IRVINE : UCI Urged to Review Siting of Building

Given the recent federal decision to consider the California gnatcatcher for endangered species status, a UC Irvine biologist Thursday asked the faculty senate to review the administration’s plans to build a 13,000-square-foot chancellor’s residence on land that is home to breeding pairs of the small songbirds.

Steven Weller cited a new study of gnatcatchers at the proposed hilltop site, which concludes that construction of University House will eliminate one nest and probably affect the breeding habits of another of the four pairs living there and in a nearby ecological preserve.

The study by a UCI biologist and his graduate students concludes that all four pairs of gnatcatchers will be driven out if the house and two other major construction projects--the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor at the southern edge of the campus and the extension of California Avenue through the ecological preserve--go forward.

Weller asked the Academic Senate to pass a resolution opposing projects that threaten the viability of any species on campus, endangered or not. Weller’s proposal was sent to a faculty committee for review.

UCI Chancellor Jack Peltason, who was at the Academic Senate meeting, said he has asked his staff to review whether moving the house somewhere else on the property would better protect the birds.

But Peltason, who will not live in the house, cautioned that the campus cannot have its policy dictated by other agencies, a reference to the federal study of the gnatcatcher’s status.

Pharmacologist Sue Duckles, head of the Academic Senate, referred Weller’s concerns to the faculty land use committee, which last year approved modified plans for the house.

“If there is new information, it would be timely to look again at it (the University House proposal) and see if there is an issue there we should consider,” Duckles said after the meeting.