Groups Back Challenge to Wildlife Plan

In what could signal a widening fissure between conservationists and landowners over how to save rare wildlife, several national environmental groups have come out in support of a court challenge to a key piece of a much-hailed plan to balance growth and conservation in Southern California.

Strongly supported by U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, that plan is part of a new national effort to bring together environmentalists, regulators and governments to set aside land for rare plants and animals. It led to the 1996 creation of a 37,000-acre preserve in central and coastal Orange County, and now-stalled attempts to create a second preserve in South County. More than 230 other plans have taken shape nationwide.

But the notion of a peace pact between conflicting interests was tarnished this week when the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and six other groups filed a brief supporting a lawsuit against Babbitt and the Interior Department. The suit, led by the Pasadena-based Spirit of the Sage Council, challenges a crucial part of that deal that gives landowners special assurances.

That provision is the so-called “no surprises” policy, which is intended to give builders, timber companies and other landowners assurances that unexpected new rules will not be imposed on them if they enter into a habitat pact such as the Irvine Co. did in Orange County.

Signifying the potential importance of the Sage Council case, the Orange County government has intervened on behalf of Babbitt and the Interior Department. The Irvine Ranch Water District, the city of San Diego and the county of San Diego also have intervened.

“It’s sort of a deal-is-a-deal approach,” said Marc Ebbin, formerly Babbitt’s special assistant and now an attorney with the law firm Beveridge & Diamond, which is representing Orange County in the case.

“The Interior Department has managed to set aside millions of acres of private land due to this policy,” said Ebbin, who helped draft the “no surprises” policy while with the department.

The policy, crafted in 1994, assures landowners that if they enter into habitat pacts, they will not face changing rules if a plant or animal later spirals toward extinction. Instead, the government will step in.

Some are dubious that the federal government can pick up the tab if plants or animals unexpectedly begin nearing extinction. But Orange County planning official Tim Neely defended the local habitat pact, saying the federal government can require special steps by the landowner under “extraordinary circumstances” as defined by the pact.