NEWHALL RANCH WILDLIFE POSES PUZZLE.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS

Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- How best to protect the rare and endangered species on the Mission Village project -- it's a puzzle that has biologists looking at keeping ants away from lizards and cows away from the river.

The planned 5,300-home Mission Village phase of Newhall Ranch is set to be almost four times bigger than the planned first phase, Landmark Village. Newhall Ranch is a huge development planned west of Santa Clarita next to the Santa Clara River.

Unarmored three-spine stickleback fish, San Fernando Valley spineflowers, Southwest arroyo toads, Western spadefoot toads, horned lizards and many other species already call the project site home. Many have protected status.

Humans who eventually move to Mission Village will bring with them destructive ants and pets, homeless encampments and, of course, houses, roads and shopping centers.

"We're down to the last open spaces left in L.A. County, and therefore they're going to have the concentration of rare things," said Mickey Long, a member of an environmental committee advising the developer, The Newhall Land and Farming Co., on the project.

"More things are considered rare now each year as we run out of habitat, so the list is pretty big for this project," he said.

Newhall Land is due before the county's Significant Ecological Areas Technological Advisory Committee, or SEATAC, in the summer. Long serves on that panel.

Construction of the 1,400-home Landmark Village project could start in 2009. Mission Village construction could start a year or two later, on 1,250 acres.

"It's a bigger area; it also includes some of the spineflower preserve areas, which is obviously an area of focus that we're working on," said Marlee Lauffer, spokeswoman for Newhall Land.

SEATAC already reviewed the project in January. Long said the list of recommendations issued is among the longest in the six years he has been on SEATAC.

The panel asked Newhall Land to redesign development around the Castaic Spring complex, where a bridge is planned, on the edge of the Santa Clara river floodplain.

The area has species of sunflower and spring snail that have yet to be categorized, according to SEATAC. Downstream are the endangered stickleback.

Argentine ants, which follow humans for their food, could take another food source away from horned lizards, a rare species, Long said. That's because small Argentine ants often displace the lizards' food source of red ants, especially if there is moisture-providing irrigation in the buffer zones around homes. The lizards don't eat the puny Argentine ants.

Of particular concern to environmentalists is the spineflower, which is found only on the Newhall Ranch site and in Ahmanson Ranch, on the border between Los Angeles and Ventura counties, Long said.

A spineflower preserve surrounded by houses is planned as part of the Mission Village project. The California Department of Fish and Game is considering a larger and more regionally-connected preserve in the area, which SEATAC supports, while criticizing the current preserve plan.

"(It) can look good on day one, but may not be long-term, and it's got to last forever," Long said.

Long said he was glad his recommendation to keep grazing cattle out of the Santa Clara River bed was accepted. Grazing cattle in the area could control weeds, but Long said they would foul the water and disturb an important ecosystem.

The Santa Clara River is considered the last wild river in Los Angeles County.

"It hasn't been dammed, (and) it ... provides a habitat for a high amount of biological diversity," said SEATAC member Scott Harris, who works for the U.S. Department of Fish and Game.

At their January meeting, SEATAC members also expressed concern about how the project might harm larger animals, everything from bears to mountain lions, that might visit the area.

SEATAC's recommendations are not binding on the developer. Newhall Land will bring Mission Village before the county Regional Planning Commission in the fall.

Long, who works as a natural areas administrator at the Eaton Canyon Natural Area in Pasadena, said he's unsure whether many of the plant and animal species on the Mission Village project site can be protected.

"I think the jury's still out."

[e-mail]

[phone]