The Enviro Spectator / A Bird in the Brush
Rohrabacher, Dana
A Bird in the Brush by Dana Rohrabacher Victims are looking for those responsible for the more than 200,000 acres and 1,145 homes turned to ashes by the fire in Southern California in October 1993....
...The reservoir project had initially been approved by the council in 1990...
...Local officials were excited at the chance to capture some of the water behind the Prado Dam, which blocks the Santa Ana River as it enters Orange County...
...Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW) made its position clear: "The firebreak would harm the K-Rat, and thus is 'not authorized' by the Endangered Species Act...
...Why the shortage of water...
...The company had responsibly cleared brush on its land in previous years...
...But for three years, the USFW and a dozen nests of the endangered gnatcatcher kept the department from the brush-clearing plan...
...Laws protecting coastal habitats for the gnatcatcher, the cactus wren, the K-rat, and other species have repeatedly thwarted controlled burns in California...
...scooped water with a dog dish in a desperate attempt to save a burning home...
...At the height of California's drought, there had been a scattering of much-needed rainfall...
...El 86 The American Spectator March 1994...
...Dana Rohrabacher represents Orange County, California's 45th congressional district...
...Unfortunately, when Village Laguna, a no-growth group, elected three members to the council, the plan was delayed...
...One team, faced with empty hydrants, Rep...
...It wasn't an arsonist or Mother Nature...
...In other words: Clear the brush, go to jail...
...In 1993, the answer from USFW was "No way...
...The Irvine Company, a Laguna landowner, was denied a permit to clear dry vegetation on its undeveloped land, which in drought conditions is a tinderbox...
...Nothing was good enough for Village Laguna...
...In 1992 and 1993 there were only half the normal number of these preventive burns...
...Because the Laguna Beach City Council had long ignored pleas from city fire officials for the construction of a 3-million-gallon reservoir, which would have fed depleted hydrants for two to three more hours...
...Never mind that the birds winter in Baja California and wouldn't return to the Prado basin for more than a month...
...The local air quality management board (AQMD) has also blocked burns, claiming they add to air pollution...
...Even after the devastation, Village Laguna still opposes construction of the hilltop reservoir...
...After more than three years and two dozen public meetings, the council again shelved the proposed reservoir last July 24...
...One can understand why local residents might oppose the construction of an unsightly tower, but the Laguna Beach project was to be an underground storage facility on a faraway ridgetop...
...But Rowe and his neighbors live in a "study area" for the Stephens Kangaroo Rat, a rodent protected by the Endangered Species Act...
...There was just one problem: Some least-bells vireos, which are on the endangered species list, had nested behind the dam, and flooding the birds' habitat, however briefly, would be considered a "take" under the Endangered Species Act...
...W by weren't Laguna's hills and canyons cleared of the brush that fueled the fire...
...Laguna Beach City Council members are threatening to sue the local water agency, which was given the green light to build the reservoir by a federal judge on October 22, just days before the tragic fire...
...On October 27, a wildfire roared through Riverside County...
...Rowe, in a quick decision to break the law, hopped on his tractor and cleared a firebreak...
...Luckily, the voting booths didn't burn down...
...The U.S...
...As the smoke cleared, burned-out homeowners and weary firefighters were pointing to a surprising culprit: environmental extremists...
...Last October, firefighters made heroic efforts to save homes in Laguna, eventually running out of water but never giving up...
...Even in the face of pleas from Fire Chief Rich Drewbury, who described the city's water supply as "marginal because of potential fire flow," even as the city's water storage facilities fell dangerously short of the recommended reserve capacity, opposition continued...
...In the midst of an economy-killing drought, billions of gallons of water were permitted to flow to the ocean to protect a bird that wasn't even there...
...His house now stands alone, surrounded by the charred remains of his neighbors' property...
...In Riverside County, according to the Wall Street Journal, Michael Rowe and his hilltop neighbors were caught in an environmental pickle...
...On October 27, Laguna burned...
...And U.S...
...The Orange County Fire Department had planned a controlled burn to remove Laguna Canyon's dense and highly combustible chaparral...
...In a letter to Rowe, the USFW warned "that the Act provides for both criminal and civil penalties...
...The federally protected rats, presumably, fared worse...
...The Riverside County Fire Department had ordered them to "abate the flammable vegetation" on their property, something they were eager to do...
...Orange County's fire chief complains that burns that once required six months of planning now require two years...
...R owe's story pales in comparison to the debacle in Laguna Beach...
...Fish and Wildlife continues to oppose the Irvine Company, which still wants to clear brush on the part of its land not yet charred by fire...
Vol. 27 • March 1994 • No. 3
