Nature Reserve Panel to Study Management

Faced with questions about its future, the board of Orange County’s largest nature reserve appointed a committee Friday to scrutinize how the sprawling 37,000 acres should be run.

The panel also will look at whether reserve managers are too removed from the public, a criticism raised by environmentalists who say they have difficulty even getting agendas for the board’s quarterly meetings.

“This is just one example of why the public might be wondering what is going on,” said Bob Caustin, founder of Defend the Bay, an environmental group based in Newport Beach.

The Nature Reserve of Orange County was created by a 1996 pact between major landowners and regulators to make the U.S. Endangered Species Act less onerous to developers. The Irvine Co. and other landowners donated land or money to the reserve, a patchwork of land stretching from the Pacific to the Santa Ana Mountains. In exchange, they no longer have to apply for routine federal permits to disturb habitat of rare wildlife on certain lands outside the preserve.

The county Planning Department lent staff and office space to the reserve under a four-year agreement that expires this month. That is forcing the board to deal with who should be executive director, a job now filled by a county zoning administrator. Some say a conservation biologist should run the reserve.

Some environmentalists have complained in recent months that the board is dominated by interest groups, including major companies. County officials say the board’s makeup is dictated by the 1996 agreement.

The new committee was appointed by board Vice Chairman Monica Florian, an Irvine Co. executive. Besides Florian, it comprises representatives of the county, Southern California Edison, the Transportation Corridor Agencies, the Metropolitan Water District, the city of Irvine and board member and biologist Elisabeth Brown. It is to report to the board March 15 with a staffing proposal.