Factions Face New Gnatcatcher Dispute

Four years after Orange County environmentalists and developers began squaring off over the fate of a tiny songbird, combatants armed with facts and figures will descend on Santa Maria today to continue an argument that could end up unraveling a delicate compromise.

At issue is whether the state should place the California gnatcatcher on its endangered species list. The gnatcatcher, already listed as threatened on the federal list of endangered species, has probably cost developers more money than any other bird in history.

“The bird is in serious danger of extinction,” said Michael Fitts, a lawyer representing the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has lobbied for the gnatcatcher’s protection since 1991. “It needs to be protected and the state has an independent interest in preserving its natural heritage.”

Laer Pearce, representing developers, had a different view.

“Whatever protection is needed is already being offered,” said Pearce, executive director of a group called the Coalition for Habitat Conservation which represents 10 major Southern California developers including Orange County’s Irvine and Santa Margarita companies. “The federal listing is like an iron hammer. Why do you need a clay hammer when you already have an iron one?”

The issue is expected to be decided today by the California Fish and Game Commission.

Orange County developers are interested in the outcome because the rare bird lives only in coastal sage scrub, much of which exists on valuable real estate already earmarked for major housing developments and roads that have been postponed.

About 300,000 acres of gnatcatcher habitat lie between Newport Beach and San Diego.

A decision by the commissioners to list the bird as endangered, the developers argue, could lead to economic chaos by undoing the state’s Natural Community Conservation Planning program, a much-negotiated compromise that would reopen the doors to coastal development by allowing developers to build on some gnatcatcher habitats while preserving others.

“It would be a big-time stab in the back,” Pearce said if the state lists the bird as endangered. “The landowners could just say, ‘That’s it, I’ve had it.’ It will throw us into an economic tizzy while offering nothing to the gnatcatcher.”

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The fate of the 4 1/2-inch gray songbird has been an issue since 1991 when the Natural Resources Defense Council first petitioned for its protection under both the federal and state Endangered Species Acts.

The federal government responded by listing the bird as a threatened species in 1993.

But the state Fish and Game Commission rejected the group’s petition, prompting a legal challenge culminating in a decision by the 3rd District Court of Appeal last year ordering the commission to reconsider its position.

Environmentalists argue that the state listing is needed to bolster the protection afforded by the federal Endangered Species Act currently under attack by the Republican-dominated Congress.

“The federal act may be gutted,” said Dan Silver, coordinator of the Endangered Habitats League, a coalition of conservationists. “Let’s not rely on something that may not be here in the future.”

Silver said it was fear of having to comply with the stringent requirements of a state or federal listing that prompted developers to voluntarily participate in the Natural Community Conservation Planning program--expected to be unveiled in Orange County in about four months.

“The listings are what drive these programs forward,” he said. “Without the listings, the programs would collapse.”

To punish developers with an added listing now, Pearce said, would only alienate them by adding an extra layer of bureaucracy and decrease the amount of land for development, driving up housing prices.

“A project that has already received federal approval would now have to go back and dance the whole waltz one more time to get the state approval,” Pearce said.

Fish and game officials have urged the commission to approve the gnatcatcher as a candidate for listing on the state’s endangered species list. Should the commissioners go along with that recommendation, a spokesman said, they will have one year in which to make the listing final.