CONDOR PLAN RUFFLES FEATHERS IN UTAH.

Byline: Jim Woolf Salt Lake Tribune

Nine California condors - among the world's largest and rarest birds - are being readied for release between late March and mid-April atop the 1,000-foot-high Vermilion Cliffs in a remote area of northern Arizona.

Unless federal officials change their plans after a final round of public hearings this week, biologists say these huge black vultures with 9-foot wingspans soon may be seen soaring over the canyon country of southern Utah in their wide-ranging search for the carcasses of deer and cattle on which to feed.

The nine are offspring from condors held in three breeding facilities in California and Idaho. There are only 103 condors left - 90 in captivity and 13 flying free in the mountains north of Los Angeles. An Arizona release would create a second wild population of condors and move the birds another step back from the brink of extinction.

The 9- to 10-month-old condors selected for release already have been placed together in a large cage at the Los Angeles Zoo to improve their flying skills and form social bonds.

"They are fairly gregarious birds that don't have a lot of problems adjusting," said Jane Hendron, spokeswoman for the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Ventura, Calif. Biologists in her office direct the national condor-reintroduction program.

The nine are being trained to avoid humans and power poles - two of the biggest threats to condors in the wild, said Hendron.

Fear of humans is taught by having the handlers rush the cage and capture the terrified birds. They soon associate people with an unpleasant experience. A power pole in their flight cage is wired to give the birds a mild electrical shock each time they land on it. They quickly learn to use perches where there is no risk of electrocution.

Although preparations for the release are well under way, final approval will not be granted until after the public has one more chance to comment.

There was a public hearing Tuesday night in Flagstaff, Ariz., and the final hearing will be Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Kanab High School auditorium, near the Arizona border

"It doesn't set good with a lot of the residents in this area," said Kane County Commissioner Stephen Roe Crosby, who expects a large and vocal crowd of condor opponents at the Kanab hearing.

He blamed the decline of the logging industry in southern Utah and northern Arizona on federal rules protecting the Mexican spotted owl and northern goshawk, and does not want another rare bird adding to the problems.

Despite opposition, he expects federal biologists to proceed with the condor release.

Crosby said some environmentalists are pushing the Arizona condor release as a way to "interfere" with the proposed Smoky Hollow coal mine at the base of the Kaiparowits Plateau near Lake Powell.

But Ken Rait, issues coordinator for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and one of the most outspoken opponents of the coal mine, said that is not the case.

"The attempt to reintroduce the condor is simply an effort to restore native wildlife back into its natural habitat," he said. "To claim that this is part of an evil plot by environmentalists is extreme paranoia."

The Arizona condors will be designated as an "experimental, nonessential" population of the birds. Under federal rules, that means these particular animals will receive substantially less legal protection than other endangered species and are unlikely to pose a threat to mines, ranches and other large projects on the Colorado Plateau.