Every year, the health updates on California's endangered species read more and more like obituaries.

Bank swallows are still vanishing. Kit foxes can't find places to feed and breed. Chinook salmon aren't spawning. Desert tortoises are succumbing to disease and predators.

Despite being declared endangered by state or federal officials, most of California's rare animals and plants are teetering closer to the edge of extinction.

Wildlife biologists say some of the creatures are so far gone by the time they are listed that it's too late to save them. For other species, survival takes money, manpower and time--rare commodities at the financially strapped federal and state agencies that are empowered with protecting wildlife.

"We have over 600 species on the national list and we have approved recovery plans for only half of them. . . . We have a very overwhelming job in front of us and very limited resources to do it," said Robert Ruesink, chief of listing and recovery for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's western office in Portland.

The long battle between Southern California developers and environmentalists over the fate of the gnatcatcher climaxed last week when the Interior Department proposed that the tiny songbird be added to the national endangered species list. The announcement kicks off a long public review process that could lead to federal protection of the bird next year.

But wildlife biologists warn that listing would be far from a cure for the gnatcatcher. They say ensuring survival means more than simply setting aside land protected from bulldozers; it means carefully managing the species to safeguard it from a whole host of threats, from domestic cats to disease.

"Listing is not a panacea. It is the beginning of the long road," said Richard Spotts, California representative of Defenders of Wildlife. "With the gnatcatcher, we're all fighting to the death over something that could largely be a symbolic outcome."

In California, over 200 plants and animals have been designated as endangered or threatened by the state or federal government. Of those, 70% are still in decline, according to an annual status report published in March by the California Department of Fish and Game. Since California's statehood, 64 plant and animal species are known to have been wiped out.

"Listing the gnatcatcher is not necessarily going to save it from extinction," said Glenn Black, a biologist who coordinates the state Department of Fish and Game's natural heritage section in Southern California.