Department of the Interior July 20, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a 90-day finding on a petition to list the giant Palouse earthworm (Driloleirus americanus) as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended, (Act) and to designate critical habitat. Based on our review, we find that the petition presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing the giant Palouse earthworm as threatened or endangered may be warranted. Therefore, with the publication of this notice, we are initiating a review of the status of the species to determine if listing the giant Palouse earthworm is warranted. To ensure that this status review is comprehensive, we are requesting scientific and commercial data and other information regarding this species. Based on the status review, we will issue a 12-month finding on the petition,

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 (BLM) Dakotas Resource Advisory Council (RAC) will meet as indicated below.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have received an application from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Center, Southwest Region, for authorization to take small numbers of marine mammals by harassment incidental to construction of the Parson's Slough Project, a tidal wetlands restoration project on the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve in northern Monterey County, California. In accordance with provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (MMPA), as amended, we request comments on our proposed authorization for the applicant to incidentally take, by harassment, small numbers of southern sea otters for a period of 6 months beginning on September 1, 2010, and ending on March 1, 2011. We anticipate no take by injury or death and include none in this proposed authorization, which would be for take by harassment only.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a 12-month finding on a petition to list the Amargosa toad (Anaxyrus nelsoni) as threatened or endangered and to designate critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. After review of all available scientific and commercial information, we find that listing the Amargosa toad is not warranted at this time. However, we ask the public to submit to us any new information that becomes available concerning the threats to the Amargosa toad or its habitat at any time.

We (Fish and Wildlife Service) will ask the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve the information collection (IC) described below. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and as part of our continuing efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, we invite the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on this IC. This IC is scheduled to expire on November 30, 2010. We may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and 5 CFR part 1320, Reporting and Record Keeping Requirements, the National Park Service (NPS) invites public comments on renewal of an information collection approved under Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 1024-0216.