Boom in Holdings Puts Wildlife Agency to Test

When U.S. Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt flew in to launch the state’s first “conservation bank”--a 180-acre nature preserve amid advancing subdivisions--he called it “a vision of the next century.”

Two years later, that vision of a pristine sanctuary for native plants and animals is still unrealized on this mesa with an ocean view. Neighbors complain that Carlsbad Highlands has become a playground for motorcycles and off-road vehicles and a shooting range for hunters.

The state Department of Fish and Game, which took title to a third of the property more than a year ago, has posted no signs and built no barriers to keep out the motorized trespassers even though the acreage came with a substantial endowment to protect it.

The problem reaches beyond Carlsbad Highlands, posing a potential threat to fragile land and endangered species around California.

The agency with the chief responsibility for safeguarding the state’s dwindling natural environment has too few land managers and too little money to cope with hundreds of millions of dollars in property under its jurisdiction, according to interviews and the department’s own documents.

Moreover, Fish and Game’s holdings have been increasing at an astonishing rate, tripling since 1970 because of a surge in bond measures and environmental initiatives that boosted the state’s land acquisitions.

Today, the California Department of Fish and Game owns or manages almost 600 pieces of property covering almost 1,300 square miles. That is larger than the city of Los Angeles or Orange County.

With such far-flung properties, the department cannot even visit every parcel once a year. And a program that mandated regular monitoring of Fish and Game lands was dropped for lack of funds.

Few properties have on-site managers. Those that do are likely to be wildlife reserves that permit hunting--a continuing source of revenue for the department.

In a 1997 document, Fish and Game officials reported “critical site maintenance problems” on three-quarters of department-owned lands that were surveyed. Among the most frequent problems were illegal use, serious vandalism and unauthorized dumping. More than half the sites lacked needed fencing, gates or signs.

Six years before that, the department identified similar problems in a report to the Legislature. Citing the department’s “inability to manage lands,” the agency argued that 125 new positions and an added $16 million were needed for the proper stewardship.

Lands management staff and money were added in the following years, but the increases were barely enough to keep up with the expansion of acreage, which grew by 58%. Records compiled by the department show that it has added $1.5 million in annual operating expenses and 50 regular and temporary workers in those years.

In his budget for next year, Gov. Pete Wilson recognized the problem and called for another $1.5 million and 28 workers to maintain and manage Fish and Game lands.

Fish and Game Director Jacqueline E. Schafer said the department is still catching up with its responsibilities. “Some of our flagship properties still don’t have what I consider to be the proper level of maintenance,” she said.

Schafer is particularly concerned about properties in the Southland, where the department’s Long Beach office is responsible for a 10-county area with 20 million people. “We need to do a better job in Southern California,” she said.

Putting Up Fences Not Enough

As manager of Fish and Game’s San Jacinto Wildlife Area in Riverside County, Tom Paulek is responsible for 5,000 acres of a 41,000-acre preserve for the endangered Stephens’ kangaroo rat. Local development has largely destroyed the dry, sparsely vegetated land that is the animal’s habitat.

But Paulek wonders whether he will have the additional personnel and funding to protect the animals. “If you don’t actively manage [for the rats], you’re going . . . to lose the species,” he said. State officials say additional staff in the governor’s next budget will help.

Experts agree that it is not enough to put a fence around the property and leave it alone. Without burns or mowing to control unwanted vegetation, they say, the species will not survive.

At San Jacinto, “on a number of areas, the rats are just gone,” said Stephen J. Montgomery, who runs a consulting company.

Because of declining revenue from fishing and hunting licenses, Fish and Game has obtained millions of dollars in endowments from developers, mining operations and oil and gas companies to help manage its properties.

State officials sought a $2.1-million endowment for San Jacinto and the adjacent Lake Perris State Recreation Area, operated by the Department of Parks and Recreation. The fund, which depended on fees from developers, would have generated $80,000 a year for kangaroo rat habitat.

But last year, after contentious negotiations among Riverside County developers and various government agencies, the state agreed to forgo the endowment and to absorb the costs of managing the state’s portion of the reserve.

The state also agreed to a plan reducing development fees from $1,950 an acre to $500 an acre.

Schafer said forgoing the endowment will allow a local conservation agency to acquire more habitat for the kangaroo rat.

However, George Hague, an activist with the Sierra Club and the Friends of the Northern San Jacinto Valley, contends that state and federal officials caved in to developers. “We did not see them working for the species,” Hague said. “They were working to allow development to take place.”

Additional Help Needed

In Orange County, a lone lands manager cares for one of the state’s most heavily visited ecological reserves, Upper Newport Bay. He is also in charge of operations and maintenance at five other major wetland properties, from Bolsa Chica to Del Mar in San Diego County.

A 1989 plan for Upper Newport Bay concluded that additional staff was needed to manage the salt marsh harboring several endangered or threatened species. But no additional help has been hired.

