Department of the Interior May 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The following applicants have applied for a scientific research permit to conduct certain activities with endangered species pursuant to section 10(a)(1)(A) of the Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (``we'') solicits review and comment from local, State, and Federal agencies, and the public on the following permit requests.

This notice advises the public that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is amending its Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Pueblo of Jemez's Proposed Trust Acquisition and Casino Project, Dona Ana County, New Mexico, published in the Federal Register on March 1, 2005 (70 FR 9963-9964), which described the proposed action. In response to a request by an interested party, and in the interest of providing the public the fullest reasonable opportunity to participate in the scoping process for this EIS, this amendment reopens the public comment period for an additional 30 days.

Following consultation with the General Services Administration, notice is hereby given that the Secretary of the Interior has established the Advisory Committee on the Bird Banding Laboratory under the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will file the plat of survey of the lands described below in the BLM-Eastern States, Springfield, Virginia, 30 calendar days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.

Under the provisions of 30 U.S.C. 188(d) and (e), and 43 CFR 3108.2-3(a) and (b)(1), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) received a petition for reinstatement of oil and gas lease WYW85370 for lands in Johnson County, Wyoming. The petition was filed on time and was accompanied by all the rentals due since the date the lease terminated under the law.

This order partially revokes an Executive Order and a Public Land Order insofar as they affect 2.2 acres of National Forest System land withdrawn for the Bureau of Land Management's Power Site Reserve No. 184 and the Forest Service's Hebgen Cabin Tract. This order also opens the land to exchange.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, on behalf of the Department of the Interior, the Shoshone- Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley, the Department of Agriculture, and the State of Nevada, announces the release for public review of the Assessment Plan, Rio Tinto Mine Site Natural Resource Damage AssessmentPublic Release Draft Report (Assessment Plan). The Assessment Plan was developed by the Rio Tinto Mine Trustee Council consisting of representatives of the Tribe and Agencies listed above, to assess injuries to natural resources resulting from the releases of hazardous substances from the Rio Tinto Mine in Elko County, Nevada. The Assessment Plan describes the proposed approach for determining and quantifying natural resource injuries and calculating damages associated with these injuries. All interested parties are invited to submit comments on the Assessment Plan.

We are approving, with certain exceptions, a proposed amendment to the Pennsylvania program under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). Pennsylvania proposed to revise its Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act (PASMCRA) and implementing regulations at 25 Pa Code Chapters 86-90 with regard to various issues including bonding, remining and reclamation, postmining discharges, and water supply protection/replacement. Pennsylvania revised its program to provide additional safeguards and clarify ambiguities.

The following described interests in federally-owned lands which were acquired by the National Park Service has been determined to be suitable for disposal by exchange. The authority for this exchange is Section 5(b) of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act Amendments in Public Law 90-401, approved July 15, 1968, and Section 7(f) of the National Trails System Act, Public Law 90-543, as amended.

Notice is given that the boundary of the Virgin Islands National Park has been revised pursuant to the Acts as specified below, to encompass lands depicted on Drawing 161/92,009A, Segment 07, Virgin Islands National Park, revised March 30, 2004, prepared by the National Park Service. The revision to the boundary includes tract 07-123, as depicted on the map.

In accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) and the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 (FACA), the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Utah Resource Advisory Council (RAC) will meet as indicated below.

We (Fish and Wildlife Service, Service) plan to request that OMB renew approval for information collection associated with FWS Form 3-156 (North American Woodcock Singing Ground Survey). The current OMB Control Number for this information collection is 1018-0019, which expires October 31, 2005. We plan to request that OMB renew its approval of this information collection for a 3-year term.

