Fish and Wildlife Service 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a meeting of the Lake Champlain Sea Lamprey Control Alternatives Workgroup (Workgroup). The Workgroup's purpose is to provide, in an advisory capacity, recommendations and advice on research and implementation of sea lamprey control techniques alternative to lampricide that are technically feasible, cost effective, and environmentally safe. The primary objective of the meeting will be to discuss potential research initiatives that may enhance alternative sea lamprey control techniques. The meeting is open to the public.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), determine endangered status for the following seven Brazilian bird species and subspecies (collectively referred to as ``species'' for purposes of this rule) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act) (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.): Black-hooded antwren (Formicivora erythronotos), Brazilian merganser (Mergus octosetaceus), cherry- throated tanager (Nemosia rourei), fringe-backed fire-eye (Pyriglena atra), Kaempfer's tody-tyrant (Hemitriccus kaempferi), Margaretta's hermit hummingbird (Phaethornis malaris margarettae), and southeastern rufous-vented ground-cuckoo (Neomorphus geoffroyi dulcis).

We (U.S Fish and Wildlife Service) have sent an Information Collection Request (ICR) to OMB for review and approval. We summarize the ICR below and describe the nature of the collection and the estimated burden and cost. This ICR is scheduled to expire on February 28, 2011. 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. However, under OMB regulations, we may continue to conduct or sponsor this information collection while it is pending at OMB.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, invite the public to comment on the following applications to conduct certain activities with endangered species. With some exceptions, the Endangered Species Act (Act) prohibits activities with endangered and threatened species unless a Federal permit allows such activity. The Act also requires that we invite public comment before issuing these permits.

This notice advises the public that we, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have received applications for incidental take permits pursuant to section 10(a)(1)(B) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act) from the County of Santa Clara; Cities of San Jose, Gilroy, and Morgan Hill; Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and Santa Clara Valley Water District (Applicants). The Applicants prepared the Draft Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan and Natural Community Conservation Plan (HCP/NCCP) pursuant to section 10(a)(1)(B) of the Act and the California Natural Community Conservation Planning Act of 2002 (NCCPA). This notice announces the availability of the permit applications, Draft HCP/NCCP, Draft Implementing Agreement (IA), and Draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) for public review and comment. The Service is considering the issuance of a 50-year incidental take permit for 21 Covered Species in a 509,883-acre Permit Area. A seventh applicant will also be considered for permit coverage; the Implementing Entity (likely a joint powers agency) that will form prior to permit issuance. The Implementing Entity is described in the Draft HCP/NCCP and Draft IA and would be composed of representatives from each of the Applicants. The Applicants are requesting a permit to incidentally take 11 animal species and are seeking assurances for 10 plant species. The permit is needed because take of species could occur as a result of proposed Covered Activities.

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) prohibit 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 (Service), designate revised critical habitat for the Preble's meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius preblei) (PMJM) in Colorado, where it is listed as threatened in a Significant Portion of the Range (SPR) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). In total, approximately 411 miles (mi) (662 kilometers (km)) of rivers and streams and 34,935 acres (ac) (14,138 hectares (ha)) fall within the boundaries of revised critical habitat in Boulder, Broomfield, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, and Teller Counties.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, propose to list the dunes sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus), a lizard known from southeastern New Mexico and adjacent west Texas, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. If we finalize the rule as proposed, it would extend the Act's protections to this species. We have determined that critical habitat for the dunes sagebrush lizard is prudent but not determinable at this time.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a 12-month finding on a petition to list the North American wolverine (Gulo gulo luscus) as an endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). After review of all available scientific and commercial information, we find that the North American wolverine occurring in the contiguous United States is a distinct population segment (DPS) and that addition of this DPS to the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants is warranted. Currently, however, listing the contiguous U.S. DPS of the North American wolverine is precluded by higher priority actions to amend the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants. Upon publication of this 12-month petition finding, we will add the contiguous U.S. DPS of the wolverine to our candidate species list. We consider the current range of the species to include portions of the States of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, and California. However, due to the dispersal abilities of individual wolverines, we expect that wolverines are likely to travel outside the currently occupied area. We will develop a proposed rule to list this DPS as our priorities allow (see section on Preclusion and Expeditious Progress). We will make any determination on critical habitat during development of the proposed listing rule. In the interim, we will address the status of this DPS through our annual Candidate Notice of Review.

We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have received an application from the (Applicant) for an extension of incidental take permit (ITP) TE176788-0 for 5 years under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). We request public comment on the permit application and plan, as well as on our preliminary determination that the plan qualifies as low-effect under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). To make this determination we used our environmental action statement and low-effect screening form, which are also available for review.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), designate critical habitat for the vermilion darter (Etheostoma chermocki) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). We designate as critical habitat approximately 21.0 kilometers (km) (13.0 miles (mi)) of stream in 5 units within the Turkey Creek watershed in Jefferson County, AL.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, invite the public to comment on the following applications to conduct certain activities with endangered species. With some exceptions, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) prohibits activities with listed species unless a Federal permit is issued that allows such activities. The ESA law requires that we invite public comment before issuing these permits.

