[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 79 (Friday, April 24, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23045-23046]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-09547]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R8-ES-2015-N043; FXES11130000-156-FF08E00000]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Draft Recovery
Plan for the Santa Barbara County Distinct Population Segment of the
California Tiger Salamander
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of document availability; request for comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announce the
availability of the draft recovery plan for the Santa Barbara County
Distinct Population Segment of the California tiger salamander
(Ambystoma californiense). The recovery plan includes recovery
objectives and criteria, and specific actions necessary to achieve
downlisting and delisting from the Federal Lists of Endangered and
Threatened Wildlife and Plants. We request review and comment on this
plan from local, State, and Federal agencies; Tribes; and the public.
We will also accept any new information on the status of the Santa
Barbara County Distinct Population Segment of the California tiger
salamander throughout its range to assist in finalizing the recovery
plan.
DATES: To ensure consideration, we must receive written comments on or
before June 23, 2015. However, we will accept information about any
species at any time.
ADDRESSES: You may obtain a copy of the draft recovery plan from our
Web site at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/species/recovery-plans.html.
Alternatively, you may contact the Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2493 Portola Road, Suite B, Ventura,
California 93003 (telephone 805-644-1766). If you wish to comment on
the draft recovery plan, you may submit your comments in writing by any
one of the following methods:
U.S. mail: Field Supervisor, at the above address;
Hand-delivery: Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office, at the
above address;
Fax: (805) 644-3958; or
Email: sbcts_rp@fws.gov.
For additional information about submitting comments, see the
``Request for Public Comments'' section below.
[[Page 23046]]
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen P. Henry, Field Supervisor, at
the above street address or telephone number (see ADDRESSES).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Recovery of endangered or threatened animals and plants to the
point where they are again secure, self-sustaining members of their
ecosystems is a primary goal of our endangered species program and the
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et
seq.). Recovery means improvement of the status of listed species to
the point at which listing is no longer appropriate under the criteria
specified in section 4(a)(1) of the Act. The Act requires the
development of recovery plans for listed species, unless such a plan
would not promote the conservation of a particular species.
On January 19, 2000, the Santa Barbara County Distinct Population
Segment (DPS) of the California tiger salamander was emergency listed
as endangered (65 FR 3096). The final listing rule for the species was
subsequently published on September 21, 2000 (65 FR 57242). Critical
habitat for the DPS was designated in 2004 (69 FR 68568).
The Santa Barbara County DPS of the California tiger salamander is
endemic to the northern portion of Santa Barbara County, California,
and currently consists of six distinct metapopulations, defined as a
set of local populations or breeding sites within an area, where
typically dispersal from one local population or breeding site to other
areas containing suitable habitat is possible, but not routine. The
primary threat that resulted in the listing of the Santa Barbara DPS of
the California tiger salamander as federally endangered was the loss,
degradation, and fragmentation of habitat from human activities. The
California tiger salamander requires a combination of pond habitat for
breeding, and upland (underground) habitat for the rest of its life
cycle. The species depends on a series of interconnected breeding and
upland habitats, making it particularly sensitive to changes in the
amount, configuration, and quality of these habitats. The loss and
destruction of habitat continues to represent the primary threat to the
species. Within the range of the Santa Barbara County DPS of the
California tiger salamander, significant portions of its habitat have
been altered or destroyed. Additional threats to the species include
hybridization with nonnative tiger salamanders, predation and
competition by nonnative species, vehicle-strike mortality, and lack of
compliance with existing regulatory mechanisms. A majority of the known
California tiger salamander occurrences in Santa Barbara County
currently occur on private lands, requiring continual coordination with
multiple private and local government entities for management.
Recovery Plan
The purpose of a recovery plan is to provide a framework for the
recovery of species so that protection under the Act is no longer
necessary. A recovery plan includes scientific information about the
species and provides criteria that help us to gauge whether downlisting
or delisting the species is warranted. Furthermore, recovery plans help
guide our recovery efforts by describing actions we consider necessary
for each species' conservation and by estimating time and costs for
implementing needed recovery measures.
The goal of this draft recovery plan is to reduce the threats to
the Santa Barbara County DPS of the California tiger salamander to
ensure its long-term viability in the wild, and allow for its removal
from the list of threatened and endangered species. The interim goal is
to recover the DPS to the point that it can be downlisted from
endangered to threatened status. The recovery objectives of the plan
are:
1. Protect and manage sufficient habitat within the metapopulation
areas to support long-term viability of the Santa Barbara County DPS of
the California tiger salamander.
2. Reduce or remove other threats to the Santa Barbara County DPS
of the California tiger salamander.
The draft recovery plan contains recovery criteria based on
maintaining and increasing population numbers and habitat quality and
quantity, and mitigating significant threats to the species. As the
Santa Barbara County DPS of the California tiger salamander meets these
criteria, we will review the species' status and consider the species
for downlisting or removal from the Federal List of Endangered and
Threatened Wildlife and Plants.
Request for Public Comments
Section 4(f) of the Act requires us to provide public notice and an
opportunity for public review and comment during recovery plan
development. It is also our policy to request peer review of recovery
plans (July 1, 1994; 59 FR 34270). In an appendix to the approved
recovery plan, we will summarize and respond to the issues raised by
the public and peer reviewers. Substantive comments may or may not
result in changes to the recovery plan; comments regarding recovery
plan implementation will be forwarded as appropriate to Federal or
other entities so that they can be taken into account during the course
of implementing recovery actions. Responses to individual commenters
will not be provided, but we will provide a summary of how we addressed
substantive comments in an appendix to the approved recovery plan.
We invite written comments on the draft recovery plan. In
particular, we are interested in additional information regarding the
current threats to the species, and our proposed approach to recovering
the species.
Before we approve our final recovery plan, we will consider all
comments we receive by the date specified in DATES above. Methods of
submitting comments are in the ADDRESSES section above.
Public Availability of Comments
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 in your comment to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be
able to do so.
Comments and materials we receive will be available, by
appointment, for public inspection during normal business hours at our
office (see ADDRESSES).
Authority
We developed our draft recovery plan under the authority of section
4(f) of the Act, 16 U.S.C. 1533(f). We publish this notice under
section 4(f) Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531
et seq.).
Alexandra Pitts,
Acting Regional Director, Pacific Southwest Region.
[FR Doc. 2015-09547 Filed 4-23-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P