`THREATENED' SQUIRREL WINS ROUND 2 : APPEALS RULING COULD PUT CRIMP IN HIGH DESERT DEVELOPMENT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

An appeals court says a state commission erred in removing the Mohave ground squirrel's designation as a ``threatened'' species, a ruling with implications for Antelope Valley land use and the future of the state's Endangered Species Act.

An environmental impact report should have been prepared before the state Fish and Game Commission voted in May 1993 to remove the shy, 3-ounce animal from the state's list of threatened species, the First Appellate District of the state Court of Appeal ruled.

``The little squirrel and I are dancing with happiness,'' said Joe Brecher, an attorney for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. ``It means it will be much harder to de-list a species - as it should be. They only have one chance.''

The decision angered opponents of the squirrel's threatened status, who said it creates a double standard in which it would be harder to remove a species from the list than it is to get it listed.

``I want to appeal this decision to the state Supreme Court,'' said Kern County Supervisor Roy Ashburn, who led the effort to eliminate the squirrel's extra protection. ``If an EIR is required to de-list, then an EIR should have been required to list each of the 300 species on the list.''

Described by biologists as a shy, cinnamon-colored creature, the Mohave ground squirrel is only active above ground from about mid-March to June.

Ranging eastward from Palmdale and Lancaster through the Antelope Valley and the desert areas of Kern, Inyo and San Bernardino counties, the squirrel's numbers have dropped because of development and drought, state biologists said.

Originally listed as a ``rare'' species in 1971, the commission put the squirrel on the threatened species list in 1985. Threatened species are those not facing extinction, but could become extinct without government protection.

The appellate ruling upheld a June 1994 decision by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Thomas Mellon Jr. that the squirrel could not be delisted without an environmental impact report.

In a separate ruling, the court rejected an appeal by environmental and conservation groups contesting a finding by Mellon that - although an environmental impact report is necessary - the decision to de-list was ``supported by substantial evidence.''

Ashburn said that decision shows the animal should never have been listed as threatened in the first place.

Environmentalists say the commission acted on a faulty report prepared by a consultant for Kern County.

``It was so weird for them to say that,'' Brecher said of the appellate court's ruling. ``That report is a bunch of hogwash.''

The Fish and Game Commission's vote to de-list the squirrel was the first such action in the history of the state's Endangered Species Act.

The petition to de-list was made by Kern County officials, who say provisions protecting the squirrel have virtually stopped development in the eastern portion of the county.

Provisions protecting the squirrel include requiring builders to provide three acres of habitat for every acre developed.