$1 BILLION PRICE TAG OF SAVING RARE TOAD.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Protecting the endangered arroyo toad in California could cost $1 billion over the next 10 years, the federal government says.

The price tag includes purchasing land for toad habitat, delays in getting development projects through environmental regulations, and altering construction projects to minimize harm to toads, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service analysis says.

About $937 million of the cost would fall on the real estate industry.

``Some of the estimated costs already are occurring due to the listing of the arroyo toad and protective measures in place as a result of the listing,'' the Fish and Wildlife Service said. ``These costs include lands set aside for toad conservation to compensate for loss of toad habitat, and measures needed to protect the toad while construction is ongoing.''

The gravel-colored arroyo toad - bufo microscaphus californicus - lives in rivers with shallow, gravelly pools adjacent to sandy terraces. The adult toads burrow into the sand during the day and emerge at night to eat insects.

Once found in streams from San Luis Obispo County to Baja California, the arroyo toad has been driven from an estimated 75 percent of its former range by human activity, federal officials say. Those include dams, farming and urbanization, and the introduction of non-native predators like rainbow trout and bullfrogs. The toad was declared in danger of extinction in 1994.

The latest cost study acknowledges a number of caveats with the estimates. For example, the analysis does not take into account land preserved for other reasons not related to the toad, nor does it take into account measures developers have to take for other land management reasons.

One conservation group's representative was skeptical that protecting the toad would cost as much as the federal government says.

``Their economic analyses have been uniformly deficient,'' said Joel Reynolds, an attorney for the National Resources Defense Council. ``They come up with astounding numbers in the cost of designation. They do not calculate the benefits of designation. What you get is a skewed view of the economic impact.''

Representatives of the building industry, which has argued previous economic studies have underestimated the costs, said they had not yet reviewed the latest study and could not comment.

The analysis is coming out at a time when the Fish and Wildlife Service is taking comments on a revised plan for the designation of critical habitat for the arroyo toad.

After originally proposing nearly 500,000 acres for critical habitat, the Fish and Wildlife Service has reduced the latest proposal to 95,655 acres, from Santa Barbara County to San Diego County. More than half of the acreage is in private hands.

Among the areas removed from consideration for designation include San Francisquito Creek above Newhall Ranch Road Bridge. That area was determined to be drier and not suitable for tadpole development than as first thought.

Also excluded were private lands covered by conservation agreements in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties and the Army's Fort Hunter Liggett in Monterey County, excluded under national security provisions of the Endangered Species Act.

Because of the toad's endangered status, 3,000 acres along Little Rock Creek in the Angeles National Forest have been closed to off-roaders, fishermen and campers since 1999.

The U.S. Forest Service plans to study whether some of that acreage could be reopened without harming the toads.

That study has been delayed because Forest Service officials are busy contending with winter storm damage, but it could occur this year, said district ranger Cid Morgan.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color in AV edition only -- ran in AV and Simi editions only) The tiny arroyo toad has been driven from an estimated 75 percent of its former habitat by human activity, officials say.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer