Environmental groups hail deal for California nature reserve

Conservation groups and a developer in southern California have reached a deal to preserve a huge area of wilderness that provides a crucial home to condors and is rich with bears, elks, wild turkeys and eagles. Environmental bodies hailed the deal as a major victory, probably the last of its size and importance in California, which brings to an end years of legal jostling between the groups and the Tejon Ranch Company, the largest private landowner in the state. Under the deal, an area of 240,000 acres will be bought partly with state conservation money and set aside as a natural wilderness. The payback is that a tenth of the current territory covered by the ranch - about 30,000 acres in the western and south-western fringes - will be opened up to development. The environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, have agreed to withdraw all objections. The Tejon Ranch Co plans to build three new towns, with more than 26,000 homes as well as hotels, condominiums and golf courses. At 375 square miles, the preserve of desert, woodlands and grasslands is eight times the size of San Francisco and nearly the size of Los Angeles, said Bill Corcoran, the Sierra Club's senior regional representative. The deal is significant for several reasons. The habitat is unique -- the only place where the Sierra Nevada, coastal range, Mojave desert and Central Valley meet. It is an area of great diversity, from desert to oak forests, fields of wild flowers and coastal zones. "For southern California, this is the ecological equivalent of the Louisiana Purchase," Corcoran told the Los Angeles Times. "It is the only place in the region where within a few minutes a visitor can ascend from Joshua tree woodlands to oak-filled canyons, on up to vast plains with views across the coastal range." Several unique species of wildflower flourish there, including the Fort Tejon woolly sunflower and the Tejon poppy. Other rare and endangered species include the Tehachapi pocket mouse and the western burrowing owl. The area is particularly sensitive because it provides a habitat for the California condor, a black vulture that became so endangered in the late 1980s that it numbered just 22 birds, all in captivity. Since 1991 it has been released back into the wild and now numbers almost 300. The newly protected wilderness will also help to curb Los Angeles' growing sprawl. The ranch is 60 miles north of the city. The deal is being hailed as an example of conservationists and developers working together. California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, said it showed that the state's economy could be pumped up at the same time as its environment was protected. An independent conservancy will be set up to manage the land and the developer has agreed to donate some money for its upkeep, Corcoran said. The agreement also seeks to establish a large state park that will be open to the public.