COUNTYWIDE : Parks Enrolled for Habitat Protections

County supervisors decided Tuesday to join the governor’s voluntary campaign to protect nesting grounds for the California gnatcatcher by enrolling 12 regional parks in the program.

The county parks are expected to be the backbone of wildlife preserves that the Wilson Administration is trying to create in Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

By enrolling the parks, county officials agreed to protect coastal sage scrub there while the state chooses and creates preserves. It is largely a symbolic gesture because the parks are already protected from development.

The parks, 20,300 acres altogether, contain about 4,000 acres of coastal sage scrub, vegetation that is habitat for the gnatcatcher--a songbird that has been proposed for the nation’s endangered species list--and for three dozen other rare species.

County Planning Director Thomas B. Mathews said Tuesday that although the county parks are important pieces of the preservation puzzle, enrollment of adjacent privately owned lands is also vital. Officials are trying to round up support from cities, developers and other groups or agencies that own coastal sage scrub.

Mathews said officials of the county’s three largest developers--the Irvine Co., Santa Margarita Co. and Arvida Co.--have agreed orally to sign up lands by the state’s May 1 deadline. So far, no private landowner in Southern California has enrolled.

The supervisors’ decision follows a similar move last week by San Diego County supervisors, who enrolled about 65,000 acres of county parks.

The Wilson Administration’s voluntary program began in the fall as an alternative to listing the bird on the state endangered species list.

Environmental groups criticize the governor’s program as a delaying tactic. They say it is unworkable because landowners will only enroll lands not earmarked for development, which may not be important to the bird’s survival.

County planning officials, however, support the idea, saying it should work in a county where the largest landowner is the county government itself.

Gnatcatchers have been seen at most of the 12 parks that will be enrolled. Nineteen pairs and two single birds were found at the parks, according to a July, 1991, report commissioned by the county’s Environmental Management Agency. That number is less than 10% of the estimated countywide gnatcatcher population. However, officials expect to find more in surveys being conducted during current spring breeding, when the birds are easier to find.

Mathews said the Irvine Co. is expected to enroll areas that have been set aside for open space but remain in private ownership, including Limestone Canyon and parts of Laguna Canyon.

Even more important, he said, the Santa Margarita Co. has promised to enroll undeveloped property in Rancho Mission Viejo that has not been dedicated as public parkland.

Gnatcatcher Protection

Orange County supervisors on Tuesday enrolled 12 county parks in the state’s conservation program to protect coastal sage scrub, the habitat of the California gnatcatcher. Nineteen pairs of gnatcatchers and two single birds were seen nesting in the parks during biological surveys last year. More comprehensive surveys now being conducted are expected to identify more.

Park Nesting Gnatcatchers Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park Two pairs and a single bird Wagon Wheel Canyon Wilderness Park Seven pairs O’Neill Regional Park Two pairs Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park Two pairs and a single bird Irvine Coast Regional Park None Upper Newport Bay Regional Park None William R. Mason Regional Park Two pairs Whiting Ranch Regional Park None Irvine Regional Park None Peters Canyon Regional Park Unavailable Santiago Oaks Regional Park Four pairs Carbon Canyon Regional Park None

Source: Orange County Environmental Management Agency, July, 1991, report