Waging a War Against Extinction : Wildlife: Across Ventura County, a growing number of animals and plants are in peril. Growth and environmental interests clash over preservation.

On the mud flats at the mouth of the Santa Clara River, cowbirds and gulls and other waterfowl gather at low tide for a ritual as old as the river itself.

At the wildlife sanctuary, where the freshwater river meets the saltwater sea, the winged creatures settle as they always have on the sandbar-studded wetlands to feed and rest undisturbed.

But this tranquil setting belies Ventura County’s intensifying struggle to pluck birds, beasts and fish from the brink of extinction.

California least terns, one of 20 threatened or endangered animal species in the county, have returned to this solitary stretch of coastline to complete a breeding cycle that by summer’s end will do little to fortify their number.

All across Ventura County, wildlife is dangling from the edge.

From the California condor in the Los Padres National Forest to the unarmored threespine stickleback in the waters east of Piru to the least Bell’s vireo at a man-made sanctuary in Moorpark, federal and state officials say the list of animals in peril is growing at an alarming rate.

A variety of plant species also are listed as rare, threatened or endangered.

And so far, the only way off either list is through extinction.

“I’ve been here all of my life, and I hate to see what’s happening to Ventura County,” said Cynthia Leake, vice president of the county’s Environmental Coalition. “And we’re going fast. A lot of people think we’ve already lost the war.”

Wildlife is imperiled by a steady loss of habitat and mounting human intrusion, officials say.

As in other parts of the state, the issue of species protection and habitat preservation in Ventura County most often is illustrated by clashes between environmental concerns and development interests.

And while lacking the vehemence of more rapidly growing areas, confrontations in these parts are heating up.

* In Port Hueneme, environmentalists and wildlife officials have successfully stalled the construction of a recreational vehicle resort at the southeast end of Hueneme Beach after expressing fear that the project would destroy California least tern habitat.

* Near Simi Valley, construction of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was held up briefly by environmentalists who rallied around the Lyon’s pentachaeta, a wispy yellow flower native to the hills above the east county city.

* At the mouth of the Ventura River, city officials last week ordered work crews to wipe out homeless encampments that dot the river bed, fearing the destruction of habitat for the tidewater Gobi, a fish proposed for the endangered list, and other ecologically sensitive wetlands.

* In Newbury Park, an approved housing project was halted three years ago after wildlife officials raised concerns about the impact on wetland habitat on the site. That project, stopped the day construction was to begin, still has not broken ground.

* At Mugu Lagoon, the county’s largest wetland, a buildup of sediment threatens one endangered plant and five endangered birds that make their home in the 1,100-acre salt marsh. The Board of Supervisors last week approved a $5.5-million sediment-control plan designed to catch the tons of silt that flow into Calleguas Creek, which feeds into the lagoon.

Landowners, developers and business groups say they try to be sensitive to wildlife and environmental issues.

But they argue that environmental laws designed to protect endangered species too often are used as tools to stop development and ultimately end up hurting the economy and infringing on private property rights.

Thousands Oaks attorney Chuck Cohen, who has represented a number of projects stalled because of environmental concerns, said he believes a better balance must be struck between “human values and environmental values.

“All we would ask for is the rule of reason,” Cohen said. “Good common sense must be applied. If that’s done, then I think everyone can live with it.”

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Wildlife officials counter that even with the protection of the Endangered Species Act, a federal law that shields endangered animals and their homes from harm or harassment, critical habitat continues to dwindle and creatures continue to vanish.

“The Endangered Species Act is one of the most powerful pieces of legislation ever enacted,” said Cathy Brown, a wetlands specialist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “The only thing is we have to wait until it is almost too late. It takes some heroic measures to bring a species back from the edge.”

In Ventura County, perhaps the best-known act of heroism involves a $15-million project to save the California condor from extinction.

A contemporary of the woolly mammoth and the saber-toothed tiger, thousands of the majestic vultures once soared above a horseshoe-shaped range stretching from San Luis Obispo County through the northern tip of Ventura County and up into the southern Sierra.

But by the late 1800s, wildlife biologists estimate that fewer than 200 of the giant birds existed. Even though condors were pushed onto the endangered species list in 1967, their numbers continued to decline, dropping to a low of nine in the wild by 1985.

