behind the scenes to see that the bird does not make it onto the endangered list.

“He is saying here, ‘We don’t care about wildlife habitat. We care more about the public works projects.’ ”

But Vasquez said his letter was perfectly appropriate.

“I think that’s a very biased perception,” Vasquez said. “The purpose of the letter was simply to call to the Interior Department’s attention that the county is involved in an extensive study to the tune of $300,000 of wildlife protection in the area.”

Fish and Wildlife officials in the agency’s Laguna Niguel office disagreed with the assertion in Vasquez’s letter that to his knowledge “no one from the Fish and Wildlife Service has sought input from the County of Orange Environmental Management Agency regarding the proposed listing of the California gnatcatcher.”

“I think that’s odd because we’ve been working with the environmental management staff all along,” said Kim Gould, a Fish and Wildlife biologist.

Several letters sent to county officials by the federal agency also contradict Vasquez’s contention. The letters were mostly sent to the transportation corridor agencies in the past six months and warn that the gnatcatcher is expected to be listed as endangered soon.