NCCP Gains Ground in Southern California's Gnatcatcher Habitat

By Jeanne L. Clark
Department of Fish and Game

For more than three years, California has been the site of the nation's most ambitious and remarkable application of biodiversity conservation. State and federal agencies, local officials, landowners, environmentalists, and others have collaborated to a historic degree in order to implement Governor Pete Wilson's Natural Communities Conservation Planning program (NCCP), which is designed to protect Southern California's remaining coastal sage scrub habitat, home of the California Gnatcatcher and numerous other imperiled species.

The motivations are simple: the state wants to protect vulnerable habitat on an ecosystem basis and to end legal and political gridlock. Landowners and the environmental community both want certainty for their respective objectives

NCCP Territory - Coastal sage scrub, the focus of NCCP planning, is habitat for the California Gnatcatcher and scores of other plant and animal species whose numbers are declining. (Photos courtesy of the California Department of Fish and Game).

developing valuable real estate without logjams posed by a series of probable federal listings, and saving species, habitat, and open space on a permanent basis.

At the same time, the challenges are great. No ecosystem-scale programs have successfully combined resource protection and development objectives on so great a scale in so great an urbanized area as envisioned in NCCP. Nor have they integrated the requirements of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Governor Wilson established this unprecedented program in 1991 to encourage federal, state, local, and private partnerships to protect plants, wildlife, and their associated habitats, while allowing for appropriate economic development. Instead of focusing on protecting a single plant or animal at a time, as traditionally occurs under the ESA, the NCCP program will conserve entire habitats and numerous species.

Breakthrough Policies
NCCP's ingenious union of environmental protection and economic development has reached important milestones. They include:

· NCCP Law: Enactment of a special law in 1991 giving the California Department of Fish and Game specific statutory authority to pursue NCCP.

· Review Panel: Creation of an independent scientific review panel of five nationally recognized conservation biologists to evaluate data, prescribe standards for the collection of additional field information, and recommend biologically based guidelines on future plans.

· Special 4(d) rule: In December 1993, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt announced the adoption of a special Section 4(d) rule under the ESA. This new rule uses as its foundation and builds upon an earlier 1991 memorandum of understanding in which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pledged its full cooperation with the program. The rule formally recognizes NCCPs and provides an important new alternative for allowing incidental take. Partners who agree to produce an NCCP that protects a particular region's coastal sage scrub (CSS) can be allowed to develop up to 5 percent of CSS habitat and receive authorization for "take" of the federally threatened California Gnatcatcher during the planning process.

"The announcement of the special rule represents an important step in making the federal government a full partner in a cooperative ecosystem management pro gram that reaches across administrative

boundaries," Secretary for Resources Douglas P. Wheeler said.

· Conservation Guidelines: The Department of Fish and Game's NCCP Pro cess and Conservation Guidelines were completed in late 1993 and have been incorporated into the special Section 4(d) rule. The Process Guidelines deal with how the program operates and how partners interact.

Dwindling Habitat - The NCCP planning process allows for preserving coastal sage scrub for wildlife habitat, pictured here in San Diego County, while also accomodating reasonable growth to sustain the economy.

The Conservation Guide lines, based upon the work of the scientific review panel, describe what each plan must contain so it can be evaluated, approved, and implemented. "These documents are blueprints for developing NCCPs and saving habitats in Southern California and eventually throughout the state," says Fish and Game Director Boyd Gibbons.

· Court Challenges: Both development and environmental interests filed legal challenges to the March 1993 listing of the gnatcatcher as a threatened species and to the Section 4(d) rule. Landowners initially succeeded in getting the gnatcatcher delisted, but the listing was temporarily reinstated pending public review of research supporting the original listing. Federal Judge Stanley Sporkin is expected to make a final ruling on the bird's status within the next few months. The courts have not yet taken up a lawsuit by environmental groups challenging the Interior Department's decision not to designate at this time "critical habitat" for the gnatcatcher.

