Gnatcatcher Is Again Listed as Threatened Bird

The California gnatcatcher was temporarily placed back on the federal threatened species list Thursday by the same judge who ordered the bird removed from the list two months ago.

In a controversial ruling on May 2, U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin ordered the gnatcatcher stricken from the list, saying the government had failed to make public all the data it relied upon in declaring the gnatcatcher threatened.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt responded almost immediately by making the information available and petitioning the judge to, in effect, put a stay on his own decision while federal authorities provide evidence to prove the listing is needed.

Sporkin, in the decision reversing himself Thursday, wrote that what “should have been done initially . . . is being done now,” referring to Babbitt’s action.

Under the decision, issued in Washington, the federal government has 100 days in which to evaluate public comment on the newly available scientific data before making a final decision on the gnatcatcher’s status.

The outcome could influence future development in Orange County.

Babbitt hailed the decision as “a clear victory for cooperative conservation planning.”

“I’m pleased that the court recognized our good-faith efforts to make all biological data available for public review,” Babbitt wrote, “and that is the spirit under which we want to see the law work now and in the future.”

Richard Jacobs, a lawyer representing the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California, which, along with the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies, had filed the original challenge to the listing, expressed disappointment at Thursday’s decision.

“It allows the secretary to continue to enforce an illegally adopted decision,” Jacobs said.

The two sides had been at odds since the rare songbird had been listed as threatened in March, 1993, an action that effectively halted all development plans in areas where the birds nest, including some of the most desirable ocean- and canyon-view land in Southern California.

To counter belief that the listing was needed, builders have emphasized their support for the Natural Communities Conservation Plan, a state plan under which developers voluntarily preserve crucial habitat in exchange for permission to develop on land considered less essential to various species, including the gnatcatcher.

Following Thursday’s decision, some developers and members of the building industry said they still support that plan.

“We will stay the course and work on the overall conservation plan no matter what,” said Christine Diemer, executive director of the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California’s Orange County region.

Laer Pearce, executive director of the Coalition for Habitat Conservation, said, “We’re still putting our full weight behind the conservation plan. No one is rushing out there to do any (major development).” The coalition represents 10 major landowners including Orange County’s Irvine Co. and Santa Margarita Co.

Both Diemer and Pearce, however, were unhappy with what they characterized as the short public review period before Babbitt makes his final decision on the gnatcatcher listing.

“It’s a little unfair to compress it so much for us when the (government) took years to review the data,” Pearce said.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, regarded Thursday’s decision as a clear victory.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Patrick Mitchell, a spokesman for the Orange County chapter of Earth First!, a group of environmental activists.

Said Joel Reynolds, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council: “It’s great news. It is absolutely the right decision based on science. The survival of the ecosystem depends on what Judge Sporkin did today.”