Department of the Interior November 12, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Water Resources Planning Act of 1965 and the Water Resources Development Act of 1974 require an annual determination of a discount rate for Federal water resources planning. The discount rate for Federal water resources planning for fiscal year 2014 is 3.50 percent. Discounting is to be used to convert future monetary values to present values.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has established new dates for certain public comment and protest periods that were ongoing or that ended during the Federal Government shutdown resulting from a lapse in appropriations, which began on October 1, 2013, and ended on October 16, 2013.

Pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), we, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce our intent to prepare a NEPA document for a pending Incidental Take Permit (ITP) application and associated draft habitat conservation plan (HCP) from the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) for forestry activities on State lands that provide potential habitat for the federally listed endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) and the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis). Northern long- eared bats have recently been proposed for listing as endangered under the ESA. Forestry operations on these lands have the potential to incidentally take Indiana bats and northern long-eared bats and their habitat. Therefore, PGC and DCNR are developing an ITP application and HCP to address these activities. In advance of receiving the ITP application for this project, the Service is providing this notice to request information from other agencies, tribes, and the public on the scope of the NEPA review and issues to consider in the NEPA analysis and in development of the HCP. We are also using this opportunity to seek comments on the appropriate level of NEPA reviewwhether an environmental assessment (EA) or an environmental impact statement (EIS) would be most appropriate, based on potential effects to the human environment.