Department of the Interior January 25, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

As required by 43 CFR 2650.7(d), notice is hereby given that an appealable decision approving the surface and subsurface estates in certain lands for conveyance pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act will be issued to Ahtna, Incorporated, successor in interest to Cantwell Yedatene-Na Corporation. The lands are in the vicinity of Cantwell, Alaska, and are located in: U.S. Survey No. 3229, Alaska. Containing 5.00 acres. Notice of the decision will also be published four times in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce our intention to conduct rulemaking under the Endangered Species Act (Act) of 1973 as amended (Act) (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) for the purpose of removing Astragalus desereticus (Deseret milk-vetch) from the List of Endangered and Threatened Plants in the near future. Specifically, we intend to propose delisting A. desereticus because threats to the species as identified in the final listing rule (64 FR 56590, October 20, 1999) are not as significant as earlier believed and are managed such that the species is not likely to become in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range in the foreseeable future. Upon delisting, A. desereticus would be managed pursuant to a Conservation Agreement among the Service and Utah State agencies. In response to a stipulated settlement agreement we have reconsidered whether designating critical habitat for Astragalus desereticus would be prudent based on this species' current status. We have determined that such a designation is not prudent because, as described in this advanced notice, we believe that designating critical habitat would not be beneficial to the species (50 CFR 424.12). This is because no area meets the definition of ``critical habitat'' (i.e., there are no areas essential to the conservation of the species which require special management considerations, and protections afforded by the species' current listing status appear to be no longer necessary).

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) is announcing its intention to request approval for the collection of information for two forms: technical training program nominations for non-Federal personnel form (OSM 105) and the travel and per diem form (OSM 140); and for 30 CFR Part 840, State Regulatory Authority: Inspection and Enforcement. The collections described below have been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The information collection requests describe the nature of the information collections and the expected burden and cost.