Suit over San Diego butterfly habitat...

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Second Suit Filed to Protect 2,600 Acres in Southern California

9/3/2009--Last Thursday the Center for Biological Diversity, Preserve Wild Santee, and the Endangered Habitats League renewed a legal challenge to a sprawling development proposed for Fanita Ranch, located on the northern edge of Santee, California. A San Diego court scrapped plans for the 2,600-acre, 1,400-home project after our first lawsuit in 2008, finding that the city of Santee hadn't adequately considered the development's fire-safety risk when it approved the project. Now the city has approved the developer's "revised" plan, though it's hardly different from the first one. Luckily for human, plant, and wildlife communities near the Fanita Ranch site -- including populations of the federally protected Quino checkerspot butterfly and California gnatcatcher -- the development is also facing fiscal glitches and may not be feasible anyway. Still, we don't take chances when it comes to preventing catastrophic wildfire and habitat destruction.

Check out our press release http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/fanita-ranch-08-27-2009.html and learn more about the Quino checkerspot and California gnatcatcher.