Bulldozers Have Been Busy During Gnatcatcher Debate : Environment: In O.C. alone, 650 acres of habitat have been lost. Today’s hearing will determine bird’s status.

While biologists and builders have been preparing for a long-awaited showdown today over the status of the California gnatcatcher, a tiny songbird that threatens to block highway and housing projects, hundreds of acres of its habitat have been plowed under in recent months throughout the region.

Since state and federal officials announced in late 1990 that they would begin considering the gnatcatcher as a candidate for the endangered species list, 650 acres of the coastal sage scrub that harbors the bird have been uprooted in Orange County alone, according to a UC Irvine biologist who has compiled county planning records.

And in some cases, parcels were cleared of gnatcatcher habitat just days before the pivotal meeting today of the state Fish and Game Commission in Newport Beach to determine if the 4-inch, blue-gray songbird should be listed as a candidate for endangered species status.

Environmentalists fear developers throughout Southern California are rushing to clear their land of gnatcatcher habitat before the commission makes a decision. But Hugh Hewitt, an attorney who represents the Building Industry Assn., says that’s nonsense.

“There is no rapid escalation of coastal sage scrub destruction,” Hewitt said. “What you see is business as usual. . . . It’s impossible to cobble together some kind of an indictment of landowners and builders for the wholesale destruction of coastal sage scrub when only 650 acres” have been cleared this year.

But an estimated 3,500 acres that builders plan to develop in Orange and San Diego counties over the next 18 months could be affected by the commission’s ruling, raising the stakes in the debate that will be played out today between environmentalists and the building industry.

The bird can survive only in coastal sage scrub, a rare and fast-diminishing mixture of short, soft-wood shrubs and grasses that grows only in California and small sections of Oregon and Baja California.

In a report to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, UCI biologist Fred M. Roberts Jr. estimated that more than 3,000 acres of coastal sage scrub has been cleared since 1988--and nearly a quarter of that has come since the beginning of the year, when debate over the gnatcatcher intensified.

“I think it’s no coincidence,” Roberts said. “I think it has all been directed very much to try to beat this listing. If the coastal sage scrub is wiped out, the developer stands a very good chance that his property will not be considered (for protection) in the process.”

Roberts conducted his detailed study by examining county planning and environmental reports and records for the last decade, and by periodically photographing the area from the air to record the presence of coastal sage scrub.

In the last few months, there are several notable examples of how coastal sage scrub was bulldozed, raising some concerns. Two properties were cleared without proper permits, two were being challenged and a fifth was rushed through the permit process:

* Brighton Homes cleared 275 acres in January on a Yorba Linda parcel containing coastal sage scrub. An environmental study of the property in 1987 indicated there were no gnatcatchers on the property, but some Orange County officials contend the company rushed ahead to clear the land without getting the proper permits because of fears that the project could be delayed if the gnatcatcher was listed as endangered. Brighton Homes officials refused comment.

“The suspicion is it was cleared when it was because it had gnatcatcher habitat,” said Jim Miller, chief of the county’s grading section.

* The Santa Margarita Co. bulldozed 380 acres last week--more than half of it containing coastal sage scrub--to make way for the Las Flores planned community. The work was being completed even as a Superior Court judge overturned approval of the project and ordered additional studies on its environmental effects. County and company officials disputed the impact of his ruling, and by the time the judge clarified his ruling and ordered all work stopped, the company had already cleared the land.

Company officials say that while more than half of the land cleared contained coastal sage scrub, there were no gnatcatcher nests in that parcel.

* The Mission Viejo Co. cleared 200 acres two weeks ago in an area between El Toro Road and the upper Oso Reservoir. A company spokesperson said there was no coastal sage scrub in the parcel, but biologists and other environmentalists contend there were at least 7 acres of the sensitive habitat.

The company had been granted a permit to trim the brush for fire prevention, but on the first morning of the work, residents and environmentalists saw that heavy equipment was being used to tear the vegetation out by its roots. Outraged city officials who went to the site said they had been deceived. As a result of the brouhaha over the clearing, the City Council has launched a review of its weed-abatement ordinance. A Fish and Game Department investigation is also under way to determine if the company depleted any environmentally sensitive habitat, according to Curt Taucher, a Fish and Game information officer.

* To make way for the sprawling new Saddleback Valley Community Church near Mission Viejo, two-thirds of a 70-acre parcel containing coastal sage scrub were cleared in mid-July. The church’s request for a permit to clear the land was rushed ahead of several others, county officials said, so that it could hold a scheduled July 21 ground-breaking ceremony.

An environmental study of the property found two nesting pairs of gnatcatchers, but a church official said none of the birds have been spotted in months. In addition, 23 acres of coastal sage scrub is being left as permanent open space to provide habitat for gnatcatchers.

The official also maintained that the main reason the church rushed to get the clearing work done was to make the deadline for the ground-breaking ceremony and to show some progress to the 4,000-member congregation, which has been anxiously awaiting the project since it was first unveiled in 1987.

“This was meant as an inspiration to our people and to foster fund-raising activities,” said Thomas Greer, the church’s minister of administration. “We weren’t in a race against the clock to meet any particular deadlines” on the gnatcatcher.

* In the San Diego County community of Poway, a golf course developer in February and March mowed down prime coastal sage scrub on his 708-acre parcel, which is home to a dozen nesting pairs of gnatcatchers. The habitat was destroyed even as the project was being challenged in court by the Sierra Club. Officials with the project, Old Coach Estates, could not be reached for comment.

“It’s not something that’s new. It happens a lot,” said Wayne Brechtel, the Sierra Club’s attorney. “They want to get rid of the gnatcatcher before it shuts them down.”