[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 229 (Tuesday, November 29, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 86000-86001]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-28736]
[[Page 86000]]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R6-ES-2016-N151; FF06E11000-167-FXES11120600000]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Permits; Draft
Supplement to Environmental Impact Statement and Amendment to Habitat
Conservation Plan for Forest Management in Montana
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, intend to prepare a
draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) under the
National Environmental Policy Act to consider potential impacts on the
human environment from proposed amendments to an incidental take permit
and associated habitat conservation plan. Under the Endangered Species
Act, we issued the original permit to the Montana Department of Natural
Resources and Conservation (DNRC) in December 2011, authorizing take of
the grizzly bear, Canada lynx, bull trout, and two other fish species
incidental to the DNRC's forest management activities. The purpose of
this notice is to describe the proposed action and advise other Federal
and State agencies, potentially affected tribes, and the public of our
intent to prepare a DSEIS. The DNRC intends to jointly prepare the
DSEIS to comply with its responsibilities under the Montana
Environmental Policy Act. We are not soliciting comments at this time.
The public will have opportunity to comment on the published DSEIS when
we announce its availability in the Federal Register and local and
regional news sources.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ben Conard, Assistant Field
Supervisor, at (406) 758-6882 or Ben_Conard@fws.gov; or Gary Frank,
Deputy Chief, Forest Management Bureau, Montana DNRC, at (406) 542-4328
or gfrank@mt.gov.
Individuals who are hearing or speech impaired may call the Federal
Relay Service at (800) 877-8337 for TTY assistance. Information on this
proposed action is also available at the DNRC's Web site, at http://dnrc.mt.gov/divisions/trust/forest-management/hcp.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Introduction
Under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA, 16
U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), we, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service)
issued an original permit to the Montana Department of Natural
Resources and Conservation (DNRC) in December 2011, authorizing take of
the grizzly bear, Canada lynx, bull trout, and two other fish species
incidental to their forest management activities. The DNRC now is
proposing to amend the HCP to incorporate terms of a settlement
agreement and is requesting that we amend the permit to cover
additional lands.
We intend to prepare a DSEIS under the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) to consider potential impacts
on the human environment from the proposed amendment to a habitat
conservation plan (HCP) and associated incidental take permit issued
under section 10(A)(1)(B) of the ESA. The DNRC intends to jointly
prepare the DSEIS to comply with the Montana Environmental Policy Act,
Mont. Code Ann. 75-1-101-75-1-324 and the DNRC implementing
regulations, Administrative Rules of Montana 36.2.501-36.2.611. The
DNRC is requesting that the permit be amended to authorize potential
take from forest management activities on an additional 81,416 acres.
The DNRC is also proposing to amend the HCP to incorporate the terms of
a settlement agreement to add conservation measures and remove others
that are no longer relevant.
The DNRC is preparing an amendment to the HCP detailing how the
proposed action would be adopted to comply with the HCP's required
measures to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the effects of incidental
take of the covered species to the maximum extent practicable. We
provide this notice to (1) describe the proposed action and (2) advise
other Federal and State agencies, potentially affected tribes, and the
public of our intent to prepare a DSEIS. In the DSEIS, we will analyze
potential effects to the covered species and other factors of the human
environment from the proposed action and alternatives to the action.
Background
In April 2009, the DNRC applied for a permit for take incidental to
forest management activities for the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos
horribilis), Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), bull trout (Salvelinus
confluentus), westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi),
and interior redband trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri). The grizzly
bear, lynx, and bull trout are federally listed, while the westslope
and redband trout species are not. Before deciding whether to issue the
permit, we analyzed the potential effects of implementation of the HCP
and alternatives in a draft EIS (DEIS). In an announcement in the
Federal Register on June 26, 2009 (74 FR 30617), we provided the DEIS
and DNRC's permit application package, which included the draft HCP,
for public review for a total of 105 days. After considering the public
comments, the Service finalized the EIS and issued the permit to DNRC
on December 14, 2011.
The permit area covers approximately 548,500 acres of forested
State trust lands in western Montana. However, because DNRC expected to
transfer, exchange, or add lands for their forest management activities
in the future, the HCP addressed the process and contingencies for
doing so. Thus, the Service considered in the EIS the potential effects
of amending the HCP and incidental take permit to cover such actions.
In April 2013, two environmental organizations challenged the
issuance of the permit in a Federal District Court in Montana. The
Court ruled in the Service's favor on all but one count. DNRC and the
plaintiffs subsequently entered a settlement agreement for that count
in September 2015. The future addition of lands to the HCP and permit
were not part of the complaint or the settlement agreement.
Proposed Action
The Service plans to prepare a supplement to the EIS to assess the
effects of the proposed amendment to the HCP and permit and
incorporation of the terms of the settlement agreement.
