State Panel Delays Gnatcatcher Decision : Environment: Fish and Game Commission is weighing whether to list the songbird under the Endangered Species Act. A vote is expected June 23.

After 11 hours of debate, the state Fish and Game Commission on Thursday postponed a decision on whether to include the California gnatcatcher as a candidate for the Endangered Species Act.

Representatives from both sides of the issue, developers as well as environmentalists, agreed to provide commissioners with additional analysis during the delay, which may last up to a month.

Several issues that commissioners will consider include the population of gnatcatchers at risk, the loss of the birds’ habitat due to development since 1991 and how well conservation plans would work, commission spokesman Jeff Weir said.

Commission President Frank Boren said, “We need the people of California to know that the commission works and agonizes over these things.”

A vote is expected June 23, Weir said.

The status of the tiny songbird has been the subject of debate since 1991, when the Natural Resources Defense Council first petitioned for its protection under both state and federal law. The bird lives primarily on about 300,000 acres of coastal sagebrush from Newport Beach to San Diego, much of it prime real estate earmarked for major housing developments and roads that have been postponed.

After holding a series of hearings on the matter, the federal government responded by listing the bird as threatened in 1993.

The state Fish and Game Commission, however, 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 have argued that the state listing is needed to bolster the protection afforded by the federal Endangered Species Act, which they believe may soon be gutted by the Republican-dominated Congress.

Developers oppose the state listing, arguing that it only duplicates federal protections while adding a whole new layer of regulatory hurdles and threatening to unravel a delicate compromise arrived at after years of negotiation. Called the Natural Community Conservation Planning program, the compromise would reopen the doors to coastal development by allowing developers to build on some gnatcatcher habitats while preserving others.