Department of the Interior February 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

BOEMRE proposes to revise the regulations that pertain to noncompetitive acquisition of an Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) renewable energy lease. We are taking this action because the current regulations governing the noncompetitive acquisition of an OCS renewable energy lease initiated by BOEMRE and a request for a noncompetitive OCS renewable energy lease initiated by an unsolicited request are inconsistent. This rulemaking will make the two processes consistent with each other by eliminating a duplicative and unnecessary step in the noncompetitive leasing process, while continuing to provide for adequate public notice and review of leasing proposals as required by law.

In accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), as amended, 5 U.S.C. App. 2, and with the concurrence of the General Services Administration, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture are announcing the establishment of the Wildland Fire Executive Council (WFEC). The purpose of the WFEC is to provide advice on the coordinated national level wildland fire policy leadership, direction, and program oversight in support to the Wildland Fire Leadership Council.

We announce our receipt of applications to conduct certain activities pertaining to enhancement of survival of endangered species. The Endangered Species Act requires that we invite public comment on these permit applications.

The Denali National Park SRC will meet to develop and continue work on National Park Service (NPS) subsistence hunting program recommendations and other related subsistence management issues. The NPS SRC program is authorized under Title VIII, Section 808 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Public Law 96-487, to operate in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Public Availability of Comments: This meeting is open to the public and will have time allocated for public testimony. The public is welcome to present written or oral comments to the SRC. This meeting will be recorded and meeting minutes will be available upon request from the park superintendent for public inspection approximately six weeks after each meeting. Before including your address, telephone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment-including your personal identifying informationmay 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. Denali National Park SRC Meeting Date and Location: The Denali National Park SRC will meet at the Cantwell Community Center (Phone: 907-768-2591) in Cantwell, Alaska on Saturday, February 26, 2011, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The meeting maybe rescheduled to occur on Tuesday, February 22, 2011, at the same time and location should a quorum not be available on Saturday, February 26, 2011. If the meeting date and location are changed, a notice will be published in local newspapers and announced on local radio stations prior to the meeting date. SRC meeting location and dates may need to be changed based on lack of quorum, inclement weather or local circumstances. For Further Information On the Denali National Park SRC Meeting Contact: Philip Hooge, Assistant Superintendent and Amy Craver, Subsistence Manager, (907) 683-2231, Denali National Park and Preserve, P.O. Box 9, Denali Park, Alaska 99755, or Clarence Summers, Subsistence Manager, NPS Alaska Regional Office, at (907) 644-3603.

Notice is hereby given, pursuant to 25 CFR 514.1(a)(3), that the National Indian Gaming Commission has adopted preliminary annual fee rates of 0.00% for tier 1 and 0.074% (.00074) for tier 2 for calendar year 2011. These rates shall apply to all assessable gross revenues from each gaming operation under the jurisdiction of the Commission. If a Tribe has a certificate of self-regulation under 25 CFR part 518, the preliminary fee rate on class II revenues for calendar year 2011 shall be one-half of the annual fee rate, which is 0.037% (.00037).

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the availability of a draft environmental assessment (EA) of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's (IDFG) proposal to lethally take wolves in the Lolo Elk Management Zone of north-central Idaho in response to impacts on elk populations. IDFG's proposal was submitted under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and our special regulations under the ESA for the central Idaho and Yellowstone area nonessential experimental populations of gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains. The draft EA describes the environmental effects of two alternatives: (1) The preferred alternative, which would approve the IDFG proposal to reduce the wolf population in the Lolo Elk Management Zone to a minimum of 20 to 30 wolves, in 3 to 5 packs, for a period of 5 years, in response to impacts on elk populations; and (2) a no-action alternative, which would deny the proposal to reduce the wolf population in the Lolo Elk Management Zone. Under the no-action alternative, wolves in the Lolo Elk Management Zone would continue to be managed as a nonessential experimental population and could be removed by the Service or its designated agents when livestock, stock animals, or dogs are killed by wolves.

This proposed rule would revise the regulations concerning the composition of the Federal Subsistence Board (Board). On October 23, 2009, the Secretary of the Interior announced the initiation of a Departmental review of the Federal Subsistence Management Program in Alaska. The review focused on how the program is meeting the purposes and subsistence provisions of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA), and how the program is serving rural subsistence users. The review proposed several administrative and regulatory changes to strengthen the program and make it more responsive to rural users. One proposed change called for adding two public members representing rural Alaskan subsistence users to the existing Board, which would afford additional regional representation and increase stakeholder input in the decisionmaking process.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, invite the public to comment on the following applications to conduct certain activities with endangered species, marine mammals, or both. With some exceptions, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) prohibits activities with listed species unless a Federal permit is issued that allows such activities. Both laws require that we invite public comment before issuing these permits.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announce a public meeting of the Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council (Council).

