Fish and Wildlife Service January 12, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), again withdraw our July 15, 2002, proposal (67 FR 46441) to list Lepidium papilliferum (slickspot peppergrass) as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). The best available data for L. papilliferum indicates that, while its sagebrush-steppe matrix habitat is degraded, there is little evidence of negative impacts on the abundance of L. papilliferum, which inhabits slickspot microsites within this system. Annual abundance of the plant is strongly correlated with spring precipitation, therefore a high degree of variability in annual abundance is to be expected. Data on overall population trends are inconsistent; although recent declines that do not correlate with spring rainfall are noted in one portion of the species' range, range-wide data demonstrate increases in abundance that continue to track consistently with rainfall during those same years. The best available range-wide data indicate that abundance of the population range-wide is strongly correlated with precipitation and has increased in recent years in association with increased rainfall, as expected.