Fish and Wildlife Service April 1, 2024 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority propose to act in partnership to prepare a joint draft environmental impact statement/environmental impact report to evaluate the impacts on the environment related to placing excavated or other fill material into several former salt production ponds on, and adjacent to, Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge to raise the pond bottoms for the purpose of accelerating the timeline for tidal marsh habitat restoration. The Service is providing this notice to open a public scoping period in accordance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act and its implementing regulations. We invite comment from the public and local, State, Tribal, and Federal agencies.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are revising the rule for the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) promulgated under section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA). The purposes are threefold: To increase protection for African elephants in light of the recent rise in international trade of live African elephants by establishing ESA enhancement permit requirements for international trade in live elephants and specific enhancement requirements for the import of wild-sourced elephants, as well as requirements to ensure that all proposed recipients of live African elephants are suitably equipped to house and care for them; to clarify the existing enhancement requirement during our evaluation of an application for a permit to import African elephant sport-hunted trophies; and to incorporate a Party's designation under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) National Legislation Project into the decision-making process for the import of live African elephants, African elephant sport-hunted trophies, and African elephant parts and products other than ivory and sport-hunted trophies. Amendments to the section 4(d) regulations in 2016 prohibited the import and export of African elephant ivory with limited exceptions. This final rule does not affect the regulations pertaining to African elephant ivory.