Habitat Protection

Reporting from San Francisco -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that the Franciscan manzanita — a plant so rare that only one is believed to be growing in the wild — "warrants protection" and proposed declaring the elusive shrub endangered. The announcement kicks off a 60-day public comment period to allow the federal agency to figure out whether it is possible or necessary to designate and protect habitat critical to the plant's survival and to finalize its determination.

Federal wildlife regulators will revise seven controversial decisions on endangered species and critical habitat made by an Interior Department political appointee who quit in the spring amid charges of improper meddling in scientific decisions. California's arroyo toad and red-legged frog could regain protection that federal biologists determined was crucial to their survival, according to a letter the U.S.

An endangered toad has been found near the Santa Clara River where a developer with plans for 4,300 homes said it has never been seen before. As a result, the Army Corps of Engineers will review a permit it had issued to the Newhall Land & Farming Co. for erosion control construction in about 10 miles of river channel, officials said Monday. The permit is critical to two Newhall Land residential projects along the Santa Clara River and its tributary, San Francisquito Creek.

In response to a lawsuit by environmentalists, a federal judge here has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider within three years its decision not to set aside protected areas known as "critical habitat" for eight imperiled plant species. The plants are found in scattered spots across the state, ranging from Otay Mesa near the U.S.-Mexico border to Inyo and Mono counties in the Sierra Nevada.

With the addition of the California gnatcatcher to the federal threatened species list last week, developers on the Palos Verdes Peninsula--where roughly 30 pairs of the tiny birds live--now must wait to find out how the decision will affect their building plans. Planners and developers alike said they are pleased that the Clinton Administration wants to make the songbird a test case for an experimental program created by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Pacific Lumber Co., a timber giant on California's North Coast for more than 140 years, has filed for bankruptcy, contending that environmental restrictions imposed by the state have made it impossible to log enough to make a profit. After years of threatening bankruptcy, Pacific announced Friday that the company and its subsidiaries had filed for Chapter 11 protection a day earlier in U.S. District Court in Texas. The companies seeking to reorganize are Pacific, Scotia Pacific Co.

A key stretch of the Santa Clara River could be taken out of private hands and run by the government to promote wildlife and nature parks under an ambitious new environmental recovery plan. The proposal, unveiled Monday, seeks to acquire and restore 6,400 acres of some of the best remaining stream-side habitat in Southern California.

Several environmental groups sued the federal government this week, challenging a policy that is key to environmental compromises with developers such as a landmark plan launched this year in Orange County. Environmentalists claim that the Clinton administration's 1994 "no surprises" policy, intended to defuse developers' criticisms of the Endangered Species Act, in fact dangerously weakens federal protection of rare plants and animals nationwide. U.S.

On Monday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated 6.4 million acres of desert as critical habitat for the threatened desert tortoise. Ward Valley, a part of the Mojave Desert near Needles that will be included in the protected tortoise habitat, is also the proposed site for a low-level radioactive waste dump.