COUNTYWIDE : Alliance Will Defend Gnatcatcher Listing

Representatives of several environmental groups have decided to form their own alliance to defend the listing of the California gnatcatcher as an endangered species.

John Bradley, president of Sea and Sage, the Orange County chapter of the National Audubon Society, said about 60 conservationists with groups from Southern California to Massachusetts met last week to discuss the importance of speaking with one voice about the process to get the tiny songbird listed as endangered.

Organizers said the effort at organizing is partially in reaction to Southern California developers fighting efforts to get the gnatcatcher on the endangered list.

The state Department of Fish and Game ruled earlier this month that a petition to list the bird is justified. The first public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for Aug. 1.

“We’re trying to coordinate our efforts and network to prepare for the Fish and Game meeting,” Bradley said. “There were also so many of us interested in the gnatcatcher that we figured we’d better get some organization among ourselves.”

The group has tentatively decided to call itself the Endangered Habitat Alliance, and plans are to address other plants and animals also threatened in Southern California.

The new organization includes representatives from a number of groups, including the Sierra Club of San Diego; the Tri-County Conservation League, which represents Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties; the Manomet Bird Observatory of Massachusetts, whose chief ornithologist, Jonathan Atwood, originally of Southern California, conducted much of the research used to petition authorities to list the gnatcatcher as endangered; and Audubon chapters.

For several months now, developers have lobbied local, state and federal officials, including Gov. Pete Wilson, because they say listing the gnatcatcher as endangered could cripple the area’s economy. Limiting or prohibiting construction in the rich coastal scrublands where the bird thrives could jeopardize millions of dollars worth of construction projects, from housing developments to public highway plans throughout Southern California, they say.

Wilson recently launched a pilot program to get environmentalists and developers to work together to come up with a plan that would voluntarily set aside scrubland for the gnatcatcher in return for clearance to build on the remaining acreage.

The first meeting was held in Irvine last week, with another scheduled for June 3. At that first meeting, representatives of the Los-Angeles based Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the filers of the gnatcatcher petition, asked that other environmental groups be allowed to participate.