U.S. Asked to Save Cougars Roaming Santa Ana Range : Wildlife: Foundation wants immediate endangered species protection for mountain lions it says are facing eventual extinction due to encroaching housing tracts and highways.

Saying the animal is falling prey to new housing tracts and highways, a conservation group on Wednesday petitioned the federal government to immediately declare cougars inhabiting the Santa Ana Mountains an endangered species.

The Sacramento-based Mountain Lion Foundation cites burgeoning development in Orange County as the primary reason for urging special protection of the cougars roaming the Santa Ana range. Without help, they will become extinct in 20 to 30 years, the group says in its petition.

An estimated 20 adult cougars and 10 to 20 cubs now live in the Santa Ana Mountains, a steep, craggy range that stretches the entire length of Orange County’s eastern border and encompasses the tips of San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Under federal law, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has one year to decide whether the cougars warrant federal protection, which would be immediate if an emergency listing is granted.

“Continued loss of habitat to urban sprawl is the clearest threat to survival” of the mountain lion population, the group’s petition says. “In particular, the loss of wildlife movement corridors . . . (to) urbanization, new roads and the growth induced by new roads impact the mountain lion population very severely.”

The petition comes on the heels of a controversial proposal by the federal agency to list the California gnatcatcher, a small songbird that lives in sagebrush in Orange, San Diego and western Riverside counties.

The mountain lion proposal will probably generate almost as much controversy among developers, road builders and government officials as the gnatcatcher. It could affect the future of the planned Eastern and Foothill toll roads, as well as a proposal by Hon Development Co. to build a major housing area in Anaheim’s Coal Canyon.

Mark J. Palmer, the foundation’s director, said his group asks for the designation of only the cougars that live in the Santa Ana Mountains as a protected species because they are isolated from the rest of their kind. Federal law allows for protection of a distinct part of an animal’s population even when the entire group may not be endangered.

The lions need broad, open areas of land to breed and hunt, with males ranging over as much as 100 square miles. But biologists say housing tracts, freeways and roads have fragmented much of their terrain, posing obstacles.

Out of 32 cougars radio-collared in Orange County, six were killed and four were injured since 1988 trying to cross roads such as Ortega Highway and the Riverside Freeway, said Paul Beier, a University of California wildlife biologist. Others were trapped or killed after wandering too close to homes.

Beier, who has been tracking and studying the local mountain lions since 1988, said they are definitely in jeopardy. He said they could thrive if left alone, but planned developments will wipe them out by cutting off their migration paths, called wildlife corridors.

“The population is endangered, no doubt about it,” Beier said. “Those creatures I’m studying won’t be here in 20 years.”

The petition for listing is based almost entirely on Beier’s work, which is funded by Orange County planning officials and the state Department of Fish and Game.

Larry Salata, a biologist with the wildlife agency, said the petition would be reviewed with one crucial factor being whether there is sufficient evidence that the Orange County population is actually isolated.

The petition says the most severely threatened route used by cougars is Coal Canyon, next to the Riverside Freeway east of Anaheim, which links the mountains with the Santa Ana River and Chino Hills. Beier said many lions use that canyon, and one male traversed it 16 times during the last half of 1991.

Hon Development Co. of Laguna Hills has proposed building a 1,550-unit housing development on 650 acres there. The project, called Cypress Canyon, was approved by the Anaheim Planning Commission and is up for consideration by the City Council on Tuesday.

Michael Mohler, vice president of Hon Development, said he will be watching the cougar proposal closely.

“There’s a potential for delaying tactics and for a delay itself. But we will work with these issues,” he said. “We’ve already done mountain lion planning and (wildlife) corridors are not new to us.”

Even if his company’s project isn’t built, Mohler said, a commercial development planned in Yorba Linda would cut off the cougars’ pathway. “What we’re talking about here is a sliver of property that is the remaining urban area of the city of Anaheim,” Mohler said.

The petition also criticizes the Transportation Corridor Agencies in Orange County, saying its officials have refused to make allowances for the impact the Foothill and Eastern tollways will have on the large cats.

Agencies spokeswoman Lisa Telles said although the agency has not specifically studied mountain lions in the path of the roads, the agency does plan to build special crossing areas for large migrating animals such as deer.

Mike Stockstill, a spokesman for the agencies, said the cougars seem to find ways to cross roads and highways.