[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 122 (Monday, June 25, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37917-37918]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-15385]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R2-ES-2012-N091; FXES11150200000F4-123-FF02ENEH00]
Draft Candidate Conservation Agreement With Assurances and Draft
Environmental Assessment; Lesser Prairie Chicken, Oklahoma
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC)
(Applicant) has applied for an enhancement of survival permit pursuant
to Section 10(a)(1)(A) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as
amended. The permit application includes a draft Candidate Conservation
Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (Service) and ODWC for the lesser prairie-chicken (LEPC) in 10
Oklahoma counties. If the LEPC becomes listed in the future, the
Enhancement of Survival permit will become effective, authorizing
incidental take of LEPCs resulting from ongoing, otherwise lawful
activities on enrolled lands. The draft CCAA and the draft
[[Page 37918]]
Environmental Assessment are available for public review, and we seek
public comment on the potential issuance of the above permits.
DATES: To ensure consideration, please send your written comments by
August 24, 2012.
ADDRESSES: Persons wishing to review the application, the draft CCAA,
the draft EA, or other related documents may obtain copies by written
or telephone request to Field Supervisor, Oklahoma Ecological Services
Field Office, 918-581-7458 (U.S. mail address below). Electronic copies
of these documents are available for review on the Service Lesser
Prairie Chicken Web site: http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/LPC.html. The
application and related documents will be available for public
inspection, by appointment only, during normal business hours (8 a.m.
to 4:30 p.m.) at the Oklahoma Ecological Services Field Office at the
address below.
Comments concerning the application, the draft CCAA, the draft EA,
or other related documents should be submitted in writing, by one of
the following methods:
Email: lesserprairiechicken@fws.gov.
U.S. mail: Field Supervisor, Oklahoma Ecological Services Field
Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 9014 E. 21st St., Tulsa, OK
74129.
Please refer to Permit number TE72923A-0 when submitting comments.
Please specify if comments are in reference to the draft CCAA, draft
EA, or both.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dixie Porter at the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Oklahoma Ecological Services Field Office (address
above).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: With the assistance of the Service, the
Applicant proposes to implement conservation measures for the LEPC by
removing threats to the survival of these species and protecting their
habitat. The proposed CCAA would be in effect for 25 years in Alfalfa,
Beaver, Beckham, Cimarron, Custer, Dewey, Ellis, Harper, Roger Mills,
Texas, Washita, Woods, and Woodward counties, Oklahoma. This area
constitutes the CCAA's Planning Area, with Covered Areas being eligible
non-federal lands within the Planning Area that provide suitable
habitat for LEPC, or have the potential to provide suitable LEPC
habitat with the implementation of conservation management practices.
The CCAA is in addition to a larger conservation effort for the LEPC
across its range within Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, and New
Mexico. The CCAA has been developed in support of a section 10(a)(1)(A)
enhancement of survival permit.
If approved, participants who are fully implementing the CCAA
provisions of the enhancement of survival permit will be provided
assurances that, should the LEPC be listed, the Service will not
require them to provide additional land, water, or financial resources,
nor will there be any further restrictions to their land, water, or
financial resources than they committed to under the CCAA provisions
(50 CFR 17.22(d) and 17.32(d)). Furthermore, if the LEPC is listed,
participants would be provided incidental take authorization under the
enhancement of survival permit, through certificates of inclusion, for
the level of incidental take on the enrolled lands consistent with the
activities under the CCAA provisions.
Background
The LEPC currently occurs in five states: Colorado, Kansas, New
Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The species inhabits rangelands dominated
primarily by shinnery oak-bluestem and sand sagebrush-bluestem
vegetation types. Major factors affecting the status of the LEPC are
habitat fragmentation, overutilization by domestic livestock, oil and
gas development, wind energy development, loss of native rangelands to
cropland conversion, herbicide use, fire suppression, and drought. In
1998, the Service determined that listing of the LEPC was warranted but
precluded because of other higher priority species. The December 2008,
Candidate Notice of Review elevated the listing priority of the LEPC
from an ``8'' to a ``2'' because the overall magnitude of threats to
the LEPC were increasing and occurring throughout almost all of the
currently occupied range.
The CCAA was initiated in order to facilitate conservation and
restoration of the LEPC on private and State trust lands in Oklahoma.
Expected conservation benefits for LEPC from implementation of the
conservation measures in this CCAA will be recognized through improved
population performance. Specifically, this will entail expected
increases in adult and juvenile survivorship, nest success, and
recruitment rates.
Furthermore, LEPC conservation will be enhanced by providing ESA
regulatory assurances for participating property owners. There will be
a measure of security for participating landowners in the knowledge
that they will not incur additional land use restrictions if the
species is listed under the ESA. The CCAA will provide benefits to LEPC
by providing technical assistance to landowners in managing lesser
prairie-chicken habitat. Through participation landowners may be
assisted with securing potential state and federal funding for applying
best management practices and conservation measures on their property
to protect and enhance LEPC habitat, which should sustain and improve
population performance (i.e., increased population numbers, increased
survival, reduced mortality, expansion of occupied range). The
Applicant has committed to guiding the implementation of the CCAA and
requests issuance of the enhancement of survival permit in order to
address the take prohibitions of section 9 of the Act should the
species become listed in the future.
The draft CCAA and application for the enhancement of survival
permit are not eligible for categorical exclusion under the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. A draft Environmental
Assessment has been prepared to further analyze the direct, indirect,
and cumulative impacts of the CCAA on the quality of the human
environment and other natural resources.
Public Availability of Comments
All comments we receive become part of the public record. Requests
for copies of comments will be handled in accordance with the Freedom
of Information Act, NEPA, and Service and Department of the Interior
policies and procedures. Before including your address, phone number,
email address, or other personal identifying information in your
comment, you should be aware that your entire comment--including your
personal identifying information--may be made publicly available at any
time. While you can ask us to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we cannot guarantee we will be able to
do so.
Authority
We provide this notice under section 10(c) of the Act (16 U.S.C.
1531 et seq.) and its implementing regulations (50 CFR 17.22 and
17.32), and the National Environmental Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 4371 et
seq.) and its implementing regulations (40 CFR 1506.6).
Benjamin N. Tuggle,
Regional Director, Region 2, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
[FR Doc. 2012-15385 Filed 6-22-12; 8:45 am]
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