Habitats

A tentative agreement to preserve the habitat of two endangered bird species was reached Thursday by two environmental groups and a host of government defendants, but talks were continued when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it will refuse to accept title to the property unless the agreement is modified. According to George Blackmar, attorney for the Santa Fe Land Improvement Co.

Dealing a serious blow to an environmental and development summit about to convene in Brazil, the Bush Administration decided Friday against signing a treaty designed to protect wildlife and its habitat around the world. The pact, concluded last week in Nairobi, Kenya, is one of two major treaties to be signed during the two-week Earth Summit, which opens Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro. Since the text of the agreement was completed, Administration officials had made it clear that U.S.

In a victory for the Northwest timber industry, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Congress can temporarily modify its environmental laws to permit the cutting of some old-growth forests that are home to the endangered spotted owl. The ruling clears the way for the sale of timber in 16 areas designated by federal officials but it does not end the legal and political battle over the spotted owl. A federal judge in Portland, Ore.

Officials of the Bush administration have asked a federal judge to invalidate protection of several hundred thousand acres of land deemed essential for the survival of two Southern California endangered species. In addition, the officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say they are considering whether to reevaluate up to 10 such "critical habitat" designations involving millions of acres of land, primarily in California.

President Bush has signed an executive order halting a decision to list 844,897 acres between the Coachella Valley and Mexico as critical habitat for peninsular bighorn sheep. "Bush's executive order is just the first example of what is likely to be a four-year Armageddon for endangered species in wild land areas," said David Hogan, of the Tucson, Ariz.-based Center for Biological Diversity. It was a lawsuit filed by the center that forced the U.S.

Proposed federal listing of 800,000 acres in Southern California as critical habitat for the endangered California gnatcatcher could cost the state's economy as much as $5.5 billion over two decades, according to a report commissioned by developers. But environmentalists on Wednesday criticized the report, calling it a predictable developer response. "It's a common theme to cry economic gloom and doom," said David Hogan, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity based in Tucson.

CONSERVATION and religious groups allege in a lawsuit that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to protect critical habitat for the Arroyo toad. The service declared the amphibian endangered in 1994, but neglected to protect its habitat, according to the lawsuit the Center for Biological Diversity and Christians Caring for Creation filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Aug. 24.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hopes to preserve thousands of acres of wildlife habitat by purchasing the development rights to land near the Kern National Wildlife Refuge. The plan would give property owners money for improvements while allowing them to keep title and control of the land. The owners would give up the right to develop the land for housing, commercial uses or more intensive agriculture.

The state this week officially became the owner of an 82-acre parcel of prime wildlife habitat in Laguna Canyon. Escrow on the long-awaited $4-million sale closed on Wednesday, which means the state's Wildlife Conservation Board owns the land and can start work creating an ecological reserve for endangered species. The city of Laguna Beach bought the parcel, just off Laguna Canyon Road near El Toro Road, from the Irvine Co. last spring as part of a 2,150-acre purchase in Laguna Canyon.

A bee habitat can be bulldozed to make way for construction of a federal laboratory at the University of California campus here, federal wildlife officials decided. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service accepted a plan to make up for damage to the bee habitat caused by construction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Salinity Lab, university officials said Wednesday.