REGIONAL REPORT : Songbird Rouses a Chorus of Discord : Environment: Activists say the California gnatcatcher and its habitat are endangered by growth. Developers counter that designating them as endangered species would put growth on hold.

SACRAMENTO — To most people, they are little more than the softly shaded shrubs that have carpeted Southern California’s undeveloped coastal mesas since the last Ice Age, wafting aromas of mint and sage from the Los Angeles Basin to south of the Mexican border.

But to those who know better--conservationists, developers and government officials--the native vegetation called coastal sage scrub is really much more: A fragile ecosystem caught in a struggle to reconcile the region’s rich biological heritage with the inexorable march of civilization.

Focus on the scrub has intensified in recent months as conservationists press their claims to have a handful of scrub-dwelling creatures declared threatened or endangered species--a move which could severely restrict or even halt development that would disturb the animals and their habitat.

The special protection is warranted, they say, because development is chewing up the scrub, which supports more than 50 rare plant and animal species--the mainstay of Southern California’s wildlife.

But the prospect has unsettled developers who argue that such designations could retard or scuttle plans for billions of dollars in new subdivisions, roadways and public works.

“The entire infrastructure of Southern California will be put on hold, if not totally killed, as a result of this listing if it happens,” said Hugh Hewitt, a former Reagan Administration attorney who represents a powerful coalition of developers. “This is nothing more than a no-growth agenda bordered in green.”

Coastal sage scrub has even become a cause celebre in Sacramento. At the urging of a powerful Orange County development firm with much to lose, Gov. Pete Wilson has decided to bring all sides in the scrub struggle to the negotiating table.

Some hope that Wilson’s handling of the controversy will help foster a new era of saving endangered species by focusing on their habitats--in this case, the coastal scrub--instead of each one individually.

The flash point in this debate so far has been a tiny sedentary songbird called the California gnatcatcher, which mews like a kitten and makes its home in the fast-dwindling scrublands. Conservationists are pushing hard for state and federal officials to declare the four-inch long, black and gray bird an endangered species because only 1,200 to 2,000 pairs are left.

Their requests are under review. The state Fish and Game Commission will hold a public hearing on the bird Aug. 1, while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could make the declaration by September.

Conservationists say that they also may nominate three more Southern California scrub-bound animals as endangered species--the cactus wren, the orange-throated whiptail lizard, and the San Diego horned toad.

Everyone agrees that the link in all of this conservationist activity is coastal sage scrub, the generic name given to a mix of 35 short bushes, including sagebrush and buckwheat, that once dominated the landscape from Point Conception to Baja California.

The vegetation, which ranges in height from 2 to 5 feet and drops its leaves during the dry season, was once plentiful on coastal plains rising to about 1,500 feet above sea level.

Definitive maps of the scrublands are being developed. But conservationists say that urbanization has disturbed or paved over 70% to 90% of the vegetation in Southern California.

“The coastal sage scrub is a beleaguered habitat,” said Jeff Opdycke, Southern California field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “An aerial photo of the Los Angeles Basin . . . looks like Hiroshima after the bombing, from the native habitat standpoint.”

The little amount of low-lying scrub that existed in Ventura and San Bernardino counties already has been uprooted by agriculture, especially by orange groves, according to a December, 1990, report prepared by the Manomet Bird Observatory, a Massachusetts-based group that co-sponsored the gnatcatcher petition with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

In Los Angeles, a sprawling megalopolis has cleared the landscape of scrub from the eastern San Fernando Valley, along the base of the San Gabriel Mountains and down to Claremont, the report says. What’s left are scattered patches ringed by development on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, as well as a fair amount of higher-altitude scrub in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Significant swaths of dwindling scrub--about 250,000 acres, or 390 square miles--can still be found on land largely owned by private development firms in Orange and San Diego counties, with portions located in higher elevations in Riverside County, according to developers.

In Orange County, nearly a third of the Irvine Co.’s 63,000 acres contain scrub, as well as large expanses owned by the Santa Margarita Co. near Mission Viejo. The bushes are also in the right of way of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor, where transportation officials want to build a south Orange County toll road.

Most of the scrub in Riverside County, in contrast, is located in smaller holdings on the southwestern edge, building industry officials say.

In San Diego County, a portion of the 120,000 acres of scrublands are relatively safe from development because they are located on military installations such as the Camp Pendleton Marine Base.

But nearly 80% of the habitat is still in private ownership, with at least 30 proposed developments planned throughout San Diego County, according to the report. One huge holding--the Baldwin Co.’s 23,000-acre Otay Ranch parcel near Chula Vista--could disturb the home of an estimated 109 pairs of gnatcatchers.

Those kind of numbers, along with the “extraordinary financial pressures” for developers to build and sell $200,000 homes, could wipe out the gnatcatcher in 20 years, conservation groups have argued.

“Without this immediate protection, thousands of acres of critical habitat will be destroyed during the next 12 months as land developers seek to avoid future regulatory restrictions by accelerating projects,” the Manomet Observatory and NRDC warned in a joint letter in December.

Developers, however, say that those are alarmist claims. There’s no conspiracy to rev up the bulldozers, they reply, and many acres of the scrubland will be preserved as open space or parkland anyway.

