ESA SECTION 7 CONSULTATIONS HEALTHY FORESTS ROLLBACK:
We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries
Service, (Services) announce the reopening of the comment period for
the proposed joint counterpart regulations and the availability of the
Environmental Assessment for the Healthy Forests Initiative Counterpart
Regulations. The Services are evaluating the environmental effects of
establishing counterpart regulations pursuant to Section 7 of the
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.)
(ESA). These counterpart regulations are being proposed in cooperation
with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (FS) and the
Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Bureau of
Land Management (BLM), and National Park Service (NPS) (jointly, Action
Agencies). The proposal supports the President's Healthy Forests
initiative and is intended to streamline ESA section 7 consultations on
proposed projects that support the National Fire Plan (NFP).
SIERRA NEVADA BIGHORN SHEEP DRAFT RECOVERY PLAN:
We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announce a re-opening of the
comment period for public review of the Draft Recovery Plan for the
Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis californiana) for an
additional 60 days. The original comment period closed on September 29,
2003. We are re-opening the comment period in response to specific
requests from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra
Nevada Bighorn Sheep Foundation to allow additional time for public
review of this draft recovery plan. This draft recovery plan includes
recovery criteria and measures for the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep.
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NEW COMMENTS:
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LEOPARD FROG SAFE HARBOR AGREEMENT:
The Malpai Borderlands Group (Applicant) has applied to the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service (Service) for an incidental take permit pursuant
to Section 10(a)(1)(A) of the Endangered Species Act (Act). The
Applicants have been assigned permit number TE-073684-0. The requested
permit, which is for a period of 50 years, would authorize the take of
the Threatened Chiricahua leopard frog (Rana chiricahuensis). The
proposed take could occur as a result of conservation measures
implemented on the approximately 1 million acres (404,700 hectares)
identified in the application and associated documents in Cochise
County, Arizona and Hidalgo County, New Mexico. Conservation measures
consist of stock tank development and restoration, including
modification of stock tanks to enhance their use by Chiricahua leopard
frogs and renovation to remove bullfrogs and other non-native
predators. Currently, within the Agreement area, Chiricahua leopard
frogs are only known to occur in a few locations, including three
populations on the Magoffin property. These three populations on the
Magoffin property exist solely due to the extraordinary efforts of the
landowners to establish and maintain them prior to listing of the
species. Thus, they are excluded from the baseline for the purposes of
this Safe Harbor Agreement (Agreement). The Applicants, in cooperation
with the Service, have prepared the Agreement to provide a conservation
benefit to the species and allow for the take of the species. Based
upon guidance in the Service's June 17, 1999, Final Safe Harbor Policy,
if an Agreement and associated permit are not expected to individually
or cumulatively have a significant impact on the quality of the human
environment or other natural resources, the Agreement/permit may be
categorically excluded from undergoing National Environmental Policy
Act review. The Malpai Agreement qualifies as a ``Low Effect''
Agreement, thus, this action is a categorical exclusion. The ``Low
Effect'' determination for the Malpai Agreement is also available for
public comment. This notice is provided pursuant to Section 10(c) of
the Act and National Environmental Policy Act regulations (40 CFR
1506.6).
AL BEACH MOUSE RECOVERY PLAN REVISION:
We, the Fish and Wildlife Service, announce our intention to prepare a
separate species recovery plan for the Alabama beach mouse (ABM)
(Peromyscus polionotus ammobates), which is listed as endangered
throughout its range, under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as
amended (Act). A 1987 multi-species recovery plan addressed recovery
needs for three subspecies of the old field mouse (Peromyscus
polionotus) that inhabit the beaches and dunes of the Gulf coast of
Alabama and Florida--the ABM, the Choctawhatchee beach mouse (P. p.
allphrys), and the Perdido Key beach mouse (P. p. trissyllepsis). The
1987 recovery plan is being revised to prepare a separate species
recovery plan for the ABM. A separate species recovery plan is needed
for the ABM in order to incorporate new information related to the
range of the species, to update information regarding known habitat,
and to update the framework for addressing problems of the species and
for prioritizing actions necessary for recovery. The ABM recovery plan
will not include recovery information on the Choctawhatchee beach mouse
or the Perdido Key beach mouse. Recovery plans for the Choctawhatchee
beach mouse and the Perdido Key beach mouse will be updated or revised
at a later date. To ensure a comprehensive revision, we are soliciting
information on the ABM's population status and trends, threats, and
conservation efforts.
