O.C. Releases Plan to Create Wildlife Reserve : Environment: The aim is to protect threatened species, allow development in a 39,000-acre area. The experiment could become a national model.

In a sweeping experiment intended to end the “gnatcatcher wars,” Orange County planners Wednesday released a proposal to create a 39,000-acre wildlife reserve system that would protect rare species while allowing developers to build on environmentally sensitive land.

The draft plan, three years in the making, attempts to strike a balance between economic growth and wilderness conservation in a county where development-versus-environment battles have become commonplace.

It is being hailed by its supporters as a landmark effort to bring together landowners, the county, state and federal agencies and conservationists to forge a rational compromise to the divisive and emotion-packed issue of protecting endangered species.

In fact, some involved in the plan predict that at a time when environmental laws are under attack in Washington, the reserve project may serve as an important national model proving that growth and species protection can coexist.

“I think it is a great day for the Endangered Species Act, because those in Southern California have proven that the act has the capacity to respond to the changing interface between development and conservation,” said Dennis D. Murphy, director of Stanford University’s Center for Conservation Biology, who worked on the plan.

The catalyst for the massive effort was the California gnatcatcher, a rare songbird that dwells in some of Southern California’s prime coastal real estate. Fearful that federal safeguards to protect the bird could create economic and political havoc, a coalition of government officials, developers and environmentalists joined to forge a compromise.

The result is four volumes of documents, as thick as telephone directories, to be scrutinized by the public in coming weeks. Designers say the plan would:

* Carve out a reserve system that would spread like a patchwork across central and coastal Orange County, including areas from Costa Mesa to San Juan Capistrano. The reserve would include 18,800 acres of the coastal sage scrub that is home to the gnatcatcher.

* Manage that reserve to give 42 rare plants and animals the same protection they would receive under state and federal endangered species laws.

* Provide that participating developers who contribute reserve land or money would be able, in return, to develop land outside the reserve, including some that is home to the gnatcatcher and other rare species, without going through the complex paperwork required by endangered species laws.

The draft unveiled Wednesday is the second to be completed under the so-called Natural Community Conservation Planning program, a state effort launched in 1991 by Gov. Pete Wilson. The first plan is being reviewed in San Diego County, and more plans are slated in neighboring counties.

A second Orange County plan, for the county’s southern portion, is still being designed and is proving more controversial than this one.

The plan released Wednesday would amount to a pact between landowners, local governments and state and federal wildlife agencies.

The idea is to preserve habitats before species decline to the point where they need federal and state protection, officials said. It is also to move away from the species-by-species approach to wildlife protection, with its permitting requirements that have frustrated many developers. Instead, the new plan emphasizes protection of an array of species and habitats that are found in the 208,000-acre central/coastal region.

The plan still needs the approval of the county and federal and state agencies, which could take until April.

Some involved in the project praised the concept Wednesday.

“This is a plan where landowners, conservation interests and local governments recognized an opportunity to plan for a future that preserves biodiversity and at the same time presents a blueprint for growth,” said Jay Ziegler, deputy director of intergovernmental affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington.

An official at the Irvine Co., the largest private landowner involved in the plan, also praised it.

“This is a bold and costly experiment our company has undertaken voluntarily with the hope and cautious expectation that it will produce a new certainty in county land-use planning,” Monica Florian, Irvine Co. senior vice president for corporate affairs, said in a statement. The Irvine Co. would enroll 21,000 acres of wilderness habitat in the plan.

But one environmentalist involved with the project said he is not yet ready to fully endorse it.

“We will be reviewing the plan, and we have not yet determined if we’ll be able to give it our support or not,” said Dan Silver, coordinator of the Endangered Habitats League, an organization of about 30 conservation groups and individuals in Southern California.

He said his group believes it is important for the project to succeed as an example of how to protect ecosystems while meeting economic needs.

“But because it might be looked at as a national model, we have to look at it very closely,” Silver said.

Environmentalists also have reservations that the reserve system would be guaranteed, under the plan, for 75 years, with extensions possible. Some would like to see the reserves created for perpetuity.

“It’s what happens after 75 years that we’re concerned about,” Silver said.

Silver was a member of the “working group” that met for months to review proposals for the plan. The working group also included representatives of the Irvine Co., the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state Department of Fish and Game, other landowners and cities.

Those involved in the approach say that these plans are not easy to create.

“It’s been, at times, difficult. It’s been longer than any of us had wanted,” said Michael Mantell, state undersecretary for resources.

He compared the gnatcatcher to the northern spotted owl, which has polarized logging and environmental interests in the Pacific Northwest. And in Southern California, dealing with the gnatcatcher “looked every bit as difficult, as contentious, as litigious as the northern spotted owl,” but with the added wrinkle of dealing with a densely populated area with expensive real estate.

“What this program allowed to happen was, over four or five years, a reasonable accommodation of economic and environmental interests in a way that’s never happened” with the northern spotted owl, he said.

County Planner Tim Neely said the Planning Commission is expected to hold two hearings on the plan, one in early January and one in February. It is expected to go to the Board of Supervisors in early March, he said.

The plan and related reports are being distributed to 14 libraries for public review and will be available at the county Environmental Management Agency. Information about where to see the reports is available by calling the EMA at (714) 834-5550.

Written comments must be received by Jan. 29 at the county EMA or at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offices in Carlsbad.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Slated for Protection

The proposed 39,000-acre Orange County reserve is intended to protect the habitat of more than 40 endangered or threatened birds, plants and animals.

Targeted Species (3)

Coastal California gnatcatcher *

Coastal cactus wren

Orange-throated whiptail

****

Mammals (3)

San Diego desert woodrat

Coyote

Gray fox

****

Birds (11)

White-tailed kite

Northern harrier

Sharp-shinned hawk

Golden eagle

Prairie falcon

Peregrine falcon *

Red-shouldered hawk

Rough-legged hawk

Loggerhead shrike

California horned lark

Southern California rufous sparrow

****

Reptiles (6)

Coastal western whiptail

San Bernardino ringneck snake

Red diamondback rattlesnake

San Diego horned lizard

Coronado skink

Coastal rosy boa

****

Amphibians (3)

Arboreal salamander

Western spadefoot toad

Black-bellied slender salamander

****

Plants (9)

Foothill mariposa lily

Catalina mariposa lily

Laguna beach Dudleya

Santa Monica Mountains Dudleya

Nuttal’s scrub oak

Small-flowered mountain mahogany

Heart-leaved pitcher sage

Coulter’s matilija poppy

Tecate cypress

****

Conditionally Covered Species (7)

Least Bell’s vireo *

Southwestern willow flycatcher *

Southwestern arroyo toad *

Quino (Wright’s) checkerspot

Riverside fairy shrimp *

San Diego fairy shrimp

Pacific pocket mouse *

* Currently on federal list of “threatened or endangered” species

Source: Natural Community Conservation Plan