That’s when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service embarked on a daring and controversial protection program that allowed the last of the condors to be trapped and bred in captivity.

“We were taking a risk, but we had to pull them out of their nose dive,” said Robert Mesta, the program’s coordinator.

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In 1987, wildlife experts plucked the last three condors from the wild, bringing the total in captivity to 27. Today, there are 74 condors in the world including seven that have been released into the Sespe Condor Sanctuary north of Fillmore.

“The overriding goal of the condor recovery program is to get condors back into the wild,” said Mesta of the $1-million-a-year program. “The public has rallied around the condor. There’s a certain magic to a bird with a 10-foot wingspan, a bird that’s larger than life.”

But the program has not been problem-free.

Six months after the first two condors were released into the wild early last year, two Long Beach men attempted to shoot one of the rare birds as it perched on a cliff face 300 feet above a creek bed 15 miles north of Fillmore.

The bird, Xewe (pronounced Gay-wee), was flushed from her perch but was not hurt. The two men were indicted by a federal grand jury in March. One pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing, according to federal wildlife officials. The other fled the country, officials said.

A few months later, the other condor, Chocuyens (pronounced Cho-KOO-yenz), was found dead a mile south of Pyramid Lake Dam, six miles north of the condor sanctuary.

Toxicology tests confirmed that the male vulture died of kidney failure after drinking ethylene glycol, a fluid used in antifreeze that may have been dumped by Ventura County flood control employees.

While the program has won national recognition, some environmentalists fear that the concentration of money and attention on the condor and other glamour species detracts from the preservation of other equally endangered, but lesser-known animals.

In 1990, about 2% of the species protected by federal law received half of the federal and state funds spent on endangered species.

“There is a struggle to win the hearts and minds of the public,” said Al Sanders, chairman of the Sespe group of the Sierra Club. “There are a lot of species that have nothing going at all.”

That is particularly true for plant species, which have experienced significant losses in recent years, especially in eastern Ventura County, where development has claimed formerly pristine hillsides and valleys.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service only lists the salt marsh bird’s-beak as endangered. The state Department of Fish and Game lists that plant and eight others as rare, threatened or endangered.

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The eight plants are: the island barberry; the Conejo buckwheat; the San Nicholas island buckwheat; the Santa Monica Mountains Dudleya; the Trask’s milk vetch; the beach spectacle pod; the Santa Susana tar plant and the Lyon’s pentachaeta.

“I think our society is somewhat biased. We think of animals when we think of wildlife,” said Mary Meyer, an Ojai-based plant ecologist with fish and game. “We get warm all over when furry, brown-eyed things look up at us and ask for our help. The reality is that plants probably have a more inherent value to the human race.”

Under federal law, for example, when a plant is listed as endangered, private landowners do not have to obtain permits or formally consult with the federal wildlife agency, as they must when an animal is declared endangered.

In many cases, plant species are accidentally wiped out by road crews or off-road enthusiasts. A few months ago, a Thousand Oaks water district allegedly bulldozed Lyon’s pentachaeta during construction of a treatment plant.

And in 1967, the last known patch of Ventura marsh milk vetch was apparently plowed under by maintenance workers at the state beach in Ventura.

“Extinction is a real thing,” Meyer said.

Meyer said when development bumps up against threatened or endangered plants, the most-often recommended solution is transplantation of the species.

That’s what happened when the Reagan Library was proposed for 100 acres of scenic hillside overlooking Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks.

After discovering the endangered Lyon’s pentachaeta and other rare plants at the site, environmentalists forced an agreement that required the library foundation to protect the endangered species and other rare plants including the Trask’s milk vetch.

A number of the milk vetch plants died after efforts to transplant the herb failed.

“It had somewhat mixed success,” said Rick Burgess, chairman of the Channel Islands chapter of the California Native Plant Society. “Avoidance would have been the best mitigation there.”

Meyer puts it more strongly: “We don’t know enough about these things to go around playing God. But as long as development remains a political decision rather than one based on rational thought built on sound land-use ethic, I don’t see much hope for preserving good habitat.”

