Gnatcatcher Declared a Threatened Species : Environment: In novel experiment, bird will be fully protected but development of some of its habitat allowed.

Seeking to balance the demands of the environment and the economy, the Clinton Administration Thursday declared the California gnatcatcher a threatened species, making the embattled songbird the centerpiece of a national experiment.

The long-awaited decision on the fate of the tiny Southern California bird, which nests among some of the nation’s highest-priced real estate, caps one of the fiercest battles in the two-decade history of the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt proclaimed that a “trailblazing” approach to protecting the gnatcatcher could lead to an overhaul of the federal government’s problematic methods of protecting imperiled animals and plants. Instead of providing the usual last-ditch safety net for individual species, Babbitt hopes entire ecosystems can be preserved for an array of creatures without triggering economic woes.

“The bad news is the gnatcatcher’s decline is serious enough that we must list it as threatened,” Babbitt said. “The good news is that the listing need not bring development to a halt.”

In a striking show of solidarity Thursday, nine California developers, environmentalists and state and county leaders gathered with Babbitt on a stage at Interior Department headquarters in Washington. All leaders of their causes, they embraced the innovative approach, although they have lingering concerns about how it will be implemented.

Although the gnatcatcher was once common throughout Southern California, only an estimated 2,500 pairs of the 4 1/2-inch, blue-gray birds that mew like kittens now exist, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Included are about 1,500 pairs in San Diego County and 750 pairs in Orange County.

By declaring the gnatcatcher a threatened species, the wildlife agency has immediately afforded it the full protection of the Endangered Species Act. Harming or harassing the bird or damaging its nesting grounds is now prohibited without the approval of biologists at the national wildlife agency.

But conditions outlined by Babbitt--and tailor-made for Southern California--permit development of some of the bird’s habitat, representing a departure from past federal efforts to protect species and the core of the Administration’s experiment.

Under those special rules, landowners could build on their properties without delay if they participate in an experimental program created by Gov. Pete Wilson to set aside preserves of coastal sage scrub. A mix of sagebrush and other shrubs provides homes for the gnatcatcher and about 75 other rare plants and animals also under consideration for federal protection.

Called the Natural Communities Conservation Planning program, the Wilson Administration’s alliance of developers, state and local government planners, biologists and environmentalists has been working for the past 18 months to plan preserves.

The partnership is now about to begin the difficult task of identifying and acquiring the needed land. The state’s goal is to complete the plans by November, but if negotiations hit a snag, it would stretch out much longer.

The gnatcatcher’s fate exemplifies how Southern California’s rapid growth has collided with its unique diversity of wildlife, posing one of the first environmental and economic balancing acts faced by the new Administration.

The battle over the bird has been unusually heated because it nests on the same low-lying sagebrush mesas and coastal canyons in Southern California that are ideal for building large housing developments. Up to 400,000 acres in Orange, Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties and the Palos Verdes Peninsula are at stake, much of it with commanding ocean or canyon views.

Despite Babbitt’s attempt to soften the blow, adding the gnatcatcher to the endangered species list clearly marked a defeat for California developers.

Deeming the bird “our worst nightmare,” California’s building industry had mounted a three-year, multimillion-dollar campaign to prevent the gnatcatcher from being granted federal protection.

Environmentalists who made protection of the bird a priority were elated at Thursday’s announcement, even though the Interior Department declared the gnatcatcher “threatened” instead of the upgraded listing, “endangered.”

“For the first time, the gnatcatcher now enjoys legal protection. That, in my view, is the major development of the day,” said Joel Reynolds of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which petitioned the Interior Department to protect the bird in September, 1990.

Both developers and environmentalists said Thursday they hope Babbitt’s new approach will lead to new successes in preserving nature.

“The message is cooperation, not conflict,” said John Sawhill, national director of the Nature Conservancy. “We’re setting a precedent that will benefit both people and wildlife in Southern California.”

Jim Whalen, an executive of Newland California, a major San Diego County development firm, deemed the new approach a “shared vision” that “represents the bankruptcy of the case-by-case approach to listing. . . . I am optimistic that this debate between jobs and the environment will turn out to be a hollow one.”

“This seems to me to be a real sincere effort,” added Monica Florian, senior vice president of the Irvine Co., which owns large amounts of land inhabited by gnatcatchers in Orange County.

Thursday’s announcement, however, does not resolve all the points of contention in the debate.

A lawsuit filed by the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California is still pending against the Interior Department. The suit alleges that the federal agency’s review of the gnatcatcher was illegally secretive and scientifically flawed.

The BIA’s board of directors has not decided yet whether to pursue the suit.

Developers and environmentalists also said they still have some questions and doubts about what happens to development plans before the state conservation program identifies and sets aside preserves.

“It’s certainly well-intentioned, but it’s going to come down to implementation--whether what the secretary says translates down to his staff,” said Richard Broming, a vice president of the Santa Margarita Co., which owns 35,000 acres of undeveloped land in south Orange County, much of it home to the birds.

The decision to list the bird is final, but the proposed rules for carrying Babbitt’s order out will be open for public review for 60 days. The rules will not go into effect until Wilson’s conservation group reaches agreements to set aside preserves.

All parties acknowledged Thursday that the new approach is an experiment, so it carries the risk of failure. But Babbitt said the only other choice is to revert to exerting federal control over local development to protect individual species. That approach, he said, not only harms the economy but fails to guarantee the species’ survival.

