Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Species Status Assessment for the Northern California-Southern Oregon Distinct Population Segment of Fisher, 65939-65940 [2023-20826]

Agencies

• Fish and Wildlife Service
• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 185 (Tuesday, September 26, 2023)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 65939-65940]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-20826]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

50 CFR Part 17

[Docket No. FWS-R1-ES-2023-0123; FF09E21000 FXES1111090FEDR 234]


Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Species Status 
Assessment for the Northern California-Southern Oregon Distinct 
Population Segment of Fisher

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Request for new information.

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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), notify the 
public that we are requesting new information to develop a species 
status assessment (SSA) for the Northern California-Southern Oregon 
(NCSO) distinct population segment (DPS) of fisher (Pekania pennanti). 
We plan to initiate a status review to determine whether the NCSO DPS 
of fisher is warranted for listing as an endangered or threatened 
species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). We 
request new information since 2019 regarding the NCSO DPS of fisher to 
inform our SSA. Per a court-approved settlement agreement, we will 
submit a new final listing determination to the Federal Register on or 
before August 21, 2025.

DATES: To ensure our full consideration and incorporation of new 
information, the Service requests submittal of new information by 
October 26, 2023. Information submitted electronically using the 
Federal eRulemaking Portal (see ADDRESSES, below) must be received by 
11:59 p.m. eastern time on the closing date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit new information by one of the following 
methods:
    (1) Electronically: Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter FWS-R1-ES-2023-0123, 
which is the docket number for this rulemaking. Then, click on the 
Search button. On the resulting page, in the panel on the left side of 
the screen, under the Document Type heading, check the Proposed Rule 
box to locate this document. You may submit information by clicking on 
``Comment.''
    (2) By hard copy: Submit by U.S. mail to: Public Comments 
Processing, Attn: FWS-R1-ES-2023-0123, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
MS: PRB/3W, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.
    We request that you send new information only by the methods 
described above. We will post all new information received on https://www.regulations.gov. This generally means that we will post any 
personal information you provide us (see Information Requested, below, 
for more information).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jim Thrailkill, Field Supervisor, 
Roseburg Field Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 777 NW Garden 
Valley Boulevard, Roseburg, Oregon 97471; email: 
[email protected]. Individuals in the United States who are deaf, 
deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 
(TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. 
Individuals outside the United States should use the relay services 
offered within their country to make international calls to the point-
of-contact in the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    In 2014, we proposed to list the West Coast DPS of fisher 
(encompassing all fishers throughout California, Oregon, and 
Washington) as threatened under the Act (79 FR 60419, October 7, 2014). 
However, we withdrew that proposed rule on April 18, 2016 (81 FR 
22710). The withdrawal was subsequently challenged by the Center for 
Biological Diversity, Environmental Protection Information Center, 
Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, and the Sierra Forest Legacy. The 
District Court for the Northern District of California remanded the 
Service's final determination for reconsideration and preparation of a 
new determination. We reopened the comment period on January 31, 2019 
(84 FR 645), followed by publication of a revised proposed listing rule 
on November 7, 2019, based on new information and a reevaluation of the 
best available information, including reconfiguration of multiple DPSs 
within the area previously described as a single DPS called the West 
Coast DPS of fisher (84 FR 60278). The new delineation of DPSs included 
two original native populations (the NCSO and Southern Sierra Nevada 
(SSN) DPSs) and three reintroduced populations (Northern Sierra Nevada, 
Southern Oregon Cascades, and the Olympic Peninsula). On May 15, 2020, 
we issued a final rule that added the SSN DPS as an endangered species 
to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife, and we presented our 
finding that the NCSO DPS did not warrant listing under the Act (85 FR 
29532).
    On September 13, 2022, the Center for Biological Diversity, 
Environmental Protection Information Center, and Klamath-Siskiyou 
Wildlands Center filed a complaint in the United States District Court, 
Northern District of California, alleging that our determination on the 
NCSO DPS of fisher violated the Act. Per the stipulated settlement 
agreement dated June 7, 2023, which the court approved on June 8, 2023, 
the Service will submit to the Office of the Federal Register by August 
21, 2025, a new 12-month finding as to whether listing the NCSO DPS of 
fisher as an endangered or threatened species is warranted under the 
Act. The terms of the settlement agreement include publication of this 
document ``as soon as practicable'' to announce a public comment period 
seeking new information to assist with reevaluation of the NCSO DPS of 
fisher and preparation of a new determination.
    Additional information on Federal actions concerning the DPSs of 
fisher are outlined in the following Federal Register documents: a 
final rule of May 15, 2020 (85 FR 29532) and a proposed rule of October 
7, 2014 (79 FR 60419).