But at the same time, endangered species have become a political foil for those attempting to stop unpopular development projects.

As federal wildlife biologists in Ventura prepared the paperwork last year to upgrade the Lyon’s pentachaeta from threatened to endangered, a battle was brewing over the sale of land in Westlake Village for the construction of luxury homes.

Although most area residents had never even heard of the tiny sunflower, they rallied to its defense in an effort to thwart plans for the property. The land sale is still going forward.

Port Hueneme officials believe environmentalists have embarked on a similar effort to halt development of an RV resort at Hueneme Beach.

The cash-strapped city began planning the project four years ago as a way of adding an estimated $386,000 year to the city’s coffers. But the process has been stalled by environmentalists and wildlife officials who contend the resort will destroy the habitat of the endangered California least tern.

The environmentalists have been joined by nearby condominium owners who also oppose the project.

City Manager Dick Velthoen said he believes that the homeowners formed an alliance with the environmentalists only as a way of attacking the project.

“There are a lot of folks who wouldn’t know the difference between a least tern and a California condor who have suddenly become environmentalists,” he said.

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Velthoen asserts that the project in no way infringes on the nesting and feeding areas of the least tern, and that steps have been taken to protect the birds from intrusion.

He said a better balance must be struck between endangered species and the benefits of a development project to residents.

“In this instance we’re talking about a significant amount of money to help maintain municipal services in this difficult period of time,” he said. “If we don’t sustain our growth, we are the ones who are going to be endangered.”

While the skirmishes take place in cities like Port Hueneme, the real battles over species preservation take place in the courtroom.

The Sierra Club has sued Port Hueneme to ensure protection of the least tern and other species near the proposed RV resort. The California Native Plant Society sued the federal wildlife service last year, accusing the agency of moving too slowly to protect dozens of threatened plants.

A settlement of the lawsuit resulted in a move to list a rare pink-flowered herb found in the hills above Simi Valley.

Most recently, a lawsuit filed by the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center prompted wildlife officials to propose that the tide-water Gobi fish be listed as endangered.

The tiny, bottom-dweller can be found at the mouth of the Ventura River.

The request to place the fish on the endangered species list, made last summer, had been lost on the desk of a wildlife official in Oregon, according to Marc Chytilo, chief counsel for the defense center.

“There is a problem of institutional will,” Chytilo said. “The Endangered Species Act is really a last-gasp process, intended to grab species before they go extinct. People don’t realize how bad off some of these species really are.”

Then there are those who get caught on the other side of the endangered species law.

Last week, Ventura County businessman Philip Alvidrez, 35, was sentenced to six months in a halfway house for selling two Bengal tiger skins and two leopard skins to an undercover FBI agent.

He pleaded guilty Feb. 16 to violating the Endangered Species Act.

Oxnard rancher Ted Off currently is forging a settlement with federal wildlife officials after plowing under 160 acres of prime blunt-nosed leopard-lizard land in the San Joaquin Valley.

Federal officials accuse Off of killing some of the endangered lizards during the soil discing process at a ranch that his family has owned since 1923.

“We knew this was blunt-nosed leopard-lizard country the way we knew that 60% of California is blunt-nosed leopard-lizard country,” the 65-year-old rancher said. “What it turned out is, after all the smoke cleared, this was one of the best pieces of leopard-lizard land in the whole world.”

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Rather than go to court, Off said he is negotiating a settlement that probably will require him to give the government more than 100 acres as a sanctuary for the endangered species.

“I’m not saying we didn’t disc under a couple, but I’ve never seen one of those, and I’ve hiked the land for 50 years,” he said. “Preserving valley grass and native forests I think is a very admirable goal, but I think using the endangered species act is overkill.”

The legal way out of such conflicts is to create a habitat conservation plan that offsets the loss of an endangered animal.

That’s what the state Department of Transportation did in Moorpark three years ago after it destroyed six acres of wetlands during construction of a $36-million connector between California 33 and the Simi Valley Freeway.

Caltrans has re-created a slice of the Arroyo Simi wetlands, a thriving plant-and-water community where more than 50 bird species have been sighted, including the endangered least Bell’s vireo.