The terms of the settlement agreement focus primarily on adjusting
management of DNRC's Class A lands under the Stillwater Block
Transportation Plan in the HCP, which entailed a strategy of a cycle of
4 years of active forest management followed by 8 years of rest. The
settlement agreement identifies seven distinct grizzly bear security
zones totaling 22,007 acres. These security zones include the entirety
of the original 19,400 acres of Class A lands in the Stillwater Block
in the HCP, but also add 2,300 acres in a new area in Coal Creek State
Forest. The amended HCP would replace the 4-year active/8-year rest
management cycle on Stillwater Block Lands with specific measures for
restricting forest management activities to the denning season in these
grizzly bear security zones. All motorized activities below 6,300 feet
in elevation within the grizzly security zones would be allowed during
the grizzly denning season and prohibited all year round above that
elevation. The same seasonal and elevation restrictions would apply
[[Page 86001]]
to commercial forest management activities within the grizzly security
zones. The current HCP prohibits new permanent road construction on the
original 19,400 acres of Class A lands. This measure would remain
essentially the same under an amendment, but would be specifically
applied to the seven grizzly security zones, including the additional
2,300 acres in the Coal Creek State Forest. Several other measures in
the HCP for Class A lands would remain the same but be extended to the
grizzly security zones with amendments. Other amendments would
specifically spell out measures that DNRC had committed to implement in
the original HCP but were previously incorporated by reference from
DNRC's Forest Management Administrative Rules of Montana.
Since we issued the permit, DNRC has acquired an appreciable amount
of forested lands within the original HCP area, and they are now
requesting to amend the HCP and permit to cover an additional 81,416
acres. DNRC proposes to implement the HCP's existing conservation
commitments on the additional lands. The six acquisition areas and
their acreages are the Swan, which contains 16,446 acres; Chamberlain,
which contains 14,537 acres; Potomac, which contains 32,266 acres; Lolo
Land Exchange, which contains 11,066 acres; Upper Blackfoot, which
contains 5,458 acres; and Southern Bitterroot, which contains 1,643
acres. The HCP would be amended to reflect inclusion of (1) the Swan
acquisition lands in the Swan Transportation Plan, (2) the Swan
acquisition area in the Swan Lynx Management Area (LMA), (3) a portion
of the Chamberlain acquisition area in the Garnet LMA, and (4)
increasing the acres of lynx critical habitat addressed in the HCP.
The original HCP requires the DNRC to complete corrective actions
at sites identified with high risk of sediment delivery in bull trout
watersheds in the HCP area by 2027. As directed by the settlement
agreement, the HCP would be amended to prioritize and complete such
corrective actions in federally designated bull trout critical habitat
by 2024.
Lastly, over the past 5 years of HCP implementation, the Service
and DNRC identified some commitment and procedural clarifications that
would be incorporated into the HCP. These amendments would serve to
help DNRC understand how to implement certain measures and would not
entail any changes to the nature of the measures or how they affect the
covered species.
Statutory Requirements
Section 9 of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1538) and implementing regulations
in title 50 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) prohibit the
taking of animal species listed as endangered or threatened. The term
``take'' is defined under the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1532(19)) to mean
``harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or
collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.'' ``Harm'' is
defined by the Service to include significant habitat modification or
degradation where it actually kills or injures listed species by
significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including
breeding, feeding, and sheltering (50 CFR 17.3). ``Harass'' is defined
by the Service as actions that create the likelihood of injury to
listed species to such an extent as to significantly disrupt normal
behavior patterns, which include, but are not limited to, breeding,
feeding, or sheltering (50 CFR 17.3).
Section 10 of the ESA and implementing regulations specify
requirements for the issuance of incidental take permits to non-Federal
landowners for the incidental take of endangered and threatened
species. Such take must be incidental to otherwise lawful activities
and not appreciably reduce the likelihood of the survival and recovery
of the species in the wild, and the impacts of the take on the listed
species must be minimized and mitigated by the permittee to the maximum
extent practicable. An applicant for an incidental take permit must
prepare an HCP describing the impacts that will likely result from such
taking, the conservation program for minimizing and mitigating those
take impacts, the funding available to implement the conservation
program, the alternatives considered by the applicant to avoid such
taking, and the reason(s) such alternatives are not being implemented.
NEPA requires that Federal agencies conduct an environmental
analysis of their proposed actions to determine if the actions may
significantly affect the human environment. The Service determined that
the final DNRC HCP EIS (September 17, 2010) requires a supplement since
the changes in the proposed action may materially or substantially
affect the analysis of impacts (40 CFR 1502.9 and 516 DM 4.5).
Public Comments
The DSEIS will be developed using the same process as the original
DNRC HCP EIS. We are not soliciting comments at this time. The public
will have opportunity to comment on the published DSEIS, which will be
announced in the Federal Register and local and regional news sources.
For general inquiries or questions about the DSEIS process, see FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Authority
The environmental review of this proposed action will be conducted
in accordance with the requirements of NEPA, the Council on
Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), the
Department of the Interior NEPA regulations (43 CFR part 46), other
applicable Federal laws and regulations, and policies and procedures of
the Service. This notice is being furnished in accordance with 40 CFR
1501.7 to notify the public of the Service's intent to prepare a DSEIS.
Michael Thabault,
Assistant Regional Director, Mountain-Prairie Region.
[FR Doc. 2016-28736 Filed 11-28-16; 8:45 am]
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