Department of the Interior June 13, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice advises the public that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has established the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge as a unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System. The Service established the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge on September 21, 2012, with a purchase of 389 acres in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. This action completes the first of two acquisition phases, which will ultimately provide 570 acres of protected lands for public access, recreation, and environmental education.

This administrative final rule amends the regulations pertaining to execution and filing of forms in order to reflect the new address of the Oregon/Washington State Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which will move on August 5, 2013. All filings and other documents relating to public lands in the States of Oregon and Washington must be filed at the new address of the State Office.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Las Cruces District Office, New Mexico, intends to prepare a Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendment with an associated Environmental Assessment (EA) to analyze the possible disposal by direct sale at fair market value of 339.89 acres of BLM-administered public land in Do[ntilde]a Ana County in southwestern New Mexico.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) evaluated the classification status of gray wolves (Canis lupus) currently listed in the contiguous United States and Mexico under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). Based on our evaluation, we propose to remove the gray wolf from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife but to maintain endangered status for the Mexican wolf by listing it as a subspecies (Canis lupus baileyi). We propose these actions because the best available scientific and commercial information indicates that the currently listed entity is not a valid species under the Act and that the Mexican wolf (C. l. baileyi) is an endangered subspecies. In addition, we recognize recent taxonomic information indicating that the gray wolf subspecies, Canis lupus lycaon, which occurs in southeastern Canada and historically occurred in the northeastern United States and portions of the upper Midwest (eastern and western Great Lakes regions) United States, should be recognized as a separate species, Canis lycaon. This proposed rule also constitutes the completion of a status review for gray wolves in the Pacific Northwest initiated on May 5, 2011. Finally, this proposed rule replaces our May 5, 2011, proposed action to remove protections for C. lupus in all or portions of 29 eastern states (76 FR 26086).