Frank Robinson, a retired engineer who fought to establish the ecological reserve, complains that the area is threatened by its popularity. “People love to go into the marshes,” Robinson said. “Four-wheel vehicles love to go out there. They just tear up the place.”

The lands manager, Troy Kelly, says that with only a small budget and occasional temporary help, it is difficult to meet the day-to-day needs of his six sites--repairing fences and signs, organizing volunteers to fight destructive nonnative vegetation, such as pampas grass, and planning long-term restoration efforts.

“When there is habitat destruction and a need for actual reserve maintenance, it is very difficult to respond,” he said.

Kelly is moving to another Fish and Game job in Northern California. “One of the reasons,” he said, “is that [his current job] is too much for one person to handle.”

Four-Wheel Invaders

On a recent day at Carlsbad Highlands, a pickup truck worked its way up a dirt track. Schoolteacher Scott Wagner was at the wheel; fellow teacher Matt Albertoni stood on the bed of the truck, offering advice on which way to pass. Three dogs trailed behind.

The men said there are dozens of ways onto the property. A gate put up by the private owners has cut down on some traffic. But another gate, behind a church bordering the Fish and Game property, was ripped from its hinges.

Once inside, vehicles have access to the entire area via dirt tracks and old roads. No signs indicate where Fish and Game lands begin and other property, held by Caltrans, the city of Carlsbad or private owners, leaves off.

Some distance away, two off-duty Marines raced their motorcycles over humps in the terrain.

Cpl. Michael Holzapfel acknowledged that they are trespassing. Just a few weeks before, he said, Carlsbad police were here ticketing motorcyclists. But the possibility of a $70 ticket, Holzapfel said, “is nothing to me.” It would cost him $35 a day to go to the nearest motorcycle racing course.

Susan Briggs, whose backyard overlooks the preserve, said calls for the police usually go unanswered. “We’ve had everything from Jeeps to Ford Explorers, a lot of big pickups, even Army vehicles,” Briggs said. Sometimes she has heard the reports of guns, although hunting and shooting are not permitted.

City of Carlsbad senior management analyst Don Rideout said some motorcycle dealership employees were recommending the site to customers.

Carlsbad Highlands was originally set to become another subdivision--more than 700 houses on 263 acres--but local growth controls, a poor economy and other restrictions stalled development.

Eventually, Bank of America foreclosed on the $5.6-million loan. Because of the constraints on the development, the property was worth just $112,000 at the time, says B of A Vice President Jim Jackson.

But Jackson and others realized that the land had value as endangered species habitat. It could be sold to developers, businesses and government agencies required to set aside land to compensate for habitat destruction elsewhere in the county.

The first piece, 83 acres, was sold to Caltrans, which needed land to replace the habitat of the threatened California gnatcatcher destroyed by the widening of California 76 a few miles to the north.

The remaining 180 acres was slated to become a conservation bank. Those planning to build on sensitive lands would be able to purchase “conservation credits” at Carlsbad Highlands, fulfilling legal requirements to provide replacement or mitigation property.

With the Caltrans sale and the formation of the conservation bank, the Bank of America was able to realize $3.1 million. And the sale of credits would leave as much as $300,000 in permanent endowment to manage the property.

The state took title to the first 55-acre parcel in January 1996. Thus far, the department has not spent any of the $139,000 it received with the property.

John Anderson, the lands and natural areas coordinator for Fish and Game’s Southern California district, said the department has been waiting until it acquires the other parcels before fencing or posting the property.

Anderson conceded that vehicles are using the department’s land as an entry point and he is considering putting up barriers. He also worries about trash and abandoned automobiles left on the property.

“It is like buying a new home,” Anderson said. “You expect the plumbing to work. If there is a gate needed, you expect to find that. . . . Sometimes these transactions take place so quickly that you don’t always have those protections in before you’ve actually accepted the land.”

In contrast to Fish and Game, Caltrans has been aggressively managing its 83 acres. The agency has spent more than $300,000 in highway funds to fence, sign and reestablish coastal sage scrub on the property.

John Rieger, a senior environmental planner who manages the Caltrans acreage, has been battling to keep off-road vehicles from destroying native plants. Intruders partially dismantled a barrier of telephone poles and knocked down signs identifying the property as a gnatcatcher restoration project and forbidding access.

Several months ago, Caltrans installed a 2,000-foot-long wall of concrete freeway dividers in an apparently successful effort to safeguard seedlings.

Says Rieger, “Managing open space is not simply putting up a fence.”

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Expanding State Lands

The California Department of Fish and Game began acquiring significant amounts of land in the 1950s. The acreage it owns or manages has been increasing dramatically ever since. It more than doubled in the 1970s and again in the 1980s.

Average:

1930: 3,090

1940: 9,480

1950: 49,510

1960: 90,390

1970: 123,480

1980: 265,960

1990: 669,710

1997: 824,950

Source: California Department of Fish and Game