Department of the Interior December 23, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has submitted an information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to continue the collection of information pertaining to Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing, and Drainage Protection (43 CFR parts 3100, 3120, and 3150, and Subpart 3162). The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) previously approved this information collection activity, and assigned it control number 1004-0185.

Mount Rainier National Park is initiating process to prepare a Wilderness Stewardship Plan (WSP) for the Mount Rainier Wilderness, a 228,480-acre area surrounding and including Mount Rainier, as designated by the Washington Parks Wilderness Act of 1988. Through this process, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be prepared to analyze a range of alternatives for achieving wilderness stewardship objectives, which include providing appropriate types and levels of access for visitors and authorized users, protecting cultural and natural resources, and adhering to legally-mandated management and preservation requirements. Ninety-seven percent of Mount Rainier National Park is designated as wilderness. The Wilderness Act of 1964 (Wilderness Act) directs federal land management agencies to protect and manage wilderness so that it ``generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable,'' and so that it ``has outstanding opportunities for solitude, or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation.''

In accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972, and the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Southeast Oregon Resource Advisory Council (RAC) will meet as indicated below:

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), withdraw the proposed rule to reclassify the arroyo toad (Anaxyrus californicus) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). This withdrawal is based on our conclusion that the types of threats to the arroyo toad remain the same as at the time of listing and are ongoing, and new threats have been identified. Some conservation efforts are ongoing in most populations to help manage and reduce impacts to arroyo toads from many ongoing threats; however, the species has not yet responded to an extent that would allow a change in listing status. The intent of the reclassification criteria in the recovery plan (Service 1999) has not been met. We have therefore determined that reclassification of this species is not appropriate at this time.