Habitats

Appropriately enough, the most comfortable creature at Vital Ground's first fund-raiser for protecting grizzly habitat was the bear. Bart, a 1,600-pound kodiak bear/movie star, didn't seem to mind how cold it was Sunday afternoon on a Mandeville Canyon hilltop. Or how the weather started off with a light mist, worked its way up to an enthusiastic drizzle, then finished with a convincing downpour.

More than 100,000 acres of endangered species' habitat will be protected in San Joaquin County over the next 50 years under a plan approved by state officials. Starting in December, development fees paid to the San Joaquin Council of Governments will be used to pay landowners who agree to keep their property from being developed. That land--most of which will remain privately owned--will be used to protect the county's rarest plants and animals.

County workers clearing brush at a park in San Dimas "damaged or destroyed" the habitat for an endangered songbird species, apparently inadvertently but in possible violation of federal laws, federal officials said. In a May 15 letter to the county, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said at least 1.6 acres of habitat for the coastal California gnatcatcher in Frank G.

The California gnatcatcher is likely to be added this week to the nation's list of endangered and threatened species. The songbird lives and breeds in a fragile ecosystem called coastal sage scrub. This fragrant, arid mix of native plants has three main components: California sagebrush, black sage and California buckwheat. About 75 other rare plants and animals make their homes there, and many are candidates for endangered species status.

State and federal officials approved a plan to preserve 9,243 acres of wildlife habitat in San Diego County in exchange for a streamlined development approval process in the city of Chula Vista. The preserve will include 4,993 acres within Chula Vista -- 16.5% of the city's area -- and an additional 4,250 acres east of the city in unincorporated San Diego County. State and federal permits authorizing the preserve were issued Jan. 13.

Nearly 500,000 acres in California will be proposed as critical habitat for the endangered Southwestern arroyo toad by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday. The move could affect some of the most prominent development projects in the region, including the massive Newhall Ranch development, which would straddle the Santa Clara River in Los Angeles County, and the proposed 16-mile Foothill South toll road in southern Orange County.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday reduced by nearly 60% the amount of land in California's Imperial Valley considered essential to a broom-like plant's survival. Last year, Fish and Wildlife Service biologists in California proposed designating 52,780 acres of the Algodones Dunes as critical habitat for Peirson's milk vetch. In a final rule published Wednesday, the critical habitat was reduced to 21,863 acres. The Center for Biological Diversity criticized the decision.

A judge has lifted restrictions on some 400,000 acres in California previously designated critical habitat for the threatened Alameda whipsnake, calling the designation an unlawful land grab by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a property rights group announced Thursday. The Pacific Legal Foundation sued the agency in federal court in 2001, claiming the restrictions foiled plans to use East Bay land for affordable housing.

The National Audubon Society filed suit Thursday against federal wildlife officials requesting that they identify crucial habitat for the least Bell's vireo, a small endangered songbird that nests in the path of the proposed Foothill toll road in south Orange County. The gray and white bird, found mostly in Riverside and San Diego counties, was listed as a national endangered species in 1986, but the U.S.

A developer that was given government approval will begin clearing 30 acres of gnatcatcher habitat Wednesday as part of a project for a golf course and 883 homes in north Fullerton. The Unocal Land & Development Co., which on Monday announced the plan to clear the land, will build the homes, an 18-hole golf course and a wilderness park on 391 acres in the East Coyote Hills. About 20 gnatcatchers, a threatened bird species, live on the site.