Wildlife officials point to the man-made sanctuary as a good example of how the conflicting demands of allowing growth and preserving nature can be met.

In a similar effort, a diverse collection of wildlife, industry and development interests are meeting to restore and preserve a 100-acre stretch of coastline between Oxnard and the Point Mugu Naval Air Station.

The coastal area, known as Ormond Beach, is home to the endangered California least tern, peregrine falcon, brown pelican and western snowy plover.

A variety of other species at risk--but not yet on the endangered list--also inhabit the area.

The recently formed Ormond Beach Task Force is dedicated to mapping out a strategy to balance the competing interests along the ecologically sensitive corridor.

“I think the one point that all environmental groups have failed to make effectively is that we are losing species in Ventura County,” said Sanders, the Sierra Club chairman and task force member. “I think people expect that we should be working together on these issues, but more often than not we seem to be on a collision course.”

Still, wildlife officials say they see increasing interest in endangered species in recent years and a willingness on the part of all parties to rescue the most vulnerable before they go extinct.

“This is not a world of one or the other, it’s a world of compromise,” said Morgan Boucke, an Ojai-based wildlife biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game.

“We hate for the species to become the bad thing, the evil-doer. But everything has a right to be here, and all we’re trying to do is find room for everyone to get along.”

Wildlife at Risk From the back regions of the Los Padres National Forest to the Channel Islands, a growing list of animals is struggling for survival in Ventura County. Below are the 20 threatened or endangered animal species, from the California Condor to the Island Night Lizard. Air Least Bell’s Vireo (Vireo Bellll Pusllus) The county’s relatively small populations inhabit wetlands and riparian scrub. Beldings Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus Sandwichensis Beldingi) The only songbird in salt marshes, the five-inch bird nests exclusively in pickleweed. California Condor (Gymnogyps Californianus) The species has been restricted to mountain and foothill grasslands of the Los Padres National Forest. Bank Swallow (Riparia Riparia) The smallest North American swallow, these birds live along river banks. Western Yellow-Billed Cuckoo Coccyzus Americanus Occidentalls Although the last reported sting of this bird was more than a half-century ago, it is believed to inhabit riparian forest and woodland. American Per egrine Falcon (Falco Peregrinus Anatum) The breeding range of these birds has been expanded to include the Channel Islands. California Black Rail (Laterallus Jamaicensis Coturniculus) A tiny, sparrow-sized bird that inhabits coastal marshes and swamps. Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius Hiaticula) These birds nest along the shoreline, marking and hiding their eggs with twigs and grass. Light-Footed Clapper Rail (Laterallus Jamaicensis Coturniculus) A tiny, sparrow-sized bird that inhabits coastal marshes and swamps. Land Southern Rubber Boa (Charina Bottae Umbratica) Makes its home near streams and meadows in the Los Padres National Forest. Blunt-Nosed Leopard Lizard (Gambella Silus) Inhabits sparsely vegetated plains, grasslands and large washes and arroyos from northern Ventura County to the San Joaquin Valley. Island Night Lizard (Xantusia Riversiana) Found on the Channel Islands. San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel (Ammospermophilus Nelsoni) One of five species of antelope squirrels, they inhabit the valley and foothill grasslands of northern Ventura County. Island Fox (Urocyon Littoralls) The fox is found on the six largest of the Channel Islands. San Joaquin Kit Fox (Vulpes Macrotis Mutica) The largest of the recognized subspecies of kit fox, these animals are found in the valley and foothill grasslands of northern Ventura County. Water California Least Tern (Sterna Antillarum Brown) Colonies breed along coastal dunes and feed in nearby wetlands. Southern Sea Otter (Enhydra Lutris Nerels) The otter makes its home along the coastline. California Brown Pelican (Pelecanus Occidentalls Californicus) While the pelican breed on the Channel Island, it is commonly found along the county’s coastline. Guadalupe Fur Seal (Artocephalus Townsendi) Recovering slowly form near extinction, the seal inhabits coastal rocks and the coastline along the Channel Islands. Unarmored Threespine Stickleback (Gasterosteus Aculeatus Williamsoni) This small, scaleless fish is restricted to the upper Santa Clara River. Researched by FRED ALVAREZ / Los Angeles Times