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces the availability of the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Approved Pony Express Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendment and the Mona to Oquirrh Transmission Corridor Project located in Juab, Salt Lake, Tooele, and Utah counties in Utah. The Utah State Director signed the ROD on February 4, 2011, which constitutes the final decision of the BLM. The Approved Pony Express RMP Amendment is effective immediately.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a 90-day finding on a petition to revise critical habitat for vernal pool fairy shrimp (Branchinecta lynchi) and vernal pool tadpole shrimp (Lepidurus packardi) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). Following a review of the petition, we find that the petition does not present substantial scientific information indicating that revision of the critical habitat for vernal pool fairy shrimp and vernal pool tadpole shrimp may be warranted. Therefore, with the publication of this notice, we have determined that a 12-month finding on this petition is not warranted and will not be conducted.

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) Boise District Resource Advisory Council (RAC) will hold a meeting as indicated below.

This notice announces that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) intends to cancel all work on the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed Mississippi Band of Choctaw Casino, Jackson County Mississippi.

The U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Dinosaur National Monument, Dinosaur, CO, has completed an inventory of human remains and associated funerary objects, in consultation with the appropriate Indian tribes, and has determined that there is no cultural affiliation between the remains and any present-day tribe. Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes itself to be culturally affiliated with the human remains may contact Dinosaur National Monument. Disposition of the human remains and associated funerary objects to the tribes stated below may occur if no additional requestors come forward.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces that the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board will conduct a meeting on matters pertaining to management and protection of wild, free-roaming horses and burros on the Nation's public lands.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are designating final revised critical habitat for the arroyo toad (Anaxyrus californicus, Bufo californicus). We are designating approximately 98,366 acres (ac) (39,807 hectares (ha)) of habitat in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, and San Diego Counties, California, as critical habitat for the arroyo toad. This final revised designation constitutes an increase of approximately 86,671 ac (35,074 ha) from the 2005 designation of critical habitat for the arroyo toad. A taxonomic name change has occurred and been accepted for the arroyo toad. Throughout the remainder of this document we will use the currently recognized name for the listed entity, Anaxyrus californicus, for references to the arroyo toad.

Final regulations published September 13, 2004 (69 FR 55076), provide two types of accounting and auditing relief for Federal onshore or Outer Continental Shelf lease production from marginal properties. As required by the regulations, the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) (the former Minerals Management Service) provided a list of qualifying marginal Federal oil and gas properties to states that received a portion of Federal royalties. Each state then decided whether to participate in one or both relief options. For calendar year 2011, this notice provides the decisions by the affected states to allow one or both types of relief.

We (National Park 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. 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.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has submitted an information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a 3-year extension of OMB Control Number 1004-0179 under the Paperwork Reduction Act. This control number includes paperwork requirements in regulations that provide the authority for the BLM to collect helium sales information from Federal agencies and helium suppliers of major helium requirements, in order to balance crude helium purchases from the BLM with sales of helium to Federal agencies.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have received an application from enXco and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) (applicants) for a 36-year incidental take permit for one species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). The application addresses the potential for ``take'' of one Federally listed animal, the California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) (tiger salamander). The applicants would implement a conservation program to minimize and mitigate the project activities, as described in the applicants' Habitat Conservation Plan (Plan). We request comments on the Plan and the associated draft Environmental Assessment (EA) under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA).

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

On March 24, 2010, the Department of the Interior (DOI), through the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), U.S. Department of Energy, and Department of the Army through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Federal agencies to promote the development of hydropower. Pursuant to this MOU and the current Federal policy encouraging non-Federal development of electrical power resource potential on Federal water resource projects, Reclamation will consider proposals for non-Federal development of hydroelectric power at C-Drop of the Klamath Project, Oregon. This Notice presents background information, proposal content guidelines, and information concerning selection of one or more non- Federal entities to develop hydroelectric power at C-Drop, and power purchasing and/or marketing considerations. Interested entities are invited to submit a proposal on this project.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will ask the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve the information collection (IC) described below. In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we invite the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on this IC. We may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are designating revised critical habitat for Brodiaea filifolia (thread-leaved brodiaea) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). Approximately 2,947 acres (ac) (1,193 hectares (ha)) in 10 units are being designated as revised critical habitat for B. filifolia in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, and San Diego Counties, California.