U.S. Will Act to Keep Gnatcatcher Protected : Wildlife: Babbitt says he’ll ask federal judge to retain threatened listing, pledges commitment to bird and habitat.

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt announced Wednesday that he will ask a federal district judge to keep the California gnatcatcher on the threatened species list while Babbitt provides evidence that he says will prove the tiny songbird should remain protected.

In a statement applauded by conservationists, Babbitt made clear he is committed to keeping both the songbird and its nesting ground safe. Conservationists have feared that developers would proceed with projects and destroy the bird’s fragile habitat.

“We remain confident that the listing of the gnatcatcher was done on the basis of sound scientific information, despite a judge’s ruling that the Fish and Wildlife Service committed a procedural error in the listing process,” Babbitt’s statement said.

Attorneys for the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California and the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies, which successfully petitioned a federal judge to remove the gnatcatcher from the threatened list, immediately said they would oppose Babbitt’s request.

“I think the chances of him persuading the judge of reaching a different conclusion is very, very small,” said Richard Jacobs, lead attorney for the BIA. “The matter was extensively briefed. Basically, what (Babbitt) is asking the judge to do is allow (the Interior Department) to continue doing something that (the judge) has already concluded is illegal.”

In his controversial ruling May 2, U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin ordered the bird removed from the list, saying that the government had failed to make available to the public all of the raw data it relied upon when it declared the gnatcatcher threatened.

Babbitt said Wednesday that the author of an important gnatcatcher study--Massachusetts ornithologist Jonathan L. Atwood--has agreed to make his raw research available to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in order to “straighten out the record.”

In turn, the government will make that data available to the public--but only if the judge agrees to reinstate the bird’s protected status in the meantime.

“If the judge does not agree,” Babbitt said, “we will consider filing an appeal, and will also consider listing the gnatcatcher as a threatened species on an emergency basis while we take steps to obtain, make available to the public and evaluate all the relevant information.”

While conservationists applauded the secretary’s move, people on both sides of the issue said it was not likely to derail an extensive habitat conservation plan being developed in California. Under the plan, developers will voluntarily preserve crucial habitat in exchange for permission to develop on land considered less essential to various species, including the gnatcatcher.

“No matter what happens we will continue working on the program,” Christine Diemer, executive director of the BIA’s Orange County branch, said of the project, called the Natural Communities Conservation Plan. “We’re still supportive of habitat conservation.”

Richard Broming, vice president of planning and entitlement for the Santa Margarita Co., which manages 40,000 acres in Orange County, agreed. The company, he said in a statement, “remains committed to the (conservation program) regardless of whether the gnatcatcher is listed as threatened. I don’t believe that a request for a stay of the judgment will significantly affect our position.”

Laer Pearce, executive director of the Coalition for Habitat Conservation, which represents major developers enrolled in the plan, said the process would continue whatever the outcome of Babbitt’s request. “We’re not dumb,” he said. “No one is going out and grading since the judge’s ruling.”

However, Joel Reynolds, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council which successfully petitioned for the gnatcatcher’s original listing, expressed skepticism that the conservation plan would work without the legal pressure provided by government involvement.

“I think it’s the right move,” he said of Babbitt’s request for the gnatcatcher re-listing. “The stay is necessary to maintain the momentum that has been generated in Southern California toward regional conservation planning. That effort is dependent on the listing of the gnatcatcher (as threatened) to force all necessary participants to the bargaining table.”

Patrick Mitchell, spokesman for the environmentalist group Earth Now!, spent Wednesday morning with 17 other conservationists demonstrating at the BIA’s Orange County headquarters in protest of the recent delisting even before Babbitt’s move was announced.

“We definitely support the decision,” Mitchell said later of the secretary’s request that the gnatcatcher’s threatened listing be reinstated. “This is a first step. Let’s see how far it goes.”