EHL appeared in the news media with quotes on the Foothill toll road, litigation in San Luis Obispo, a legal settlement in Orange County, and on the role of climate change in habitat plans.
On December 18, 2008 newspapers extensively covered the decision by the Dept. of Commerce to uphold the Coastal Commission decision against the toll road. The
North County Times (“Feds reject toll road appeal") quoted EHL: "The Commerce decision was very well-reasoned and detailed," said Dan Silver, executive director of the Endangered Habitats League, a member of the coalition. “The TCA would have a very high bar if they were to try to overturn this."
The
Orange County Register (“Feds uphold state decision: toll road near Trestles appears dead”) reported on calls for transportation alternatives: Another opponent, Dan Silver of the Endangered Habitats League, said he, too, feels it is time to move on. “I think it’s time for everyone to put this route through the park behind them, and focus upon constructive solutions that will address the transportation issues,” he said.
In the
Los Angeles Times (“O.C. traffic planners left wondering where to turn”), Silver discussed the opportunity to widen Interstate 5, as is already being planned. "At some point, the elected officials need to read the writing on the wall and shift gears into doing something constructive," said Dan Silver, executive director of the Endangered Habitats League, part of the Save San Onofre Coalition that fought the road.
The litigation by EHL and North County Watch against Central Coast rural sprawl was covered by the
San Luis Obispo Tribune (“Santa Margarita Ranch lawsuit calls project OK a ‘betrayal’,” January 27, 2009): The Board of Supervisors’ Dec. 23 approval of the ranch project was “a betrayal of the public trust and an abuse of discretion,” according to Michael Fitts of the Endangered Habitats League, a Los Angeles nonprofit organization . . . “It is anything but agricultural,” Fitts said. He characterized the people who likely will occupy the high-end houses that would be built as “urban professionals who will be commuting” and “accountants who want to pretend they’re farmers.” Harvey and Fitts denied that they want the project stopped altogether. “We’re all about trying to negotiate,” Fitts said.
The
Orange County Register provided in-depth reporting on the settlement with the City of Rancho Santa Margarita over Chiquita Ridge (“Chiquita Ridge land dispute settled,” January 28, 2009): Dan Silver, executive director of the Endangered Habitats League, is excited about the settlement's outcome and calls the 15-acre gift parcel "the hole in the donut that is a beautiful garden of sage scrub and flowers . . . We sat with the city and understood their needs and they understood what our needs were," Silver said. "We put aside the legal dispute and we put aside who's right and who's wrong. Everyone came out ahead." Silver added that for every developable acre there are two acres that will be actively restored from non-native grasses to sage scrub. "The county has certainty over its regional park system," he said. "It will be enhanced due to this restoration.”
The August 2008 issue of
California Planning and Development Report covered the effects of global warming on species reserves (“Climate Change May Compel Reconsideration of Habitats Plans”). EHL San Diego Director Michael Beck was interviewed, and noting that early regional habitat plans did not explicitly account for climate change, stated that this factor may force their re-examination: “I would say we’re in a transition period,” offered Beck. “The psychology of the implications of climate change is so overwhelming to people that it can almost make them freeze.”