Endangered Toad Found on Newhall Project Site

Development: The company had originally said the amphibian didn't exist on the land. 
Discovery prompts review of permit by federal officials.

By ANNETTE KONDO, Times Staff Writer

An endangered toad has been found near the Santa Clara River where a developer with plans for 4,300 homes said it has never been seen before.
     
As a result, the Army Corps of Engineers will review a permit it had issued to the Newhall Land & Farming Co. for erosion control construction in about 10 miles of river channel, officials said Monday.
     
The permit is critical to two Newhall Land residential projects along the Santa Clara River and its tributary, San Francisquito Creek. Ground has not been broken on either the 1,800-home North Valencia II or the 2,500-home Westcreek projects.
     
Newhall Land, which owns the land, had argued successfully earlier this year that the areas should be excluded from lands declared to be habitat of the arroyo toad.
     
The small, light greenish-gray or buff-colored toad is found in streams and river basins from San Luis Obispo south to Baja California. The toad is an endangered species, and development on land considered its habitat requires extra reviews and safeguards.
     
A Newhall Land spokeswoman said the company has not seen evidence of the toads, or any documentation of the toad discovery from U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials.
     
The company's environmental studies and wildlife surveys have never found the arroyo toad in the area, said Marlee Lauffer. The company prohibits off-road vehicles in its river areas, though not all areas are fenced off.
     
The exclusion of the river areas for the federal endangered species habitat was a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife after that agency did its own field inspection, Lauffer said.
     
But Nancy Sandburg, a biologist hired by the environmental group Friends of the Santa Clara River, said she found the first toad April 18 and three more last week.
     
"The toads are buried in the sand where the off-road vehicles go," Sandburg said. "[The vehicles] are running amok on top of them. There are tracks everywhere."
     
Sandburg said she was alarmed by the sight of off-road vehicles and motorbikes in the riverbed, which would be an ideal amphibian breeding area.
     
The Corps of Engineers permit allows Newhall Land to reinforce about 10 miles of riverbank for erosion control. That permit relied on a finding by Newhall Land that no toads were present, said Bruce Henderson, an ecologist with the corps.
     
Before Sandburg's discovery of the toad, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials agreed to exclude from the habitat area thousands of acres owned by Newhall Land, based on the developer's assurances that the toad had not been found on the property. In addition, Newhall Land prepared a river management plan for habitat protection that satisfied federal officials, said Rick Farris, a senior biologist for the agency.
     
But the discovery of the toads heightens concerns about habitat protection, Farris said. The agency now knows "they are there," he said, and their presence "takes precedence over everything else."
     
Farris said Fish and Wildlife and Corps of Engineers officials will hold a meeting at the river to discuss the discovery and Newhall Land's permit to alter the riverbed.
     
The Fish and Wildlife Service had originally proposed 478,000 acres for the federal habitat, but it reduced the final area to 182,360 acres that hopscotch from Monterey County to San Diego County.
     
Such habitat designation makes it more difficult for builders to get permission for developments.
     
In the rapidly developing Santa Clarita Valley in northern Los Angeles County, more than 17,000 acres were removed from that original habitat proposal, including the upper Santa Clara River and lower portions of San Francisquito Creek.
     
On Monday, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Friends of the Santa Clara River filed a lawsuit against Newhall Land and the Corps of Engineers demanding that the riverbed alteration permit be revoked and that a supplemental environmental study be conducted.