“There’s certainly some risks here by all sides. I concede that readily,” Babbitt said. “The Fish and Wildlife Service reserves the right to say this experiment failed . . . but that’s not going to happen because we all understand that the consequences for failure are unthinkable.”

Babbitt warned that if the California groups fail to reach scientifically sound agreements to protect the bird, or lag behind a timetable to be set by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency would not hesitate to take over the program.

The gnatcatcher plan marks the first time in the 20-year history of the Endangered Species Act that the Interior Department has offered to allow development when protecting a species.

Under the law, the department can consider only scientific data--not economic impact--when deciding whether a species warrants federal protection. But Babbitt invoked a little-used clause that allows special conditions for protection once a bird is classified as threatened.

In essence, Babbitt is transferring some federal authority over protection of the bird to the Wilson Administration and local governments in Southern California. Such a passing of power is unprecedented, especially since it shows that a Democratic Administration is entrusting a Republican governor with a controversial environmental issue.

“This is the first time in the history of the Endangered Species Act that we simultaneously list (a species) and then take a step back and say we are prepared to defer to the habitat planning process in California,” Babbitt said.

California Undersecretary of Resources Michael Mantell said Thursday that the Clinton Administration’s decision will supply a huge boost to the state’s effort, but it will still need the support and funding of the California Legislature, the federal government and city and county officials.

Michael Spear, assistant director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said that the agency decided on a “threatened” classification for the bird instead of “endangered” because the danger to the bird has subsided somewhat since stronger local and state controls on development were implemented.

The thrush-like bird, one of the smallest in North America, joins the ranks of almost 400 other species across the nation that have been declared endangered or threatened, including the northern spotted owl, the grizzly bear, the sea otter and the bald eagle.

Hundreds of proposed development projects and roads in five counties would damage the sage scrub habitat of the gnatcatcher. Included are Orange County’s proposed Eastern and Foothill tollways, some of the Irvine Co.’s planned communities and the Baldwin Co.’s massive Otay Ranch development in San Diego County.

The gnatcatcher ruling marks the end of a federal review that began 11 years ago, when the bird was named a candidate for the nation’s endangered species list. The debate heated up in 1990, when the Natural Resources Defense Council and a nationally known ornithologist petitioned the wildlife service to declare the bird endangered.

The Clinton Administration was caught at the tail end of the process, since the federal decision was due under law by mid-March.

Babbitt’s announcement comes just two days before he flies to the forests of the Pacific Northwest in search of a compromise in another raging battle: the northern spotted owl. President Clinton’s “forest summit” is April 2.

“This (gnatcatcher) action is a very bold one,” said Sawhill of the Nature Conservancy. “It makes it clear that the Department of Interior is not going to adopt a business-as-usual approach.”

INVIGORATING SUPPORT: Gov. Wilson’s protection plan gets Democratic backing. A13

Songbird Compromise

The U.S. Interior Department on Thursday listed the California gnatcatcher as a threatened species. But it also proposed a novel way to protect the bird while easing the burden on the building industry.

The Status

A threatened species is any plant or animal likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future through a significant portion of its range. It is illegal to injure or harass a threatened species or significantly disturb its habitat.

The Deal

Landowners may join a voluntary state conservation program that sets aside large preserves of habitat or, instead, adhere to stringent Endangered Species Act procedures.

The Population

About 2,500 pairs of gnatcatchers exist, all of them in Southern California.

County Estimated Pairs San Diego 1,514 Orange 757 Riverside 261 Los Angeles 30

“The bad news is the gnatcatcher’s decline is serious enough that we must list it as threatened. The good news is that the listing need not bring development to a halt.”--Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt

Sources: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Times reports; Researched by CAROLINE LEMKE and MARLA CONE / Los Angeles Times

Degrees of Sensitivity

Here are birds in Orange County already listed by the federal or state government as endangered or threatened. The definitions for endangered and threatened species were established by the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973.

ENDANGERED

A species in danger of extinction through a significant portion of its range.

Light-footed clapper rail

About 235 pairs left, almost exclusively at Upper Newport Bay and Anaheim Bay in Seal Beach

Resides in coastal marshes in Southern California

California least tern

About 1,700 nesting pairs left

Nests at Bolsa Chica wetlands, Upper Newport Bay, Huntington State Beach

Least Bell’s vireo

About 300 pairs left, largely behind Prado Dam in Riverside County

Lives in willows along creeks and rivers

Belding’s savannah sparrow

About 2,000 pairs left

Resides year-round in salt marshes, including Bolsa Chica and Upper Newport Bay

California brown pelican

About 5,000 breeding pairs around ocean waters and wetlands

Food supply depleted by overfishing; pesticide DDT found in their tissue

American peregrine falcon

Breeds on Channel Islands and Southern California coast, about 111 breeding pairs in 1991

Only 10 pairs existed in 1970 because of DDT poisoning

THREATENED

A species likely to become endangered within foreseeable future through a significant portion of its range.

California black rail

Listed by state as threatened; candidate for federal endangered status

Found occasionally around Upper Newport Bay; lives mostly around San Francisco Bay

Western snowy plover

Only ones in Orange County are at Bolsa Chica State Ecological Reserve

Habitat threatened by recreational activity, development on beaches and predators

Sources: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; California Department of Fish and Game 1991 annual report on endangered species; Researched by MARLA CONE / Los Angeles Times