The specter of such challenges and judicial uncertainty has heightened interest in NCCPs. In fact, shortly after the gnatcatcher was delisted, Undersecretary for Resources Michael Mantell heard from local governments, landowners, developers, and others who reaffirmed their commitment to the NCCP program. "The common interest of all of these parties in multi-species, ecosystem planning was unchanged by the court actions,"Mantell said.

· Federal Assurances: To ease local concerns, in August 1994 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a set of "assurances " so that non-federal landowners with approved habitat conservation plans would not be subjected to further land restrictions or financial compensation requirements if additional species were listed, or other regulatory action required. The NCCP program was explicitly cited as the principal reason for this new federal policy.

Plans in Progress

The heart of the NCCP program approved plans is nearing reality. Since the 4(d) rule took effect, nearly 30 projects in San Diego County and eight projects in Orange County either have received final approval by wildlife agencies or are close to being approved. More than three dozen other projects are under review in those counties while long-term plans are being designed.

A consortium of partners recently initiated large-scale planning efforts in San Bernardino County and an agreement was reached with Riverside County to have its multi-species planning effort meet the requirements of NCCP.

Federal Recognition - The Natural Communities Conservation Planning (NCCP) program, involving five Southern California counties (boundaries shown above), was formally recognized by the Interior Department with adoption of a special rule, 4(d), under the Endangered Species Act

Each county plan will encompass hundreds of thousands of acres and will embrace many cities and partners. Much smaller in scope but not in importance, the Palos Verdes Peninsula NCCP in Los Angeles County will protect several thousand acres of the county's remaining coastal sage scrub habitat.

· San Diego County: Three sub-regional plans are being developed, covering nearly 1 million acres. The Multi-Species Conservation Program, which encompasses 580,000 acres in the city of San Diego and southwestern San Diego County, is clearly one of the largest, most ambitious, and most complex of all county plans. This multi-species/multi -habitat program also includes other habitats and several species at risk within 11 cities and on adjacent county lands.

· Orange County: Two plans in progress cover approximately 340,000 acres. The Southern Orange County NCCP is noteworthy because this region still includes large, relatively undeveloped sections of coastal sage scrub habitat.

New Partners
· State Parks and BLM on Board: The California Department of Parks and Recreation signed an agreement with Fish and Game, the NCCP program manager, to help

identify, evaluate, and enroll appropriate state park lands. Six park sites have been enrolled in the program. In a similar move, the Bureau of Land Management has made 176,000 acres within San Diego County available for conservation planning and has taken similar action in Riverside County.

· Habitat from Repossessed Properties: The Interior Department, in cooperation with the state, has been analyzing the asset listings of the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC), a federal governmental entity that markets the properties of failed savings and loan associations. The intent is to provide the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service an opportunity to acquire habitat parcels important to the success of the NCCP program. The Service recently helped to facilitate the purchase of a key RTC property in San Bernardino County by the local Council of Governments with transportation funds and expects to help foster similar San Diego County purchases.

Funding
· Funds from Several Sources: The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has augmented millions of dollars in federal funding for this multiple species planning program with many generous matching donations. The

foundation is a non-profit organization that supports natural resource partnerships throughout the nation. Several local governments and corporations have similarly provided significant contributions to boost the program. Funding also has been obtained through Congress and the state Legislature.

Next Step
While land use plans the ultimate objective of the NCCP program are not yet complete, it is clear that this new process dramatically consolidates what has been a cumbersome, time-consuming, expensive, and bureaucratic permit process.

Californians and people across the nation are hopeful that NCCP will continue to demonstrate that "win-win" situations are possible for all of the partners, that serious environmental protection and reasonable economic development can coexist. John Sawhill, national president of The Nature Conservancy, has stated: "The message is cooperation, not conflict. We're setting a precedent that will benefit both people and wildlife in Southern California."

Monica Florinan, a vice president of the Irvine Company - a major landowner enrolled in the program - says, "This is reinventing the way we all do business."