TIBETAN ANTELOPE PROPOSED LISTING:
We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the 12-month
finding that a petition to list the Tibetan antelope (Pantholops
hodgsonii) as endangered throughout its range pursuant to the
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act, or ESA), is warranted.
The best available information indicates that the total population of
Tibetan antelope has declined drastically over the past three decades.
This decline has resulted primarily from overutilization for commercial
purposes and the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms. Habitat
impacts, especially those caused by domestic livestock grazing, appear
to be a contributory factor in the decline, and could have potentially
greater impacts in the near future. Accordingly, we herein propose to
list the Tibetan antelope as endangered, pursuant to the Act. This
proposed rule, if made final, would extend the Act's protection to this
species. The Service seeks data and comments from the public on this
proposal.
S.F. PENINSULA COATAL PLANTS RECOVERY PLAN:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (``we'') announces the availability
of the Recovery Plan for Coastal Plants of the Northern San Francisco
Peninsula. This recovery plan includes the endangered San Francisco
lessingia (Lessingia germanorum) and Raven's manzanita (Arctostaphylos
hookeri ssp. ravenii). The portion of the plan dealing with Raven's
manzanita is a revision of the 1984 Raven's Manzanita Recovery Plan.
Additional species of concern that will benefit from recovery actions
taken for these plants are also discussed in the recovery plan. This
recovery plan includes recovery criteria and measures for the San
Francisco lessingia and Raven's manzanita.
GLACIER BAY VESSEL QUOTAS FEIS:
The National Park Service (NPS) announces the availability of Final
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on Vessel Quotas and Operating
Requirements for Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The document
describes and analyzes the environmental impacts of five action
alternatives, including a preferred alternative, for managing four
types of motorized vessels within Glacier Bay and Dundas Bay. A no
action alternative also is evaluated.
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?: The Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island
Restoration Network have notified the NMFS that they are going to court to
reverse last year's decision to deny ESA protection to the Atlantic white
marlin says Marlin Magazine 10/7. The NMFS rejected a listing petition "even
after acknowledging that the population had declined to just 6% of its pre-
longlining (1960) abundance" and "that it had been declining for
more than a
decade at a consistent rate of 3% each year," reasoning that it would
not
consider the species "at risk of extinction until its abundance had declined
to 1%."
REPAIRING A BROKEN CIRCLE: In a landmark restoration, the Penobscot Nation,
conservation groups, state and federal officials and a hydroelectric company
have agreed to the removal of two dams on Maine's Penobscot River, restoring
age-old spawning migrations and over half the rivers food chain says the
Bangor Daily News 10/7. The "$50 million deal has been in the works since
the Atlantic salmon were place under federal protection nearly four years
ago," and is "the biggest restoration project north of the Everglades,
opening 500 miles of habitat to salmon, shortnose sturgeon and blueback
herring. "From the tribal perspective, we're looking at this a repairing
a
circle that had been broken" said the Penobscots.
USFWS TILTS WITH WINDMILLS: Developers of a "sprawling new wind farm"
in
south-central Pennsylvania, received a "warning shot" from the USFWS
in a
letter warning that the "20-turbine site did not sufficiently study the
risks
their 337-foot windmills could pose" to migratory birds says the Johnstown
Tribune-Democrat 10/5. According to the letter, the energy companies'
preliminary study of the site was based on inadequate monitoring,
"significantly" under representing the number of birds that pass
through the
area, and "insufficiently addressed risks to songbirds." In addition,
the
service is concerned about "nearby habitat of the endangered Indiana
bat and
bald eagle mortality at the turbine site" that could reach as has as
21%.
LAST MINUTE ORCA REUNIFICATION: "After two years of inaction and weeks
of
official indecision," Canada has decided that Luna, an orca "lost
in the back
bays of Vancouver Island should be reunited with his pod near the San Juan
Islands" says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer 10/3. The reunification
is
complicated by a number of factors including the unwillingness of Canada or
the U.S. governments to pay the $250,000 needed for the move, the short
amount of time before Luna's family leaves for the winter and his affinity
for rubbing up against boats, which the Canadians contend might necessitate
confinement in an aquarium.
