HELPING HAND FOR FLOW, FLORA; BIOLOGISTS TO BALANCE ECOLOGY, FLOOD MITIGATION.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer

The federal government will pay biologists to help with the selective clearing of Santa Clarita's river channels in hopes of blocking further bulldozing of sensitive habitats in the name of flood control.

The Environmental Protection Agency has granted $22,000 to the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority to hire six to eight biologists. That team will work with Los Angeles County Department of Public Works crews that are rushing to clear the region's waterways before the rainy season begins in earnest.

``Instead of just having willy-nilly clear-cutting, biological consultants will guide the crews to say, `Don't cut this, it's OK to take this out.' '' said conservation authority spokeswoman Rorie Skei.

The plan is a relief to environmentalists who have rallied to save wetlands and other natural vegetation in areas of the Santa Clara River and its largest tributary, the South Fork River, as the county prepared to clear the channels for uninterrupted water flow.

``If a biologist or a botanist can help county crews improve storm flow and also improve the habitats, that's a good thing,'' Skei said.

Ecological concerns were overshadowed in recent months as the county scurried to obtain the necessary federal and state permits to clear the rivers before a winter that promises heavy rainfall.

Fear of flooding in neighborhoods around overgrown riverbeds followed threats that an El Nino condition, a warming of ocean water off South American, could generate storms that will dump double the normal rainfall this winter.

The Army Corps of Engineers' demand that any damaged wetland habitats be replaced caused months of delays in the clearing process.

Public Works spokeswoman Jean Granucci said the county has begun the work, clear-cutting some stretches of riverbed in Los Angeles County, including part of the South Fork. But efforts, she said, are being made to save the sensitive habitats that have been established in the normally dry rivers.

``We are making every effort to remove the flood hazard, but maintain as much as we can to preserve the sensitive areas,'' Granucci said. ``If somebody wants to help fund the project, that's great.''

Cynthia D'Agosta, chief of the mountains conservancy's river division, said the federal grant will allow the state to assess the county's efforts and to help plan future river maintenance.

``The overriding concern is that clear-cutting on an emergency basis will become normal practice for the county and we would like that not to happen,'' D'Agosta said.

Selective clearing of nonnative plants and thinning of native vegetation is no more expensive that bulldozing channels because it does not involve the high costs of operating heavy machinery.

Ronn Botoroff of the Friends of the Santa Clara River said he was relieved that work crews would approach the river clearing in a more discriminatory manner.

His organization had rallied to save the plant life in the river, calling for limits on development near natural waterways so flood waters could flow uninterrupted around natural habitats.

``I'm very glad they're doing a selective thinning rather than a whole bulldozer operation that would wipe out everyone good and bad,'' Botoroff said. ``It seems to me they should do this all the time and not wait till it's an emergency. It needs to be routine because you can have a 100-year storm any time.