Fish and Wildlife Service August 29, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the availability of a draft comprehensive conservation plan (CCP) and environmental assessment (EA) for the Hamden Slough National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge, NWR) for public review and comment. In this draft CCP/ EA we describe how we propose to manage the 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 September 30, 2012. 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), announce a 90-day finding on a petition to list Mimulus gemmiparus (Rocky Mountain monkeyflower; also known as budding monkeyflower, or Weber's monkeyflower) as an endangered or threatened species throughout its entire range and to designate critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). For the purposes of this document, we will refer to Mimulus gemmiparus as Rocky Mountain monkeyflower. Based on our review, we find that the petition presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing Rocky Mountain monkeyflower may be warranted. Therefore, with the publication of this notice, we will be initiating a review of the status of the species to determine whether listing Rocky Mountain monkeyflower is warranted. To ensure that this status review is comprehensive, we are requesting scientific and commercial data and other information regarding this species. Based on the status review, we will issue a 12-month finding on the petition, which will address whether the petitioned action is warranted, as provided in section 4(b)(3)(B) of the Act. We will make a determination on critical habitat for this species if and when we initiate a listing action.