Fish and Wildlife Service July 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have received an application from Diversified Pacific (Applicant), for a 5- year incidental take permit (permit). The application includes the Applicant's proposed habitat conservation plan (HCP), as required by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). If approved, the permit would authorize incidental take of the endangered San Bernardino Merriam's kangaroo rat in the course of routine construction activities associated with the development of residential houses in the City of Redlands. We invite public comment on the permit application and the proposed HCP, and on our preliminary determination that the HCP qualifies as ``low-effect'' for a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act. To make this determination, we used our environmental action statement and low-effect screening form, which are also available for review.

We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the availability of a draft addendum to the 2005 Barton Springs salamander (Eurycea sosorum) Recovery Plan, to include the Austin blind salamander (Eurycea waterlooensis). Both species are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). These salamander species are currently found in Barton Springs in Austin, Texas. The Barton Springs Salamander Recovery Plan (Recovery Plan) currently includes specific recovery objectives and criteria to be met in order to enable us to remove the Barton Springs salamander from the list of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants. This draft addendum adds to the Recovery Plan's recovery goals, objectives, downlisting criteria, and delisting criteria in order to reflect the addition of the Austin blind salamander. The Recovery Plan also includes additional time and cost estimates for recovery actions for the Austin blind salamander. We request review and comment on this draft addendum from local, State, and Federal agencies; Tribes; and the public.

The State of California has implemented an online permitting and reporting system compatible with the system that we, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), use for reporting take of raptors from the wild for falconry. We change the Web address for falconers in California to report takes, acquisitions, transfers, and losses of falconry birds.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce 90- day findings on various petitions to list 30 species and one petition that describes itself as a petition to reclassify one species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). Based on our review, we find that eight petitions do not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned actions may be warranted, we find that one petition does not present substantial information that the petitioned entity may be a listable entity under the Act, and we find that one petition does not present substantial information that the petitioned entity may be a listable entity under the Act and does not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted, and we are not initiating status reviews in response to these petitions. We refer to these as ``not-substantial petition findings.'' Based on our review, we find that 21 petitions present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned actions may be warranted. Therefore, with the publication of this document, we are initiating a review of the status of each of these species to determine if the petitioned actions are warranted. To ensure that these status reviews are comprehensive, we are requesting scientific and commercial data and other information regarding these species. Based on the status reviews, we will issue 12-month findings on the petitions, which will address whether the petitioned action is warranted, as provided in section 4(b)(3)(B) of the Act.