The following applicants have applied for scientific research permits to conduct certain activities with endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). The Act requires that we invite public comment on these permit applications.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), intend to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), regarding an expected application from the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), for an incidental take permit (permit) authorizing incidental take of federally threatened and endangered wildlife species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA). We and OCTA intend to gather information necessary to prepare a joint Environmental Impact Report (EIR)/EIS for the Measure M2 (M2) Natural Community Conservation Plan/Habitat Conservation Plan/Master Streambed Alteration Agreement (NCCP/HCP/ MSAA). We are furnishing this notice to announce the initiation of a public scoping period, during which we invite other agencies, Tribes, and the public to submit written comments providing suggestions and information on the scope of issues and alternatives to be addressed in the EIS.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the availability of our final comprehensive conservation plan (CCP) and finding of no significant impact (FONSI) for the environmental assessment (EA) for the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). In this final CCP, we describe how we will manage this refuge for the next 15 years.

We (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) have sent an Information Collection Request (ICR) to OMB for review and approval. We summarize the ICR below and describe the nature of the collection and the estimated burden and cost. This information collection is scheduled to expire on November 30, 2010. 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. However, under OMB regulations, we may continue to conduct or sponsor this information collection while it is pending at OMB.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), intend to prepare a comprehensive conservation plan (CCP) for the Bandon Marsh, Nestucca Bay, and Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs), in or near the towns of Bandon, Pacific City, Neskowin, and Lincoln City, Oregon. We will also prepare an environmental assessment (EA) to evaluate the potential effects of various CCP alternatives. We provide this notice in compliance with our CCP policy to advise other Federal and State agencies, Tribes, and the public of our intentions and to obtain suggestions and information on the scope of issues to consider during the planning process. We are also announcing public meetings and requesting public comments.

We (U.S. Fish and Wildlife 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. This IC is scheduled to expire on April 30, 2011. 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.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), are extending the public comment period for the draft national plan to assist States, Federal agencies, and Tribes in managing white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for details. If you have already submitted comments, please do not resubmit them; we have already incorporated them in the public record and will fully consider them in our final decision.

The Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group (TAMWG) affords stakeholders the opportunity to give policy, management, and technical input concerning Trinity River (California) restoration efforts to the Trinity Management Council (TMC). The TMC interprets and recommends policy, coordinates and reviews management actions, and provides organizational budget oversight. This notice announces a TAMWG meeting, which is open to the public.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, invite the public to comment on the following applications to conduct certain activities with endangered species. With some exceptions, the Endangered Species Act (Act) prohibits activities with endangered and threatened species unless a Federal permit allows such activity. The Act also requires that we invite public comment before issuing these permits.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have issued the following permits to conduct certain activities with endangered species, marine mammals, or both. We issue these permits under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).

In this Candidate Notice of Review (CNOR), we, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), present an updated list of plant and animal species native to the United States that we regard as candidates for or have proposed for addition to the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. Identification of candidate species can assist environmental planning efforts by providing advance notice of potential listings, allowing landowners and resource managers to alleviate threats and thereby possibly remove the need to list species as endangered or threatened. Even if we subsequently list a candidate species, the early notice provided here could result in more options for species management and recovery by prompting candidate conservation measures to alleviate threats to the species. The CNOR summarizes the status and threats that we evaluated in order to determine that species qualify as candidates and to assign a listing priority number (LPN) to each species or to determine that species should be removed from candidate status. Additional material that we relied on is available in the Species Assessment and Listing Priority Assignment Forms (species assessment forms, previously called candidate forms) for each candidate species. Overall, this CNOR recognizes five new candidates, changes the LPN for four candidates, and removes one species from candidate status. Combined with other decisions for individual species that were published separately from this CNOR in the past year, the current number of species that are candidates for listing is 251. This document also includes our findings on resubmitted petitions and describes our progress in revising the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants during the period October 1, 2009, through September 30, 2010. We request additional status information that may be available for the 251 candidate species identified in this CNOR.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have received an application from Kaheawa Wind Power II, LLC (KWP II) (Applicant) for an incidental take permit (permit) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA). The Applicant is requesting an incidental take permit under the ESA to authorize take of three Federally endangered and one threatened bird species. The permit application includes a draft Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and a draft Implementing Agreement (IA). We also announce the availability of a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) that has been prepared in response to the permit application in accordance with requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We are making the permit application package and draft EA available for public review and comment.

The North American Wetlands Conservation Council (Council) will meet to select North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) grant proposals for recommendation to the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission (Commission). This meeting is open to the public and interested persons may present oral or written statements.