WILDLIFE SHIELDS PROPOSED PROTECTED AREAS MAY EXPAND.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Isolated in the mountains that divide Saugus from Canyon Country are seasonal pools teeming with tiny rare aquatic wildlife - basins targeted for preservation as new development moves closer and closer.

The little-known Cruzan Mesa vernal pools are the only locations in Los Angeles County where the endangered Riverside fairy shrimp are known to flourish, according to a new study commissioned by the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning.

Until the study came out, even local environmental advocates were unaware of the these particular pools. Now, however, they want them protected.

``If they really are ancient, some of them can be miraculous,'' said Allan Cameron, a founder of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment and a consultant to developers.

According to the study, the surface water in these three or four pools is home to two plants on the federal endangered species list; the rare western spadefoot toad; and, possibly, the threatened California gnatcatcher, a small songbird that has held up development along the state's coastline.

And migratory birds feed on the rich supply of bugs, amphibians and water life that thrive over 958 acres of marshland - in the small pools that come and go with the weather and in the surrounding brush so characteristic of Southern California's arid mountains.

The Cruzan Mesa pools, fenced high in the mountains between Bouquet and Mint canyons and accessible only by four-wheel drive, are among two regions recommended by consultants who specialize in environmental issues for designation as protected significant ecological areas.

As the county undergoes the massive task of updating its General Plan - its land-use blueprint - the regional planning department has begun a study to expand its collection of SEAs, regions where development won't necessarily be banned, but where any construction would be mindful of the sensitive environment.

The protected area study will be the subject of public hearings and discussion over the next two years, said Julie Striplin, a regional planning assistant.

``We'll find how the public views these and really try to develop a consensus as to what types of regulatory thresh holds will be developed for these new SEA (significant ecological area) boundaries,'' Striplin said.

Though privately owned, the Cruzan Mesa area is in rough terrain that likely can be protected, though a bordering hillside has been graded for development in Plum Canyon.

The second SEA expansion proposed for Santa Clarita is a different story.

The proposed Santa Clara River SEA covers a sprawling network of watershed area from mostly untouched canyons south of the city. This open space drains into the Santa Clara River, the normally dry waterway that bisects one of the fastest growing cities in the West.

The SEA update study recommends severely limiting development in floodplains feeding the river and protecting the river's banks.

Santa Clarita's environmentalists enthusiastically, yet cautiously, laud the new study.

``I think it's great,'' Cameron said. ``What an SEA is and what it should be is a work in progress. You can built in an SEA, you just can't bulldoze ecological treasures into oblivion.''

Environmentalists have warred with the county in trying to protect Santa Clarita's existing SEAs, and have lost.

The Sunshine Canyon Landfill was built in a SEA, Cameron said, calling such policy the ultimate destruction of land. The county also has allowed roads and housing in SEAs, striking compromises with developers to save the ecology and not always satisfying SCOPE, the Sierra Club and other advocates of the environment.

``What's happened in Santa Clarita Valley is scandalous,'' Cameron said. ``Of all the land uses, I don't think there is one more damaging to an ecosystem as burying it under hundreds of tons of trash.''

Nevertheless, the designation is a tool to be used in protecting precious resources, he said.

``Something is better than nothing,'' he said.

It was the canyons - Whitney, Placerita, Elsmere and Bear - southeast of the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway that the city of Santa Clarita had urged the county to include include as significant, city Planning Manager Vince Bertoni said. Those canyons provide a crucial pathway for wildlife roaming from the Santa Susana Mountains west of Santa Clarita to the San Gabriels, according to the consultants' study.

``It's consistent with what our concerns are, keeping edges of valley more rural, preserving the habitat,'' Bertoni said. ``These pristine habitats, the city wants to preserve these.''

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Map: PROPOSED BOUNDARIES

A Los Angeles County consultant has recommended the county more than double its designation of ``significant ecological areas'' to more than 440,000 acres, including the Santa Monica Mountains, the Santa Clara River and the Little Rock and Big Rock Creek washes of Antelope Valley.