Refuge Needs a Steady Hand

It’s tiring to hear, for the umpteenth time in 10 months, that Cal State Fullerton has great plans for Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary. The university has a contractual obligation to preserve the 12-acre nature oasis and keep it open to the public. Instead of producing a laundry list of excuses and obfuscations, the university needs to produce results or let someone else take over.

Tucked in pretty Modjeska Canyon, the bird sanctuary includes a creek, a little house, a porch and a couple of artificial ponds. There, schoolchildren take in lessons on the local environment and families spend quiet moments watching hummingbirds, hawks and woodpeckers.

But no one has been visiting lately except to protest the sanctuary’s closure last September by Cal State Fullerton, which owns Tucker under a deed from the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society that requires the university to keep the facility open to the public. Since then, the university has set and missed several dates for reopening.

Spokesmen say the university has been removing debris, cleaning ponds and upgrading the sanctuary with railings and bridge repair work. They blame the closure on employee departures, fears over exotic Newcastle disease, damaging storms, state budget woes and the slow pace of all-volunteer labor.

Still, Cal State Fullerton’s recent management record on Tucker is troubling. The county cited the university for debris perennially piled outside the sanctuary. CSUF also concedes it went overboard in whacking native plants down to their roots on a hillside trail, creating erosion problems. Then it invited a neighbor to do volunteer work with heavy equipment along Santiago Creek, causing such damage that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has outlined a stiff course of required action to repair the creek bed. After more than 30 years of Tucker stewardship, you would think Cal State Fullerton would know more about managing the place.

In addition, official explanations for the extended closure ring hollow. Most organizations keep operating after personnel quit; the university wouldn’t stop teaching students because a top administrator left. The Audubon Society says there’s no reason for a wildlife reserve to close because of exotic Newcastle disease. It also says the sanctuary should have stayed open during repairs.

Budget cuts might make it hard for Cal State Fullerton to complete the repair work in a timely way. Still, the university’s deed doesn’t allow it to close the sanctuary for that reason. If Cal State Fullerton finds it too hard to keep Tucker open, it should hand the land back to the Audubon Society to find another manager.

The university finally appears to be heading in the right direction. Officials say they have found a manager who will move in Aug. 1 and that Tucker will reopen at about the start of the school year. If it fails to make good on its promise, though, the university should heed calls to end its stewardship.