Homebuilders in Solano County petition state to drop endangered species protection for hawk

By Griffin Jones | Bay City News

A homebuilders association is seeking to roll back protections for a hawk under California’s Endangered Species Act — the first delisting in 17 years, according to the state’s Fish and Game Commission.

The Swainson’s hawk nests in Solano County and the Central Valley from March through September, traveling thousands of miles to spend winters in Mexico and Argentina. It is considered threatened under state law.

A petition to remove the hawk from environmental safeguards was filed with the commission on June 10 by Dan Dunmoyer, president of the California Building Industry Association, which advocates for deregulation of housing development.

“The homebuilding industry is uniquely positioned to submit this delisting petition — an action we do not take lightly,” Dunmoyer wrote in the petition.

The document cites a 2018 report partially funded by Fish and Game that found the bird’s population had increased to about 18,810 pairs — Swainson’s hawks tend toward monogamy. Authors of the report called it “strong evidence that the species has rebounded overall in California.”

Prior to the 1950s, an estimated 17,000 Swainson’s hawk pairs nested around the state. By the 1980s, only 375 pairs were counted, prompting the state to place the bird in protected status in 1983, citing habitat loss to housing development and agriculture.

“Maintaining species listings that are no longer scientifically justified unnecessarily constrains residential development and undermines the state’s efforts to address its ongoing housing affordability and supply crisis,” Dunmoyer wrote.

The count of 18,810 pairs was an unexpected jump from Fish and Game’s own 2016 report, which found just 1,800 breeding pairs, prompting officials to recommend keeping the species protected. The 2018 study said it couldn’t explain the increase.

“The key with the Swainson’s hawk is they breed here,” said Adrian Philip Johnson, administrator of the West Coast HawkWatch Group. A Vallejo resident, he guides raptor tours around the region. Johnson is a vocal critic of calls to delist the bird.

Johnson said a portion of the bird’s nesting habitat in Solano County is an area where a venture-capital-funded, labor-backed “walkable city” known as California Forever has been proposed for development.

“It’s not just dead farmland,” Johnson said, referring to a rural area eyed by developers. “Some call it home year-round, some come from the Arctic, some from Argentina.”

Dunmoyer’s is the first petition to delist an animal since the peregrine falcon, which was removed in 2009, said Melissa Miller-Henson, executive director of the Fish and Game Commission.

The commission reviews all petitions for California’s plants and animals to be added to or removed from protected species under the Endangered Species Act.

“When we see groups petition to do this, whether it’s at the state or federal level, it’s oftentimes someone in the industry,” said Miller-Henson, referring to builders.

Commissioners have until Sept. 8 to evaluate the petition. If they agree with the argument, the hawk gets a year and a half of status review, and then the commission makes its final decision to delist or not.

Recently, Swainson’s hawk nesting sites delayed approvals for a micro-winery in Napa County. After county planning officials issued a report stating construction wouldn’t impact the environment, Fish and Game countered, saying the report wasn’t thorough, and a qualified biologist will have to survey the site.

“The project has the potential to impact nesting Swainson’s hawk through auditory or visual disturbances,” wrote Fish and Game in July. “Project activities may result in Swainson’s hawk nest abandonment and loss of eggs or reduced health and vigor and loss of young.”

Following the report, county planners moved the project’s approval date to after the bird’s nesting season.