Developers Urge Delay of Gnatcatcher Ruling

Armed with a new study, developers are demanding that federal officials postpone a decision due later this week on providing nearly 800,000 acres of “critical habitat” for the tiny gnatcatcher in Southern California.

The study, co-written by Jonathon L. Atwood, a biologist whose earlier research concluded that the birds were nearing extinction, is being used by developers as proof that the California gnatcatcher is genetically so close to a Mexican songbird that the species is not in danger. Environmentalists and other scientists disagree, saying the California birds even look different from the Mexican ones.

There are only a few thousand pairs of gnatcatchers in California, but there are millions in Mexico.

The study was funded by the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California, the Transportation Corridor Agencies, the U.S. Navy and others.

Written by Robert M. Zink, George F. Barrowclough, Rachelle C. Blackwell-Rago and Atwood, the study compares DNA from gnatcatchers in Mexico with DNA obtained from feathers of nestlings in the United States.

“Put simply, based on [DNA] data, northern populations do not appear to constitute a unique component of gnatcatcher biodiversity,” the study concludes. The scientists cautioned that they were able to test just a small number of birds, and that they might be seeing evidence of genetic mutations or cross-breeding between the Mexican and American birds.

But in a letter mailed Monday, Irvine attorney Rob Thornton urged Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to postpone a decision on critical habitat for the bird.

A judge has ordered federal officials to designate critical habitat for the bird by Saturday. U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials would have to seek an emergency extension from the court to bypass that order.

Atwood’s 1990 report that California gnatcatchers were distinct from their Mexican cousins was the primary scientific evidence that the government relied on in deciding to list the gnatcatcher as a threatened species.

Thornton, who represents the Transportation Corridor Agencies, Pulte Homes Corp. and Forest Lawn Memorial-Park Assn., said it was “impossible to determine that [the gnatcatcher] needs 800,000 acres as essential, given the fact that it doesn’t appear to be threatened.”

But environmental groups say that even if there are genetic similarities with the Mexican birds, there are also obvious differences, such as the birds’ coloring. They say the final habitat decision is vital because the gnatcatcher and the sage scrub it nests in are under siege from development.

“The Endangered Species Act doesn’t have a narrow, inflexible genetic definition of what is and what isn’t a species,” said Andrew Wetzler, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Environmentalists also note that healthy populations in a neighboring country do not mean a species is safe in the United States.

Kimball Garrett, ornithology collections manager of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, cited the birds’ appearances as proof of differences. The California birds are darker, and the Mexican birds have more white on their breasts and tails, he said.