In this Candidate Notice of Review (CNOR), we, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), present an updated list of plant and animal species native to the United States that we regard as candidates or have proposed for addition to the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. Identification of candidate species can assist environmental planning efforts by providing advance notice of potential listings, allowing resource managers to alleviate threats and thereby possibly remove the need to list species as endangered or threatened. Even if we subsequently list a candidate species, the early notice provided here could result in more options for species management and recovery by prompting candidate conservation measures to alleviate threats to the species. The CNOR summarizes the status and threats that we evaluated in order to determine that species qualify as candidates and to assign a listing priority number to each species. Additional material that we relied on is available in the Species Assessment and Listing Priority Assignment Forms (species assessment forms, previously called candidate forms) for each candidate species. We request additional status information that may be available for the 286 candidate species. We will consider this information in preparing listing documents and future revisions to the notice of review, as it will help us in monitoring changes in the status of candidate species and in management for conserving them. We also request information on additional species that we should include as candidates as we prepare future updates of this list. This document also includes our findings on resubmitted petitions and describes our progress in revising the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants during the period May 5, 2004, through May 2, 2005.

Per 30 U.S.C. 188(d), the lessee, Omimex Canada, Ltd. timely filed a petition for reinstatement of oil and gas lease MTM 89466, Blaine County, Montana. The lessee paid the required rental accruing from the date of termination. No leases were issued that affect these lands. The lessee agrees to new lease terms for rentals and royalties of $10 per acre and 16\2/3\ percent or 4 percentages above the existing competitive royalty rate. The lessee paid the $500 administration fee for the reinstatement of the lease and $155 cost for publishing this Notice. The lessee met the requirements for reinstatement of the lease per Sec. 31 (d) and (e) of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 (30 U.S.C. 188). We are proposing to reinstate the lease, effective November 1, 2004 subject to: the original terms and conditions of the lease; the increased rental of $10 per acre; the increased royalty of 16\2/3\ percent or 4 percentages above the existing competitive royalty rate; and the $155 cost of publishing this Notice.

The public is invited to comment on the following applications to conduct certain activities with endangered species.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) is announcing its intention to renew the approval for the collection of information under 30 CFR Part 842 which allows the collection and processing of citizen complaints and requests for inspection. The collection described below has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The information collection request describes the nature of the information collection and the expected burden and cost.

This notice is published in accordance with section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Meeting notice is hereby given for the Salem Oregon BLM Resource Advisory Committee pursuant to section 205 of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act of 2000, Public Law 106-393 (the Act). Topics to be discussed by the Salem BLM Resource Advisory Committee include: reviewing 2005 project applications, developing funding recommendations for 2005 projects, monitoring progress of previously approved projects, and scheduling field reviews of projects.

In accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972, the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico Resource Advisory Council (RAC) will meet as indicated below.

This order withdraws 1,979 acres of public land from surface entry and mining, for a period of 20 years, and reserves the land for use by the United States Air Force to protect support facilities for the safe and secure operation of national defense activities at the Nevada Test and Training Range.

Mr. Warren Hopkins has applied for a recordable disclaimer of interest in certain lands by the United States. The interest proposed to be disclaimed is fee title and not a request to validate an RS 2477 road.

A public hearing addressing the use of motorized vehicles and helicopters during the capture of wild horses from the Sand Wash Wild Horse Herd Management Area has been scheduled in Craig, Colorado.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (we, us, or USFWS) proposes to approve shot formulated of 62 percent iron, 25 percent tungsten, and 13 percent nickel as nontoxic for waterfowl and coot hunting in the United States. We assessed possible toxicity effects of the Iron- Tungsten-Nickel (ITN) shot, and have determined that it is not a threat to wildlife or their habitats, and that further testing of ITN shot is not necessary. We have concluded that because all of the metals in ITN shot type have been approved in higher concentrations in other nontoxic shot types and in ITN shot are very unlikely to adversely affect fish, wildlife, their habitats, or the human environment, we do not need to prepare an Environmental Assessment for this action. We believe that the toxicity risks from ITN shot are small. This rule also corrects the formulation of Tungsten-Tin-Bismuth shot. We inadvertently left the iron in the formulation out of our August 9, 2004, approval of the shot type (69 FR 48163).

This notice announces a meeting of the Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) Task Force Gulf and South Atlantic Regional Panel. The meeting is open to the public. The meeting topics are identified in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.