Highland is Seeking Threatened Rat’s Land for Proposed Project

By Joe Nelson, San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.

Jul. 12–HIGHLAND — Development of an area on Greenspot Road into a thriving business hub might be threatened by the endangered kangaroo rat.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated as critical habitat for the kangaroo rat a portion of flood-control channel near Greenspot Road and Highway 30. The area is near where Redlands-based Mission Development Company has proposed to build a movie theater, shopping center and about 800 residential units as part of the city’s Golden Triangle gateway project, which would give citizens of Highland a place to shop and eat without going to Redlands or San Bernardino.

The City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to have Mayor Ross Jones send a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requesting removal of the area from the critical-habitat designation.

“It’s important to us because we don’t know to what degree it might affect the commercial development of the area,” said John Jaquess, Highland’s community development director. “It could certainly have potentially negative consequences if the designation weren’t changed.”

Glenn Elssmann, founding partner of Mission Development Company, was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

On June 19, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a revised proposal for its critical-

habitat designation for the kangaroo rat that would eliminate, at a minimum, more than 24,000 acres of 33,295 total acres in San Bernardino and Riverside counties originally designated in 2002.

The change was in response to a lawsuit by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a property-rights group, which argued the designation was too broad. The 2002 designation was also in response to a lawsuit — by the Center for Biological Diversity and Christians Caring for Creation, who alleged a lack of critical-habitat designation for the endangered rat, said Jane Hendron, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The 60-day public-comment period on the new critical-habitat proposal closes Aug. 20. All comments and concerns, including those of the city of Highland, will be reviewed and weighed, Hendron said.

But it will not be the only time the public can comment on the proposed change in critical-habitat designation area. Another public-comment period will open after completion of a draft economic analysis giving an estimated range of costs associated with changing the boundaries, Hendron said.

“We look forward to receiving the city of Highland’s comments on this proposal,” Hendron said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has until June 1 to submit its critical-habitat designation proposal to the Federal Register.

Until then, the 2002 designation remains in effect.

Ileene Anderson, a biologist for the Center of Biological Diversity in Los Angeles, criticized the Fish and Wildlife Service’s revised critical-habitat designation, calling it “preposterous.”

The kangaroo rat stores seeds from annual and perennial plants in caches, spreading the seeds. The rat plays an integral role in the cycle of life in the open space of the Santa Ana River wash, Anderson said.

“Basically, they’re the gardeners of the wash,” she said, adding that hawks, golden eagles, snakes and other animals feed on the rats.

“Having this habitat no longer protected is going to move the animal closer to the brink of extinction,” she said. “By the city of Highland requesting that even more (habitat) be taken away is going to be another nail in the animal’s coffin as a species,” Anderson said.

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