Supervisors Urged to Join Gnatcatcher Plan : Environment: Officials say the county should be the leader in setting aside preserves for the rare songbird.

Despite continuing controversy surrounding the program, county planners have advised the Orange County Board of Supervisors to play a role in a Wilson Administration effort to preserve the California gnatcatcher’s nesting grounds through voluntary agreements.

The gnatcatcher, a gray-blue songbird that is smaller than a sparrow, nests only in a disappearing mix of Southern California shrubs called coastal sage scrub, which is also home to three dozen other rare species.

A staff report released Monday urged the supervisors to sign contracts with the state designating the county as the lead local agency in planning gnatcatcher preserves.

The supervisors also were advised to enroll the county’s own land--12 regional parks--in the conservation program, although the gesture is largely symbolic because the parks are already protected from development.

The board will consider the recommendations at an April 21 meeting.

“I think this is very important,” said Tom Mathews, the county’s planning director. “The county really sees this as an opportunity to be proactive with the state because we do not want to foreclose use of lands. We want to plan for their use. This is an excellent opportunity to be in a leadership role on this.”

The Wilson Administration’s voluntary program, the first of its kind, was developed in an effort to avoid listing of the gnatcatcher as an endangered species. The plan is supported by landowners but is under fire from environmentalists, who call it unworkable.

The program is intended to create a network of gnatcatcher preserves by persuading landowners and local governments to set aside land voluntarily. While the preserves are being created, state officials have asked landowners to sign agreements to protect coastal sage scrub for 18 months. Also, city and county governments in Southern California have been asked to sign contracts guaranteeing to analyze new development projects for their impact on the habitat.

The enrollment period for the state program began over a month ago and ends May 1. No private landowner has signed up.

Environmental groups charge that the governor’s program will fail because landowners will only enroll lands that aren’t earmarked for development and because the local government contracts do not prohibit major losses of coastal sage scrub.

If the contracts are signed by the supervisors, the county will enroll 12 parks in the gnatcatcher program, including Caspers Wilderness Park, Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park and Upper Newport Bay.

About one-fifth of the parks, which include more than 20,000 acres, is coastal sage scrub. Portions of three county garbage dumps also may be enrolled.

“Our parklands are centrally located within the areas that we’ve identified as the most significant coastal sage scrub habitat,” Mathews said. “But clearly, the parks cannot, in and of themselves, answer everything. They have to be combined with adjacent properties.”

Mathews said county officials are working with city governments and the county’s three largest developers--the Irvine Co., Santa Margarita Co. and Arvida Co.--to get them to enroll lands in the program.

“In Orange County, if we get the lands involved that we are working on, we are out in front” compared to Riverside and San Diego counties, he said.

Last week, the Transportation Corridor Agencies, the county agency that is building three Orange County tollways, voted to enroll in the program by temporarily protecting the habitat that lies along the planned routes of the Eastern tollway and the southern end of the Foothill tollway.

The agency, however, has refused to enroll lands in the path of the San Joaquin Hills tollway because building is expected to begin there soon. Environmentalists worry that the San Joaquin Hills tollway, which runs through Laguna Canyon, could split in half habitat that might be critical for the gnatcatcher.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to list the bird as an endangered species, with its final decision due by September.

Environmentalists say endangered-species listing is the only viable way to save a species close to extinction. Developers, however, say that the bird is not at immediate risk and that listing could harm Southern California’s economy by slowing or halting developments and roads.