Development Would Intrude on Wildlife, Scientists Say

The 22,000-acre Newhall Ranch project would put homes, schools and parks smack in the middle of a strategic wildlife corridor that connects wild lands in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, scientists and environmentalists say.

Cougars, bears, coyotes and bobcats use the Santa Clara River and its tributaries to move between the Santa Susana Mountains and Los Padres National Forest in search of mates and prey. They are sustained on their treks by the area’s abundant water, food and vegetation.

When a Kern County judge recently halted the Newhall Ranch project because of concerns over adequate water supplies, he also required the developer to more carefully examine the project’s effect along the Santa Clara River in Ventura County.

“The connection is really obvious,” said Al Sanders, conservation chairman for the Los Padres chapter of the Sierra Club. “These corridors can’t exist as little islands unto themselves.”

Of chief concern is an obscure watercourse known as Salt Creek. It drains from the high country of the Santa Susana Mountains into the Santa Clara River six miles away. Its perennial flow supports willows and mulefat, and it is flanked by coastal scrub.

While the housing development--to be built in neighboring Los Angeles County--would skirt much of the creek, losses to other migratory routes may affect the Salt Creek corridor. Animals might be forced to begin using it, or they may not use it all, scientists say.

“This is a pretty important little corridor. These critters have to have room to move around. You can’t tell them to just use one corridor, because these animals don’t read maps,” said Bruce Henderson, an ecologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The corps, working with the state Department of Fish and Game, is preparing a separate environmental study focusing on the project’s effect on wildlife and water quality, due by the end of the year.

*

In his ruling, Superior Court Judge Roger D. Randall ordered the project halted until the effect on Salt Creek, particularly the small portion that runs through Ventura County, is better understood. It is one of several deficiencies he identified in the environmental review. The judge also asked the developer to prove it has sufficient water supplies for the project, examine possible effects downstream and look further at the effect on traffic in Ventura County.

The rulings could mean months of additional environmental study and traffic modeling. It could also mean the project would have to be redesigned to reduce adverse effects. And it could mean more money for Ventura County and its cities to ease highway congestion over the next 25 years--the time it would take for the project to be fully developed.

While those obstacles probably are not insurmountable, the developer and some environmentalists agree, the issues identified by the judge shift attention from Los Angeles County to how the project will affect the environment in Ventura County.

Newhall Ranch spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer said the additional analysis can be done and any problems fixed within the coming year, the same amount of time the developer estimates it will take to prove the project has sufficient water supplies. The court directed the company to prove it has access to adequate water supplies, even in drought years, to supply a community of 70,000 people.

The judge also agreed with environmentalists’ contention that Newhall Ranch’s plans to fill in and build atop part of a flood plain could hurt aquatic life along the Santa Clara River. Riparian areas are ecological gems in arid Southern California. The state has lost more than 90% of its historical wetlands, leaving songbirds, amphibians and fish clinging to the remaining creeks and streams.

The 100-mile-long Santa Clara is the longest free-flowing river left in Southern California and a wildlife oasis. Among the rare or endangered species that inhabit it are the least Bell’s vireo, the unarmored three-spine stickleback fish and steelhead trout. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintains that a portion of the project lies in proposed critical habitat for the endangered arroyo toad.

If the project is built, about 300 acres of flood plain would be developed and about half of the river and tributaries on Newhall Ranch land would be reconfigured or lined with hard surfaces.

In nature, rivers meander and pool up and support plants, creating varied habitats that sustain tremendous species diversity. But hard channels make rivers straight and fast. Channels help protect houses by whisking water to the ocean as fast as possible, but they are brutal on wildlife, said Jonathan Baskin, biologist at Cal Poly Pomona and a member of the Los Angeles County Significant Ecological Areas Technical Advisory Committee, which reviewed the Newhall Ranch project.

“You’re really changing the way the river works,” said attorney John Buse of the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center, which joined Ventura County in the lawsuit against Newhall Ranch. “Instead of shuffling the impacts under the rug, we hope for redesign of the project to be more accommodating to the river.”

The judge agreed, finding the environmental study had failed to adequately consider how changes to the stream would affect wildlife and habitat. It was part of the reason he ordered the project halted on environmental grounds.

In addition, the judge called on the developers to better study the effect the project could have on Ventura County roads, including California 126 and 23, two highways anticipated to face traffic problems.

*

Newhall Ranch expects to pay Los Angeles County and the city of Santa Clarita millions of dollars over the 25 years it will take to build the project, but the developer has not committed money to Ventura County. It did agree to pay $300,000 to Fillmore, in return for the city dropping out of the county lawsuit.

Lauffer described the obstacles as minor and solvable. She said the company is concentrating on addressing the concerns raised in the lawsuit rather than preparing an appeal, although she added an appeal remains an option.

She said the company would analyze Ventura County traffic patterns and other environmental concerns as the judge required.

“The judge has given us a road map, saying these are the final steps that need to be taken for the approval of Newhall Ranch,” Lauffer said.

“We feel most of these issues are fairly easily resolved.”