Conservation

The most comprehensive study ever made of the Sierra Nevada region on Friday recommended creating a system of forest reserves, restricting population growth and imposing stricter air quality controls to combat environmental threats degrading the range's natural splendor.

A plan to improve both environmental and business conditions in Southern California--including Orange County--may get $5 million from Congress if a proposal announced Wednesday passes. The money, included in the Republican-crafted Interior Department appropriations bill for fiscal 1997, would be divided among Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties.

Sometimes the bad guys are right. So here was His Eminence, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, standing behind the remains of the altar in St. Vibiana's Cathedral, spewing venom at anyone trying to stop him from tearing it down. What did he think of the suggestion that the church might need a city permit to level the cathedral? "Ludicrous," Mahony replied. What about the notion that the cathedral, one of Los Angeles' most historic churches, might contain some cultural value?

Nine-year-old Grace Le now has a little bit better understanding of why arctic walruses are never svelte. During a presentation Wednesday at Harbor View Elementary School about arctic animals, the fourth-grader dressed up in a walrus costume, complete with fur, flippers, tusks, mustache of whiskers and a layer of fake blubber. "It made me feel fat," she said. "But I learned that blubber keeps them warm."

Let us first revisit the infamous painted lawns of Santa Barbara. It was 1990, the sixth year of a wicked drought. Isolated from the canals that carry water down from the northern mountains or across from the Colorado River, Santa Barbara and its coastal neighbors always had relied on rainfall for their water, and now the rains had stopped coming. Consumption was ordered cut in half, and squads of "water cops" were dispatched into the streets to enforce rationing.

The notion of creating a mammoth wildlife reserve in Orange County has been debated for years in Sacramento and Washington and the halls of academia. Now, the actual plan for a 39,000-acre reserve system faces one of its sternest real-world tests: the scrutiny of county residents and lawmakers.

A Balancing Act A sweeping plan to create a land reserve system in central/coastal Orange County is under review by county officials and residents. It is among the first efforts designed under the Natural Community Conservation Planning program, a new state effort to preserve rare plants and animals while allowing development and economic growth. PURPOSE: Voluntary program brings together landowners, environmentalists and state, federal and local officials to help design a reserve system.

Charlie Cooke was driving a cement truck for a construction project on Ventura Boulevard 11 years ago when workers uncovered the "Lost Village of Encino." "I refused to go in there," said Cooke, chief of the Chumash of the Southern region. The Chumash, Gabrieleno and Fernandeno graves and artifacts uncovered on the ancient site most likely belonged to some of his ancestors.

Declaring the start of a new era in environmental cooperation, the Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved what many are calling a landmark plan intended to bolster the health of both the county's economy and its rare plants and animals.