Conservation Plan Is Cause for Officials’ Celebration

Officials from several federal and state agencies, corporations and an environmental group gathered in Carbon Canyon Regional Park on Wednesday to celebrate the completion of a habitat conservation plan and a 979-acre addition to Chino Hills State Park.

The wildlife habitat, home to the threatened California gnatcatcher and other species, was set aside as part of a state agreement with Shell Oil Co., which owns the land.

Shell’s subsidiary, Shell Western E&P; Inc., plans to develop 2,100 homes, a school and an 18-hole golf course on 900 acres of land in the foothills above Yorba Linda, near Brea.

As a condition of approval, Shell agreed to sell 979 acres next to Chino Hills State Park to the state at a reduced price, about $6.5 million. The agreement allowed Shell to satisfy federal requirements regarding the gnatcatcher, which is listed as a threatened species by the Interior Department.

The property, now dotted with oil fields, is home to one of the last large stretches of coastal sage scrub in the County, officials said. The sage scrub is a rich ecosystem that is home to the gnatcatcher, cactus wren and other species.

According to a local environmental group, the land sale is also significant because it provides a critical link in habitat systems for animals in northern Orange County.

“These natural systems can’t survive as fragments,” said Claire Schlotterbeck, president of Hills for Everyone, an environmental group that participated in discussions regarding the habitat.

The land agreement “shows that the Endangered Species Act can work,” said Thomas Dwyer, deputy regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Shell’s planned development, he said “will impact those species, but the plan will mitigate those impacts.”