COLTON, Calif. - This city lives in the shadow of a 1-inch fly that zooms around like a hummingbird.
For more than a decade, the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly has been the only fly on the federal endangered species list, its best hope of survival pinned on prime breeding habitat in this city east of Los Angeles. For just as long, city officials have fought to get it off the list, arguing that restrictions on building on its habitat have cost tens of millions of dollars in economic development.
Now, however, the working-class city is offering a new proposal to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that could help relax the insect's economic clout: hassle-free development in one neighborhood in exchange for a pristine preserve nearby. The compromise could end a stalemate that has left the city with limited commercial development and the fly's best habitat marred by rusting refrigerators, off-road trails and homeless encampments.
"I'm thinking there's hope we'll finally find a good solution to a problem that has been intractable for many years," said Dan Silver, executive director of the Endangered Habitats League, an environmental group that tracks Southern California's desert ecosystem. "We'll look back and say, 'Gee, there was a lot of foresight in protecting that.'"
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