SUIT FILED TO HALT CONDOR RELEASE.

Byline: Marni McEntee Daily News Staff Writer

The planned release of California condors near the Grand Canyon hit another stumbling block after a Utah county filed a complaint to delay the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from freeing nine birds this summer.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court, San Juan County - a sparsely populated area in southeast Utah - claimed that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to properly hear residents' concerns about the release, including members of the Navajo tribe.

In addition, the complaint, filed in Salt Lake City, contends that the agency did not comply with environmental requirements and hasn't proved that the vultures are indigenous to the region.

``They've designated the bottom third of the state of Utah as habitat without real discussion,'' said San Juan County planner Ed Scherick.

``Now we're up against the deadline. They want to turn these birds out in the next month or so. They want us to get on board with them and be happy campers and that's just not going to happen,'' he said.

The complaint was filed May 6 but wasn't received by Fish and Wildlife officials in California until this week.

It was the latest salvo by Utah residents protesting the release of the birds at the 1,000-foot-high Vermilion Cliffs, 50 miles north of the Grand Canyon.

Scherick said that prior efforts to protect endangered species in the state have left people distrustful of the federal government.

Residents near the release site in Kane County have blamed the decline of the timber industry in southern Utah and northern Arizona on federal rules protecting the Mexican spotted owl and the northern goshawk.

Scherick said the government doesn't discuss its plans with the people enough.

``This is the next issue out of the box and they refuse to do that,'' Scherick said.

Agency spokesman David Klinger said condor team leaders held two public hearings, one in Flagstaff, Ariz., and another in Kanab, Utah, along with several meetings with residents in both states.

Written comments also were accepted for two months after the release plan was published in the Federal Register in January.

He declined to comment on the contention that the agency should have done a full environmental impact report.

Due to earlier concerns by a coalition of businesses in Kane County, mostly air tour operators worried about the birds' hampering their flights, Fish and Wildlife officials pushed the release date back from early March.

Biologists are hoping to transport nine California condors from the Los Angeles Zoo to the Arizona release sight early this month, said Michael Wallace, a zoo curator and head of the Condor Recovery Team.

After several weeks in large cages on the cliffs, the birds would be released sometime in July, Wallace said.

Klinger said the agency will decide within the next couple of weeks whether to continue plans for release.

``We're getting to the point where we have concerns about whether the project would be feasible in the middle of summer. We're mindful of temperature and climatic effect, as well as the age of the birds,'' Klinger said.

Almost two dozen of the huge vultures have been released in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties in California since 1992.

The Arizona release would be the next step in a long-term plan by federal wildlife officials to establish two separate, wild condor populations, each with 150 birds and 15 breeding pairs.

For the Arizona release, the endangered birds would remain in the so-called experimental, non-essential, category, meant to ensure that local land uses can stay the same.