July 23, 2001

By Lisa Faught
Staff Writer

A snarl of lawsuits over imperiled species is forcing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to put off protecting the mountain yellow-legged frog and threatened Santa Ana sucker.

The two species, which live in the San Gabriel River, are in limbo as the Fish and Wildlife Service tends to deadlines set by the court for a slew of other threatened and endangered species.

The legal logjam is stopping the Fish and Wildlife Service from setting critical habitat for the sucker and listing the frog as an endangered species.

"We have not been able to meet statutory deadlines," said Jane Hendron, spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Carlsbad. "We've been working exclusively on meeting our court-ordered deadlines. They are our highest priorities."

Two weeks ago, the Center for Biological Diversity, the organization behind many of the lawsuits, claimed the Fish and Wildlife Service was in contempt of court for missing the deadline to set critical habitat for the Santa Ana sucker.

The silvery fish was once common in the region, but is now only found in short stretches of the San Gabriel River, Big Tujunga Creek, Santa Ana River and the Santa Clara River.

"There may be a dispute over the interpretations of court orders," said Brendan Cummings, attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. "Either way, they're in violation of the law, and we'll be in court shortly to enforce it."

The charge is the latest in the series of legal actions the litigious group has taken against the Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service.

In the last seven years, the center has filed more than 100 lawsuits, many of which it has won, against the government for not taking more action to preserve the environment in California under the Endangered Species Act.

The bulk of the lawsuits aimed to get dwindling species listed as endangered or threatened and set aside critical habitat for them, which adds another layer of protection.

Before the rush of lawsuits, the Fish and Wildlife Service was already in the business of protecting imperiled species. They are charged with deciding which species merit extra protection from the federal government.

They are just not doing it quickly enough for the center.

"The more you get involved, the more you find that many, many laws are broken by federal agencies. They are incapable of meeting statutory deadlines," Cummings said. "It's almost like training a pet -- they only respond when sued."

But their strategy, intended to force the government to increase funding for conservation, has mired the Fish and Wildlife Service in a backlog of work, the agency says.

As the agency meets one deadline, it often faces another round of new ones as a result.

Take the case of the coastal California gnatcatcher. As a result of a lawsuit, the service set aside 513,000 acres of critical habitat for the threatened bird last October.

But after the habitat was set aside -- including stretches of the San Gabriel Mountains, Montebello, the Chino-Puente Hills area and Frank G. Bonelli Regional County Park in San Dimas -- the decision was met with three more lawsuits, two from developers and one from an environmental group.

Up in the Angeles National Forest, the Forest Service is already monitoring the Santa Ana sucker and the mountain yellow-legged frog because they live in the upper reaches of the San Gabriel River.

They stepped up their efforts after the Center for Biological Diversity sued the Forest Service in 1998, forcing it to work closely with the Fish and Wildlife Service to chart a path for conservation.

As a result of the settlement, the Angeles National Forest is being surveyed to keep tabs on any threatened or endangered species.

The Angeles National Forest contains critical habitats for two species, the arroyo toad and the California red-legged frog. Sections of their habitats overlap in San Francisquito Creek in the Santa Clarita Valley and Big Tujunga Canyon.

Out of the remaining 14 endangered or threatened species the Angeles National Forest monitors, only a handful have been documented.

But the new focus on imperiled species puts other projects on the back burner, like installing catchments called guzzlers for wildlife to drink from, said Bill Brown, head biologist for the Angeles National Forest.

"Overall, it's probably a plus," Brown said. "It creates a lot of work but brings the issue of endangered species kind of to the forefront. Our budgets tend to increase to deal in settlement agreements as part of lawsuits."

-- Lisa Faught can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4496, or by e-mail at lisa.faught@sgvn.com.