Davis Picks Environmentalist

Gov.-elect Gray Davis on Wednesday named Mary Nichols, a pioneer of the state’s environmental movement, as California’s new resources secretary.

As one of two Cabinet members in charge of environmental policy, Nichols will be thrust into highly divisive issues, including protection of endangered species and wetlands on private land, the fierce competition for California’s fresh water, guarding open space against urban sprawl, protecting the coastline and fisheries, and finding funds to rehabilitate the state park system.

In an interview Wednesday, Nichols was sharply critical of environmental policies under Gov. Pete Wilson and her predecessor, Resources Secretary Douglas Wheeler, and vowed to immediately mount reforms.

“The whole resources area was disproportionately starved,” she said. “It’s time for a serious new look at what the state is doing to protect its most valuable natural assets.”

Nichols, 53, was secretary of environmental affairs and chair of the state Air Resources Board under Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr. More recently, she served four years in the Clinton administration as an assistant administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in charge of national air pollution policies.

Considered one of the most experienced environmental policymakers in California, Nichols is popular with environmentalists and known as an outspoken advocate for environmental laws.

Although she has battled many industry leaders in her recent role as Clinton’s chief air pollution aide, she is respected by moderate business groups for her consensus-building efforts.

“She’s tough, but she’s good,” said Felicia Marcus, regional administrator of the EPA and a longtime ally of Nichols. “She’s the perfect person for this role, because the issues are so complex and require balancing of resources and people.”

Also on Wednesday, Davis turned to a veteran legislative insider for his new director of finance, Tim Gage.

A chief fiscal advisor to Democratic leaders of the state Senate and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, Gage will head up the creation of a state budget, which is due in barely three weeks. Davis’ job is especially difficult because the state is expected to be more than $1 billion short of funds next year because of the Asian economic crisis and unanticipated Medicare costs.

In announcing his choice for resources secretary, Davis said Nichols “has spent virtually her entire career working to protect the environment and establish standards that keep our air clean, our water safe to drink, and preserve our magnificent resources.”

“She understands the importance of protecting our natural resources and, at the same time, building consensus around that important goal,” Davis said.

A longtime Los Angeles activist, Nichols in 1989 was a founding attorney of the Los Angeles office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is one of the region’s most active environmental groups. She also was a founder of the California League of Conservation Voters.

“She’s a strong environmentalist and excellent policymaker and experienced administrator, so we think she’ll hit the ground running,” said Teresa Schilling of the conservation league.

One of Nichols’ most immediate challenges is to help conclude a four-year effort to reapportion water from the San Francisco Bay-San Joaquin Delta system to California’s agricultural users, cities and the environment. Farmers and urban water agencies want new reservoirs and channels to ensure an adequate water supply, while environmentalists say such efforts would harm resources critical to fish and birds.

Because Nichols has focused her career in recent years on smog regulations, she is a relative unknown in the realm of water policy, endangered species, forestry and ocean issues. Business leaders wonder if Nichols will be unwilling to compromise on major issues that can affect the economy.

“We have not had the opportunity to work with her in the past,” said Chris Nance of the timber industry’s California Forestry Assn. “But we have a long history of association with the Resources Agency and we look forward to working with her.”

A major shift could be coming for developers--particularly the Irvine Co. in Orange County--and farmers who have been closely aligned with Wilson and Wheeler on wildlife and wetlands issues, which are critical topics for California property owners.

Environmentalists were ecstatic, because they have often battled Wheeler and consider Nichols one of their own.

“She is going to insist that people follow the law and that she follow the law, and after the last 16 years that will be refreshing indeed,” said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club.

Wheeler called Nichols “a good and well-respected choice.” He said his policies were good for the environment and the economy and added, “I don’t anticipate any important change in direction.”

Nichols, however, said she will make major changes at the Department of Fish and Game, which has faced criticism under Wilson for weakening enforcement of the Endangered Species Act.

“Over the last eight years, there has been a steady erosion of protection for listed state species,” she said. “We simply haven’t had a proactive plan for assessing and protecting species.”

The state wildlife agency “was drastically reduced in size and effectiveness,” she said.

The Wilson administration for six years has championed a conservation program, largely created by the Irvine Co. and San Diego County developers, to set aside some habitat for endangered animals and plants while allowing building on other land inhabited by them. Nichols criticized the Natural Communities Conservation Planning program, calling it “in some respects an effort to avoid dealing with the Endangered Species Act at the state and federal levels.”

Nichols advocates a new emphasis on “efforts to maintain the existing housing stock and rebuilding older cities and older communities. . . . We need to make sure we have places for [people] in a way that puts the least amount of stress on the natural environment.”

A top priority, she said, is rebuilding urban parks and buying some of California’s remaining open space, everything from “beaches to mountains and deserts and stuff in between.” One idea, she said, is a governor-sponsored bond issue for voters, similar to measures recently adopted in New York and New Jersey.

Nichols’ most controversial role in recent years was spearheading stringent new health standards on smog and soot announced by the Clinton administration last year. The measures were vigorously fought by industry and many governors and mayors because compliance will cost billions of dollars.

She resigned her post with the Clinton administration last year, soon after the new smog standards were finalized, to direct a Los Angeles-based group called Environment Now.

In her new role, Nichols will not handle air pollution issues. That challenge falls to whomever Davis names to two key posts--head of the California Environmental Protection Agency and chair of the Air Resources Board.

Times staff writer Dave Lesher contributed to this report.