9 Landowners Sign to Save Gnatcatcher

A state resources director said Friday that nine San Diego County private landowners had signed up by the Friday deadline to enroll in the Wilson Administration’s campaign to protect the California gnatcatcher’s habitat.

Assistant Secretary of Resources Carol Whiteside said more developers in the county are expected early next week. She said each of the nine signed up fairly small blocks of land, although the acreage has not been tabulated.

The county government in San Diego has signed up the largest amount of land so far--an estimated 65,000 acres, most of it public parkland that is already protected from development.

The rare songbird is found mostly in San Diego, Orange and Riverside counties and has been nominated to the federal endangered-species list.

Among the major land enrollments in San Diego County are Southwest Diversified, an Irvine-based company that enrolled about 450 acres of coastal sage scrub; Lambron & Inc., which enrolled 2,026 acres in the Otay Reservoir area; owners of the Four S Ranch, who signed up about 2,900 acres; and Dillon Development, which agreed upon 800 acres, Whiteside said.

The U.S. military also has agreed to protect 36,000 acres of coastal sage scrub on bases at Camp Pendleton, El Toro and Miramar, Whiteside said.

No developers or local governments in Riverside County have signed up because they want the state to help fund the scientific surveys. Whiteside, however, said no such money is available.

Orange County’s three largest landowners--the Irvine Co., Rancho Mission Viejo and Arvida Co.--have signed state contracts, agreeing to voluntarily protect portions of their land. But county Environmental Management Agency officials, who are coordinating local efforts, said they won’t have the contracts ready to send to Sacramento until Monday because of last-minute problems in compiling the accompanying data.