Groups Sue Over Endangered Species List : Wildlife: Environmentalists seek reversal of ruling that lifted protection of Mohave ground squirrel. State claims rodent is no longer threatened with extinction.

Five environmental groups sued the California Fish and Game Commission in San Francisco on Monday, seeking to reverse the panel’s unprecedented decision to remove an animal from the state endangered species list.

The Mohave ground squirrel was the first species to have its protection lifted in the 23-year history of the California Endangered Species Act, and environmentalists fear that it will trigger a wave of efforts to remove other animals and plants from the list.

The small burrowing rodent lives among the Joshua trees and creosote of Kern, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Inyo counties.

“Every scientist who had done extensive field research on this species agrees that it is threatened with extinction. . . . We cannot let our wildlife heritage be squandered by the Fish and Game Commission,” said Darryl Young, Sierra Club spokesman. “We are hearing rumblings of other groups going in to delist other species, including the spotted owl.”

The Sierra Club was joined in the suit by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Mountain Lion Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife and the Desert Protective Council. Bob Trainor, executive director of the Fish and Game Commission, declined comment Monday because he had not seen the lawsuit.

State commissioners eliminated protection of the squirrel in May at the request of the Kern County Board of Supervisors. More than 200 development projects in the desert have been delayed or canceled because they affected the squirrel’s habitat, according to Kern County officials.

While state biologists said the squirrel remains threatened, developers and local officials contended that the science was too uncertain. The commissioners agreed with the developers, ruling that the squirrel is “no longer threatened with extinction.”

The environmentalists claim in their lawsuit that commissioners based their decision on economic hardship instead of scientific data as required under the Endangered Species Act. They also contend that the board should have completed an environmental impact report.

Also on Monday, a coalition of timber industry leaders filed suit in Washington against the Clinton Administration, trying to overturn federal protection of another species, the marbled murrelet.

The timber groups contend that the sea bird--which nests in the same old-growth Pacific Northwest forests as the northern spotted owl--are not a distinct, separate population from murrelets in Alaska and Canada, where they are more abundant.