Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Draft Recovery Plan for the Santa Barbara County Distinct Population Segment of the California Tiger Salamander, 23045-23046 [2015-09547]

Agencies

• Fish and Wildlife Service
• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 79 (Friday, April 24, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23045-23046]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-09547]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS-R8-ES-2015-N043; FXES11130000-156-FF08E00000]


Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Draft Recovery 
Plan for the Santa Barbara County Distinct Population Segment of the 
California Tiger Salamander

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of document availability; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announce the 
availability of the draft recovery plan for the Santa Barbara County 
Distinct Population Segment of the California tiger salamander 
(Ambystoma californiense). The recovery plan includes recovery 
objectives and criteria, and specific actions necessary to achieve 
downlisting and delisting from the Federal Lists of Endangered and 
Threatened Wildlife and Plants. We request review and comment on this 
plan from local, State, and Federal agencies; Tribes; and the public. 
We will also accept any new information on the status of the Santa 
Barbara County Distinct Population Segment of the California tiger 
salamander throughout its range to assist in finalizing the recovery 
plan.

DATES: To ensure consideration, we must receive written comments on or 
before June 23, 2015. However, we will accept information about any 
species at any time.

ADDRESSES: You may obtain a copy of the draft recovery plan from our 
Web site at https://www.fws.gov/endangered/species/recovery-plans.html. 
Alternatively, you may contact the Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office, 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2493 Portola Road, Suite B, Ventura, 
California 93003 (telephone 805-644-1766). If you wish to comment on 
the draft recovery plan, you may submit your comments in writing by any 
one of the following methods:
     U.S. mail: Field Supervisor, at the above address;
     Hand-delivery: Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office, at the 
above address;
     Fax: (805) 644-3958; or
     Email: sbcts_rp@fws.gov.
    For additional information about submitting comments, see the 
``Request for Public Comments'' section below.

[[Page 23046]]


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen P. Henry, Field Supervisor, at 
the above street address or telephone number (see ADDRESSES).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Recovery of endangered or threatened animals and plants to the 
point where they are again secure, self-sustaining members of their 
ecosystems is a primary goal of our endangered species program and the 
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et 
seq.). Recovery means improvement of the status of listed species to 
the point at which listing is no longer appropriate under the criteria 
specified in section 4(a)(1) of the Act. The Act requires the 
development of recovery plans for listed species, unless such a plan 
would not promote the conservation of a particular species.
    On January 19, 2000, the Santa Barbara County Distinct Population 
Segment (DPS) of the California tiger salamander was emergency listed 
as endangered (65 FR 3096). The final listing rule for the species was 
subsequently published on September 21, 2000 (65 FR 57242). Critical 
habitat for the DPS was designated in 2004 (69 FR 68568).
    The Santa Barbara County DPS of the California tiger salamander is 
endemic to the northern portion of Santa Barbara County, California, 
and currently consists of six distinct metapopulations, defined as a 
set of local populations or breeding sites within an area, where 
typically dispersal from one local population or breeding site to other 
areas containing suitable habitat is possible, but not routine. The 
primary threat that resulted in the listing of the Santa Barbara DPS of 
the California tiger salamander as federally endangered was the loss, 
degradation, and fragmentation of habitat from human activities. The 
California tiger salamander requires a combination of pond habitat for 
breeding, and upland (underground) habitat for the rest of its life 
cycle. The species depends on a series of interconnected breeding and 
upland habitats, making it particularly sensitive to changes in the 
amount, configuration, and quality of these habitats. The loss and 
destruction of habitat continues to represent the primary threat to the 
species. Within the range of the Santa Barbara County DPS of the 
California tiger salamander, significant portions of its habitat have 
been altered or destroyed. Additional threats to the species include 
hybridization with nonnative tiger salamanders, predation and 
competition by nonnative species, vehicle-strike mortality, and lack of 
compliance with existing regulatory mechanisms. A majority of the known 
California tiger salamander occurrences in Santa Barbara County 
currently occur on private lands, requiring continual coordination with 
multiple private and local government entities for management.

Recovery Plan

    The purpose of a recovery plan is to provide a framework for the 
recovery of species so that protection under the Act is no longer 
necessary. A recovery plan includes scientific information about the 
species and provides criteria that help us to gauge whether downlisting 
or delisting the species is warranted. Furthermore, recovery plans help 
guide our recovery efforts by describing actions we consider necessary 
for each species' conservation and by estimating time and costs for 
implementing needed recovery measures.
    The goal of this draft recovery plan is to reduce the threats to 
the Santa Barbara County DPS of the California tiger salamander to 
ensure its long-term viability in the wild, and allow for its removal 
from the list of threatened and endangered species. The interim goal is 
to recover the DPS to the point that it can be downlisted from 
endangered to threatened status. The recovery objectives of the plan 
are:
    1. Protect and manage sufficient habitat within the metapopulation 
areas to support long-term viability of the Santa Barbara County DPS of 
the California tiger salamander.
    2. Reduce or remove other threats to the Santa Barbara County DPS 
of the California tiger salamander.
    The draft recovery plan contains recovery criteria based on 
maintaining and increasing population numbers and habitat quality and 
quantity, and mitigating significant threats to the species. As the 
Santa Barbara County DPS of the California tiger salamander meets these 
criteria, we will review the species' status and consider the species 
for downlisting or removal from the Federal List of Endangered and 
Threatened Wildlife and Plants.

Request for Public Comments

    Section 4(f) of the Act requires us to provide public notice and an 
opportunity for public review and comment during recovery plan 
development. It is also our policy to request peer review of recovery 
plans (July 1, 1994; 59 FR 34270). In an appendix to the approved 
recovery plan, we will summarize and respond to the issues raised by 
the public and peer reviewers. Substantive comments may or may not 
result in changes to the recovery plan; comments regarding recovery 
plan implementation will be forwarded as appropriate to Federal or 
other entities so that they can be taken into account during the course 
of implementing recovery actions. Responses to individual commenters 
will not be provided, but we will provide a summary of how we addressed 
substantive comments in an appendix to the approved recovery plan.
    We invite written comments on the draft recovery plan. In 
particular, we are interested in additional information regarding the 
current threats to the species, and our proposed approach to recovering 
the species.
    Before we approve our final recovery plan, we will consider all 
comments we receive by the date specified in DATES above. Methods of 
submitting comments are in the ADDRESSES section above.

Public Availability of Comments

    Before including your address, phone number, email address, or 
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be 
aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying 
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can 
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying 
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be 
able to do so.
    Comments and materials we receive will be available, by 
appointment, for public inspection during normal business hours at our 
office (see ADDRESSES).

Authority

    We developed our draft recovery plan under the authority of section 
4(f) of the Act, 16 U.S.C. 1533(f). We publish this notice under 
section 4(f) Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 
et seq.).

Alexandra Pitts,
Acting Regional Director, Pacific Southwest Region.
[FR Doc. 2015-09547 Filed 4-23-15; 8:45 am]
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