Letting the Gnatcatcher Play Through

Some see this land as a prime site for an 18-hole golf course. Others call it one of the most significant habitats to be found anywhere for the troubled songbird called the California gnatcatcher.

Those diverging visions have bred a lively debate over the future of Upper Chiquita Canyon, with environmentalists deploring a plan that would have rare songbirds and golfers existing side by side.

Now, federal wildlife officials have asked if the golf course could be stricken altogether from plans for the canyon east of Mission Viejo.

Propelling Chiquita Canyon into the limelight this winter is its location squarely in the path of the Foothill tollway now being built in segments across Orange County. While much of the canyon would be preserved, the landowner, Santa Margarita Co., hoped to develop one piece as a golf course.

But in response to federal concerns about the effect on the gnatcatcher, the toll road agency now is trying to buy the golf course land from the company to leave it undeveloped.

“We’re all anxious to get this issue resolved,” said Steve Letterly, director of environmental services at the Transportation Corridor Agencies, where road-building schedules hinge on finding a solution to the golf course puzzle. The transportation agency hopes to begin work within weeks on the next three-mile segment of road.

The debate is an illustrative one in a county where the tug-of-war continues between expanding suburbia and wilderness. While golf courses often are welcomed by residents because of their greenery and open space, some prominent scientists have questioned if fairways and putting greens should be installed in a canyon that is home to a federal endangered species like the gnatcatcher.

Studies have found the 1,274-acre canyon area is home to one of the state’s largest populations of gnatcatchers, the tiny birds that have become anathema to developers because of endangered species permitting requirements.

Because of the birds’ presence, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is studying whether they would be jeopardized by both a toll road and golf course. Its decision is not expected to stop the tollway, but it could cause project delays and changes.

Currently, the golf course plan is stirring concern at the agency.

“The service does not think a golf course is appropriate use of such an area,” said James Burns, a wildlife service biologist.

The gnatcatcher thrives in habitat called coastal sage scrub, which is fast vanishing from Orange County’s hillsides. Although the 234 acres earmarked for a golf course are now largely nonnative grassland, they could be restored as coastal sage, biologists said.

And a golf course’s rolling lawns are not amenable to the rare songbird, Burns added.

“There’s not enough cover. The food resource don’t exist. They don’t have places to nest in a golf course,” Burns said.

While a Fish and Wildlife decision initially was expected by late December, it was delayed first by the federal budget impasse and now by negotiations.

The stakes are higher than simply whether golfers or birds will win out. Conserving Chiquita Canyon has become what one biologist called a “line in the sage scrub” for some conservationists involved in a landmark collaboration aimed at balancing economic and ecological interests.

That effort has pulled together developers, government agencies and environmental groups in hopes of crafting a new approach to the U.S. Endangered Species Act at a time when the act is under intense attack on Capitol Hill. But some environmentalists warn that how federal officials and developers treat bird-rich Chiquita Canyon could prove a litmus test of the cooperative program’s potential for success or failure.

If the golf course is canceled, the amount of canyon land to be conserved would increase from 928 acres to 1,162 acres, Letterly said.

Even if the golf course is removed from the plans, some other issues linger, such as the amount of land that might be used as a “mitigation bank” to be restored to compensate for coastal sage scrub destroyed elsewhere in the future.

Dan Silver, coordinator of the Endangered Habitats League, a coalition of 30 environmental groups, said he does not want to comment until he knows details of a possible compromise.

“Of course, we’re happier without a golf course,” he said, but he added that any new proposals would need to be evaluated carefully. The toll road itself, he added, will have a major impact on Chiquita’s gnatcatchers.

At the Santa Margarita Co., spokeswoman Diane Gaynor said talks are ongoing but that “there are no definitive details to talk about” as of this week.

And at the transportation agency, Letterly said he hopes that if negotiations go well, toll road construction could begin within weeks.

“We’re optimistic,” he said.