Delay Expected in U.S. Ruling on Gnatcatcher

Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. is expected to extend by six months this week’s deadline for a decision on declaring the California gnatcatcher an endangered species because he believes that there is substantial scientific debate about the rarity of the coastal songbird, his spokesman said Monday.

Word of the probable deadline extension triggered charges from environmentalists that any such move would be based more on political considerations than on scientific evidence.

Rumors have been circulating in Southern California for weeks that Lujan would soon announce an extension of the federal government’s legally mandated deadline, which is Thursday.

Interior Department spokesman Steven Goldstein, visiting California for a speech by President Bush on environmental issues, acknowledged Monday that such an announcement is probably imminent. Goldstein said the extension is “likely . . . because there is some question about the total number of gnatcatchers.”

The spokesman’s disclosure came as Bush was outlining his stance on the Endangered Species Act in speeches Monday in San Diego and Washington state. Bush vowed to force Congress to overhaul the 19-year-old law to make allowances for economic impact to override ecological considerations in some cases.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed the gnatcatcher for the nation’s endangered species list a year ago, and is legally required to make its final decision within a year.

But under the law, Lujan can grant a six-month extension if he believes that there is major scientific uncertainty about the listing. The bird is granted no federal protection in the interim.

Builders and developers in Southern California requested the extension, saying that population estimates for the bird are too much in dispute to justify an endangered-species listing.

The timing of Lujan’s expected announcement brought criticism from environmentalists who noted that the six-month extension would put off the deadline until March 17, 1993, well after the presidential election.

“If he wants a delay, it’s because he doesn’t want to face up to a decision right now,” said Mary Nichols, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national environmental group. “We don’t feel there is any technical or scientific or legal reason for a delay at this time.”

The federal government has studied the gnatcatcher for possible listing for over three years.

Bush, in an early morning speech in San Diego, congratulated California developers for participating in the voluntary program established by Gov. Pete Wilson to preserve the gnatcatcher’s habitat. He said it may become a national model for protecting species without the “inflexibility” of invoking the federal law.

The tiny gray songbird, which nests in sagebrush found in Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angles counties, has become one of the most contentious ecological issues in the region because of its potential effect on development. Slightly larger than a hummingbird and weighing a fraction of an ounce, the gnatcatcher has become the “spotted owl” of Southern California.

If the gnatcatcher is declared endangered, the federal government would be required to review and approve developments and other projects that might affect its habitat. Such declarations usually mean that the population of a species has declined so seriously, usually from a loss of its habitat, that it is close to extinction.

Environmentalists fear that destruction of gnatcatcher habitat will increase during any delay in listing. Although development has slowed substantially because of the recession, more than 2,000 acres of gnatcatcher habitat--a mix of vegetation called coastal sage scrub--have been destroyed since August, 1991, federal officials say.

“It’s just six more months of business as usual, and there will be some birds lost as a result of it,” Nichols said.

Developers fear that listing the bird could halt or freeze development throughout much of Southern California, wounding an industry already hard hit by recession. They say that enough scrub is protected in parks, especially in Orange County, to ensure its survival and that most local governments in Southern California are now protecting the bird’s habitat by making developers avoid it or replace it.

“The development threat arguments just don’t hold water anymore,” said Laer Pearce, a spokesman for a coalition of San Diego and Orange County developers, including the Irvine Co. and the Baldwin Co. “We don’t live in that world anymore. Now it’s a world of strict mitigation . . . of avoiding any disruption of the richest habitat areas.”

A biologist from Utah, Val Grant, who is working as a consultant to the Chevron Land Co., has criticized the accuracy of data suggesting the bird is endangered. He says there may be two or three times more gnatcatchers than existing studies show, and he also questions whether the California gnatcatchers are in fact a distinct, separate species from similar gnatcatchers in Mexico.

Pearce said that Lujan “doesn’t have a choice” in whether to grant a delay because “the decision has to be made on the best science and the best science is (the builders’) science.”

Environmentalist Nichols, however, said: “As we read it, to justify a delay you need substantial scientific debate. You can’t just find one scientist.”

Nichols said the group has not decided whether to file suit if the extension is granted.

By announcing a delay, Lujan would be rejecting the advice of Fish and Wildlife Service biologists based in Carlsbad, who recommended against an extension. Officials in that office said they do not believe that there is debate about the gnatcatcher among credible scientists, only among researchers who are affiliated with the building industry.

Many prominent ornithologists and wildlife biologists have supported the proposal to list the gnatcatcher as endangered. They say the entire ecosystem that supports the gnatcatcher and about 35 other species is in peril.

The gnatcatcher’s coastal sage scrub habitat, once commonplace from Ventura to the Mexican border, has been reduced by two-thirds to 90% as the area has undergone development. Just as the spotted owl needs ancient forests, gnatcatchers and the other creatures depend on the sagebrush, succulents and other plants to nest and forage.

Bush didn’t specifically mention the gnatcatcher as he spoke Monday to a coalition of Southern California developers and top officials from California’s Resources Agency. But he commended a partnership between state government and the developers, known as the Natural Communities Conservation Planning Project, for “trying to bring all parties together voluntarily before regulatory approaches kick in and reduce all flexibility.”

“Frankly, it’s an experiment, an effort to preserve species and their critical habitat while still allowing for economic development,” Bush said.

“It sounds simple, but very few communities are able to pull it off,” he said. “I congratulate all of you who are involved in this effort, and I hope other communities across this country will take a look at what you are trying to do here.”

Several large Orange County and San Diego County developers, including the Irvine Co. and Santa Margarita Co., enrolled in the Wilson Administration program by voluntarily agreeing to a temporary building moratorium on gnatcatcher habitat from May of 1992 until November of 1993. However, other lands, particularly in Riverside County, remain unprotected.

CAMPAIGN TRAIL: Clinton, Bush clash over jobs and the environment. A22