Information Requested

    Although an analysis and biological report were completed in 2016 
for fishers throughout Washington, Oregon, and California (Service 
2016a, entire), a scientific analysis using the SSA framework (which 
considers the principles of resiliency, redundancy, and representation; 
Service 2016b, entire) has not been developed for the NCSO DPS of 
fisher. New information from 2016 through 2019 was incorporated into 
our May 15, 2020, final rule (85 FR 29532). We will reevaluate the 
information already included in our files, along with any new 
information received, for an SSA. At this time, we are seeking new 
information that has become available after 2019 regarding the NCSO DPS 
of fisher. The range of this DPS for which we seek information is 
approximately southwest Oregon (west of Klamath Falls and south of 
approximately the Rogue River), the northern California coast as far 
south as Point Reyes National Seashore and inland through the Northern 
Coast Ranges of California,

[[Page 65940]]

the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains, and continuing east through the 
Southern Cascades (excluding the Sacramento Valley). This geographic 
area includes the following counties for new information: Coos, Curry, 
Douglas, Josephine, Jackson, Klamath, and Lane Counties in southern 
Oregon; and Butte, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Plumas, Shasta 
Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties in northern California. We will 
consider information from all interested parties. We are particularly 
interested in information concerning:
    (1) The historical and current status, range, distribution, and 
population size of this DPS, including information on denning sites. 
This includes information regarding population trend studies or 
occurrence data specific to this DPS, information regarding areas that 
have been surveyed compared to areas that have not been surveyed, and 
all positive and negative survey results to help us assess distribution 
and population trends.
    (2) The biological or ecological requirements for fishers, as well 
as information on population connectivity between occurrences of 
fishers across the NCSO DPS range.
    (3) Anticoagulant and neurotoxicant rodenticides, and other 
toxicants, including law enforcement information and trend data.
    (4) The threat of wildfire, including studies or information 
pertaining to current and future trends in wildfire frequency and 
severity, as well as information pertaining to the response of fishers 
to post-fire landscapes in the NCSO DPS of fisher.
    (5) Changes in low- to mid-elevation forests within the range of 
the NCSO DPS of fisher, including scope and extent of vegetation 
management on Federal and non-Federal lands.
    (6) The projected and reasonably likely impacts of climate change 
on the NCSO DPS of fisher and its habitat, including impacts to 
reproductive habitat.
    (7) Any effects associated with population size and isolation 
relevant to the NCSO DPS of fisher (e.g., low reproductive capacity, 
inbreeding depression, demographic and environmental stochasticity), 
and information on genetic diversity on the fisher.
    (8) Any conservation efforts designed to benefit fishers and their 
habitat within the NCSO DPS that have been planned or implemented after 
2019, including both current, ongoing, or planned activities and 
possible effects of these activities on the species or its habitat.
    Please include sufficient information with your submission (such as 
scientific journal articles or other publications) to allow us to 
verify any scientific or commercial information you include.
    You may submit information by one of the methods listed in 
ADDRESSES. We request that you send information only by the methods 
described in ADDRESSES.
    If you submit information via https://www.regulations.gov, your 
entire submission--including any personal identifying information--will 
be posted on the website. If your submission is made via a hardcopy 
that includes personal identifying information, you may request at the 
top of your document that we withhold this information from public 
review. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. We 
will post all hardcopy submissions on https://www.regulations.gov. 
Information and materials we receive will be available for public 
inspection on https://www.regulations.gov at Docket No. FWS-R1-ES-2023-
0123.

Authors

    The primary authors of this document are the staff members of the 
Fish and Wildlife Service's Species Assessment Team.

Authority

    The authority for this action is the Endangered Species Act of 
1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).

Martha Williams,
Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 2023-20826 Filed 9-25-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4333-15-P