HOOVER'S WOOLLY-STAR DELISTING:
We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have determined that
Eriastrum hooveri (Hoover's woolly-star) is no longer a threatened
species pursuant to the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Act), as
amended. This determination is based on the discovery of new
populations and implementation of recovery actions that contributed
substantially towards meeting delisting criteria outlined in the
``Recovery Plan For Upland Species of the San Joaquin Valley,
California'' (Recovery Plan) (USFWS 1998). Beginning in 1990, recovery
efforts for this species succeeded in locating additional populations,
discovering through research that Eriastrum hooveri is more resilient
and less vulnerable to disturbance activities than previously known,
and achieving protection through cooperation with Federal, State, and
private entities on more than 114,400 hectares (286,000 acres) of E.
hooveri habitat. The management practices of, and commitments by, the
U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), on whose land a substantial
number of the new populations have been found, will afford adequate
protection to the species upon delisting. Following delisting, BLM will
designate E. hooveri as a ``sensitive species'' pursuant to BLM Manual
6840 and California State Manual Supplement H-6840.06, to provide for
continued protection and monitoring of the species on BLM lands. The
post-delisting monitoring, required under section 4 of the Act, will be
facilitated by BLM's implementation of their Caliente Resource
Management Plan (RMP) (BLM 1996). Under the RMP and separate
agreements, BLM will monitor the species and monitor residual threats
at representative sites within four E. hooveri metapopulations.
WESTERN RIVERSIDE COUNTY MSHCP FEIS:
Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act, this notice advises
the public of the availability of the Final Environmental Impact
Statement/Environmental Impact Report (EIS/EIR) on the application by
the County of Riverside, California Department of Transportation,
California Department of Parks and Recreation and 14 cities
(Applicants) in western Riverside County to incidentally take 83 animal
species, including 69 unlisted species should any of them become
listed, under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act),
during the term of the proposed 75-year permit. The permit is needed to
authorize take of listed animal species (including harm, injury and
harassment) during urban and rural development in the approximately 1.2
million-acre (1,967 square-mile) Plan Area in western Riverside County,
California.
CHINESE ENDANGERMENT HIGH: According to the state forestry agency "about
15%
to 20% of animal and plant species in China are in danger of extinction,"
including 300 species of terrestrial vertebrates and 410 species of wild
plants says the International Herald Tribune, Agence France-Press 10/6.
Ecologists warn that by 2010 another 3,000 to 4,000 will be pushed to the
brink by "insufficient forest resources, destruction of natural habitats
and
illicit poaching" and due tof the "structure of the sex chain, if
one kind
of plant disappears, 10 to 30 other organisms, dependent on the plant, could
also disappear."
MEXICAN SPOTTED OWL SW FORESTS PLAN EIS NOI CANCELED:
On August 7, 2001, a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an environmental
impact statement to amend National Forest land and resource management
plans in the Southwestern Region to modify standards and guidelines for
Mexican spotted owl and northern goshawk within wildland-urban
interface areas and to emphasize the management of wildland-urban
interface areas throughout the southwest was published in the Federal
Register (66 FR 41198-41200). This 2001 NOI is hereby rescinded.
Next week, a group of U.S. Representatives and Senators will be
completing a spending bill for energy and water projects throughout
the nation. Unfortunately, there are provisions in the bill that need
to be removed because they threaten the existence of two highly
endangered species.
The first provision is an attack on the Endangered Species Act (ESA)
that threatens the very existence of the critically endangered Rio
Grande silvery minnow. If the provision is approved, a slew of
harmful activities along a large portion of the Middle Rio Grande
would be exempted from complying with the ESA. Even worse, the use
of any water in the Middle Rio Grande for the ESA could be
prohibited, the consequences of which could be devastating. Unless
enough clean water is allowed to flow, much larger than normal
stretches of the river could go dry, killing the few remaining
minnows and harming the river itself. Keeping the river healthy for
the minnow means keeping the river healthy for everyone who depends
on it.
The second provision would prevent the use of three new turbines in
Montana's Libby Dam that are needed to allow more water to flow into
the Kootenai River. The increased water flow is essential to the
survival of the endangered Kootenai River white sturgeon because it
would allow the remaining 700 fish to spawn and raise their young in
a protected environment. Kootenai River white sturgeon, which can
live over 90 years and weigh as much as 350 pounds, have not
successfully spawned since Libby Dam went into operation in 1974, and
it is feared that the remaining sturgeon will soon pass the period in
their lives when they are capable of reproducing. Without the
additional turbines, the Libby Dam is not capable of releasing the
large spring floods that cue the sturgeon to spawn and maintain river
gravels that sustain sturgeon young.
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