Yet they clearly are mindful of what happened in Riverside County when the Stephens’ kangaroo rat was listed as an endangered species. The designation slowed development for more than two years and has cost developers more than $20 million in special environmental fees to help save the rodent and its habitat.

Special protection for the gnatcatcher and other scrub-dwellers could do the same to vacant land elsewhere in Southern California. “It obviously would shut down development for one or two years,” said Brian K. Laidlaw, president of San Diego-based Newland California.

But even before it is ever listed as an endangered species, the gnatcatcher is already making waves. The cities of Poway and Carlsbad in San Diego County, for instance, have undertaken separate studies on how to preserve the scrub.

At UC Irvine, officials decided in December to alter their plans for a proposed chancellor’s residence to spare a scrub-lined bluff. And environmentalists are in court to challenge a proposed 2,500-home subdivision in southeastern Orange County, saying that the proposal by the Santa Margarita Co. does not, among other things, adequately address protection of 250 acres of scrublands.

Meanwhile, local planning officials are working furiously to figure out just how much scrub exists. The Orange County Planning Department is working on a $300,000 effort to map the scrub, and the San Diego Assn. of Governments is using computer-enhanced satellite imagery to do the same.

In response to all this, developers are coming together to brainstorm. They are building their cases against the gnatcatcher, but have also initiated their own behind-the-scenes efforts to woo environmentalists.

San Diego landowners whose holdings total more than 70,000 undeveloped acres have formed the nonprofit Alliance for Habitat Conservation. The goal is to come up with an alternative plan that would preclude listing the gnatcatcher as an endangered species by setting aside enough scrub in a preserve to save the bird and other animals.

Meanwhile, the Irvine Co. has employed a low-key strategy to persuade the Wilson Administration to get involved in the controversy.

The politically powerful landowner has suggested using the gnatcatcher issue to help reform the current method of putting plants and animals on the endangered species list. Both federal and state conservation efforts are conducted on a species-by-species basis, triggered only when a particular plant or animal is pushed to the brink of extinction.

Developers have complained that this scattershot system is costly because it flies in the face of long-range planning. And biologists charge that its protections are often too little, too late. In California, for instance, 71% of the 280 state-listed endangered plants and animals species continue to decline.

On April 2, Irvine Vice President Monica Florian wrote to Douglas P. Wheeler, Wilson’s secretary for resources, suggesting a different approach. She outlined a demonstration project that would take the spotlight off the gnatcatcher and put it on its scrub habitat by forming a scientific panel to decide just how much of the vegetation should be preserved.

Florian also warned that major Southern California landowners would only be willing to participate if environmentalists agree to drop their bid to have the gnatcatcher listed as being endangered.

Conservationists have flatly rejected that demand. But Wilson officials continue to actively nudge both sides to the negotiating table as part of a “sage scrub pilot project” announced April 22.

The first meeting between representatives for major developers and environmental groups was held May 16 in Irvine but produced no firm agreement. One Wilson official said another meeting Monday could result in the formation of a five-member scientific panel and an informal truce between developers and environmentalists.

Whether that will be enough to avert the war remains to be seen.

“Would there be any interest by developers in coastal sage scrub if there wasn’t a danger of listing the gnatcatcher?” asked Pete De Simone, manager of the National Audubon Society’s Starr Ranch Sanctuary in Orange County. “Absolutely not.”

Ralph Frammolino reported from Sacramento and Maria Newman from Orange County.

Sage Wars

A tiny bird that thrives in Southern California’s fast-vanishing coastal scrublands is pitting developers against environmentalists.

WHAT’S AT STAKE:

About 250,000 acres of prime developable land in Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties that is also home to the California gnatcatcher, a bird that is being considered for listing as an endangered species.

THE PLAYERS:

* The Building Industry Assn., as well as powerful developers such as the Irvine Co. of Orange County and the Newland Group of San Diego.

* A coalition of environmentalists, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, which successfully petitioned for listing the spotted owl as an endangered species.

* Gov. Pete Wilson, who is trying to bring the two sides together.

THE ELEMENTS:

* The California gnatcatcher: A tiny songbird, which mews like a kitten and feeds on insects, is fast disappearing; about 1,200 to 2,000 pairs are left in Southern California.

* Coastal sage scrub: A fragrant mix of 35 kinds of shrubs, including sagebrush and buckwheat, where the gnatcatcher lives and breeds. Scrub is coastal Southern California’s most plentiful, but quickly vanishing, natural vegetation.

THE OPINIONS:

* The conservationist view: If the bird and its habitat are not protected, they could be the first in a chain of other rare plants and animals that thrive in the coastal sage scrub that would also be pushed into extinction, leaving Southern California devoid of its natural landscape.

* The developers’ view: The bird does not merit listing, and most of the coastal sage scrub is already in open parkland that cannot be disturbed.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT:

Under an initiative by the Wilson Administration, a small group of developers and conservationists will meet on Monday to talk about forming a scientific panel to study the fate of the scrublands. Meanwhile, the first public hearing on whether the bird should be listed as an endangered species is scheduled for Aug. 1 before the state Fish and Game Commission; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may make a final decision on a federal listing by September.