Gnatcatcher Petition Justified, Officials Rule : Ecology: An August hearing is recommended on whether tiny songbird should be declared endangered.

In a victory for conservationists, state Fish and Game officials ruled Monday that a petition to list the California gnatcatcher as endangered is justified and should be set for what could be a contentious public hearing in August.

The ruling came as no surprise to developers and environmentalists, who have long been at odds over how to protect the tiny songbird and its coastal sage-scrub habitat on thousands of acres of prime developable land in Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties. On paper, it moved both sides a step closer to a regulatory showdown that some say could rival that over the spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest.

But the decision by Department of Fish and Game Director Pete Bontadelli also left extra time for both sides to avert political bloodletting by giving them an extra month to resolve their differences at the negotiating table.

Instead of requesting a public hearing on the songbird for the June 28 meeting of the Fish and Game Commission in Northern California, Bontadelli asked that it be set for the Aug. 1 meeting in Long Beach.

The delay of little more than a month gives the Wilson Administration, under a recently announced “pilot project,” some time to coax both sides--including the Irvine Co.--into an informal agreement that would ask Southern California developers to voluntarily set aside scrub land for the gnatcatcher in return for clearance to build on the remaining acreage.

“I think we have the time necessary to . . . see if we can agree upon a process that will get us to the same end, which is protection of the species and the habitat and, to the extent feasible, allowing for compatible development,” said Michael A. Mantell, state undersecretary for resources.

“I’m hopeful that, by June, we’ll have a sense of whether this can be worked out in a cooperative venture,” he said, adding that the first negotiating meetings could be held in several weeks.

The effort to list the gnatcatcher as an endangered species is a major sticking point between environmentalists, developers and some local public agencies. The Los Angeles-based Natural Resources Defense Council, along with a Massachusetts bird observatory, claims that burgeoning urbanization has already gobbled up 70% to 90% of the Southern California coastal sage scrub necessary for survival of the songbird and several other threatened animals.

To save the gnatcatcher, the NRDC has filed two petitions for endangered species status----one with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the other with the California Fish and Game Commission.

The moves have worried construction interests such as the Irvine Co., which has a third of its holdings at stake in the controversy. Developers say that making the gnatcatcher an endangered species would inject uncertainty into their building plans by subjecting them to additional governmental review before destroying any more gnatcatcher habitat.

Taking the lead for the developers, the Irvine Co. has been instrumental in asking the Wilson Administration to intercede in the controversy. But the company said that one of the “conditions” of cooperation from Southern California landowners would be for the NRDC to drop or delay its endangered species petitions--an offer the conservation group has flatly rejected.

While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has until September to decide on the federal endangered species request, Bontadelli’s recommendation on Monday focused attention on the state action, which could put the gnatcatcher under special protection as soon as August.

His ruling that the NRDC petition was “biologically supportable” automatically forwards the question of the gnatcatcher to the five gubernatorial appointees on the California Fish and Game Commission, which makes the final decision.

Under state law, the gnatcatcher issue must be set for the commission’s next meeting on June 28 in Alturas. But Bontadelli has asked the panel to delay the matter until the Aug. 1 meeting in Long Beach, said department spokesman Ted Thomas.

“Since it’s a Southern California species, we think it is the best thing to have the meeting in Southern California, where the gnatcatcher resides,” Turner said. “The people who are the most interested in the issue are in Southern California.”

At the public hearing, the commission will take testimony and then decide whether to reject the petition or follow the department’s recommendation and declare the gnatcatcher a “candidate species.”

If it does the latter, state officials would have another year to study the gnatcatcher before returning the question a second time to the commission for a final decision on whether the songbird should be listed as an official endangered species.

Joel Reynolds, an NRDC attorney, said he had no qualms with Bontadelli’s request that the gnatcatcher hearing be held in August, instead of June in Northern California.

“We feel real strongly that it should be heard in Southern California,” Reynolds said. “To schedule it in Northern California would be extremely costly to members of the public that have demonstrated an interest in this petition.”

California Gnatcatcher Habitat

The California gnatcatcher is found on sagebrush mesas and dry coastal slopes from Southern California to northern Baja California in Mexico. It has a distinctive call, a rising and falling, kittenlike mew. Only about 4 1/2 inches in length, the gnatcatcher is brownish on top, with lighter-colored feathers underneath, and has a longish black tail.