A spokesman for the Center for Biologic Diversity said dropping the areas of the Santa Clara River and San Francisquito Creek - the latter targeted by Newhall for a 2,500 residential project - is a “unscientifically justified exclusion” that arbitrarily deletes the creek but retains the upstream area within the Angeles National Forest. Newhall Land & Farming has maintained that the frog is not present in either area.On the land declared a habitat for the frog, the federal action makes it more difficult for property owners to build as a landowner seeking federal permits first must prove that a project would not harm the species or its habitat. Activities that can restricted, even banned, include not only construction projects but water transfer or diversions.In February, the Santa Clara River Valley habitat designation for the Arroyo Southwest Toad was deleted after court action, including participation by Newhall Land & Farming Co. to leave the river valley off the list of habitats.In the 1865 Mark Twain short story, “Dan’l Webster” is the name of the frog who could “get over more ground in one straddle than any animal of his breed you ever see. . .” Ironically, the new designated habitat for the frog - considered a delicacy in the early 1900s - also does not include Calaveras County.
Newhall Land Co. again hops over SCRV habitat designation
March 28, 2001
Santa Paula News
First it was the Arroyo Southwest Toad, now it’s the California Red-Legged Frog that was left off a list of endangered habitats, leaving the Santa Clara River Valley out as a protected area for the frog.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesFirst it was the Arroyo Southwest Toad, now it’s the California Red-Legged Frog that was left off a list of endangered habitats, leaving the Santa Clara River Valley out as a protected area for the frog.The ouster of the California Red-Legged Frog, made famous as “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by American writer Mark Twain, is another in for the Newhall Land & Farming Co., which is pushing for the massive development of 22,000 houses in the east end of the Santa Clara River Valley.The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, in response to a court order, designated a habitat for the frog that includes areas in 28 counties. The original proposal for the 5.4 million acre habitat was whittled down to 4.1 million acres in a move that excluded the Santa Clara River Valley but did retain about 105,000 acres within the Angeles National Forest. Also absent from the maps of land designated as critical habitat for the frog were the San Francisquito Creek drainage area in northern Valencia.
