[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 136 (Tuesday, July 16, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33962-33963]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-15043]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R4-ES-2018-N125; FXES11130400000C2-189-FF04E00000]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Draft Recovery
Plan for Short's Bladderpod
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability and request for public comment.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the
availability of the draft recovery plan for the endangered Short's
bladderpod. The draft recovery plan includes specific recovery
objectives and criteria that must be met in order for us to recover and
ultimately delist the species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973,
as amended. We request review and comment on this draft recovery plan
from local, State, and Federal agencies and the public.
DATES: In order to be considered, comments on the draft recovery plan
must be received on or before September 16, 2019.
ADDRESSES:
Reviewing documents: If you wish to review this draft recovery
plan, you may obtain a copy by contacting Geoff Call, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Tennessee Ecological Services Field Office, 446 Neal
Street, Cookeville, Tennessee 38506, tel. 931-525-4983; or by visiting
the Service's Tennessee Field Office website at http://www.fws.gov/cookeville.
Submitting comments: If you wish to comment, you may submit your
comments by one of the following methods:
1. You may submit written comments and materials to us, at the
above address.
2. You may hand-deliver written comments to our Tennessee Field
Office, at the above address, or fax them to 931-528-7075.
3. You may send comments by email to geoff_call@fws.gov. Please
include ``Short's bladderpod Draft Recovery Plan Comments'' on the
subject line.
For additional information about submitting comments, see Request
for Public Comments below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Geoff Call (see ADDRESSES).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Short's bladderpod (Physaria globosa) is an upright biennial or
perennial plant with several stems, some branched at the base, reaching
heights up to 50 centimeters (cm) (20 inches (in.)). The species is
restricted to 31 extant occurrences distributed among 4 sections of the
Interior Low Plateaus physiographic province: 1 in the Shawnee Hills
section (Indiana), 11 occurrences in the Bluegrass (Kentucky), 14 in
the Highland Rim, and 5 in the Nashville Basin (both Tennessee).
Short's bladderpod typically grows on steep, rocky, wooded slopes and
talus (sloping mass of rock fragments below a bluff or ledge) areas. It
also occurs along tops, bases, and ledges of bluffs and infrequently on
sites with little topographic relief. The species usually is found in
these habitats on south- to west-facing slopes near rivers or streams.
Most populations are closely associated with calcareous outcrops.
The Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) states that a
species may be listed as endangered or threatened based on one or more
of five factors. The greatest threat to Short's bladderpod is loss or
degradation of habitat (Listing Factor A). The main causes of habitat
degradation or loss include future construction and ongoing maintenance
of transportation and utility rights-of way; prolonged inundation and
soil erosion due to flooding and water level manipulation; overstory
shading due to forest succession; and competition from invasive plant
species. Additionally, the species' resilience to these threats and
environmental variation is diminished due to the small sizes of many
populations (Factor E). We determined that other existing regulatory
mechanisms were inadequate to reduce these threats (Listing Factor D).
As a result of these threats, Short's
[[Page 33963]]
bladderpod was listed as endangered under the Act on August 1, 2014 (79
FR 44712). Approximately 373 hectares (ha) (925.5 acres (ac)),
distributed among 20 units in Posey County, Indiana; Clark, Franklin,
and Woodford Counties, Kentucky; and Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson,
Jackson, Montgomery, Smith, and Trousdale Counties, Tennessee, were
designated as critical habitat on August 26, 2014 (79 FR 50990).
Recovery Plan
Section 4(f) of the Act requires the development of recovery plans
for listed species, unless such a plan would not promote the
conservation of a particular species. Recovery plans describe actions
considered necessary for conservation of the species, establish
recovery criteria, and estimate time and cost for implementing recovery
measures. Section 4(f) of the Act also requires us to provide public
notice and an opportunity for public review and comment during recovery
plan development. We will consider all information presented during a
public comment period prior to approval of each new or revised recovery
plan. We and other Federal agencies will take these comments into
account in the course of implementing approved recovery plans.
The draft recovery plan describes actions necessary for the
recovery of Short's bladderpod, establishes criteria for its delisting,
and estimates the time and cost for implementing specific measures
needed to recover the species. The ultimate goal of this draft recovery
plan is to ensure the long-term viability of the Short's bladderpod in
the wild to the point that it can be removed from the Federal List of
Endangered and Threatened Plants in title 50 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (50 CFR 17.12).
Recovery Criteria
The Short's bladderpod will be considered for delisting when:
(1) Agreements have been reached with key stakeholders to conserve,
restore, and manage habitat to provide ecological conditions, as
described in the Species Status Assessment for Short's bladderpod
(SSA), that promote growth of individuals and support resilient
populations. (Addresses Listing Factor A.)
(2) Monitoring demonstrates stable or increasing population growth
rates or an average population size for at least 25 populations that is
equal to or above the minimum viable size. Populations are protected by
a conservation mechanism. A minimum of 6 of these populations must be
located in the Kentucky River watershed and 15 populations in the
Cumberland River watershed, in addition to the population in the Wabash
River watershed, in order to ensure adequate regional representation
and intra-regional redundancy of resilient populations. (Addresses
Listing Factors A and E.)
(3) In lieu of satisfying criteria 1 and 2, the species could be
considered for delisting if 50 resilient occurrences (as described in
the SSA) are distributed among the physiographic regions where the
species occurs. (Addresses Factor A and E.)
Request for Public Comments
We request written comments on the draft recovery plan. We will
consider all comments we receive by the date specified in DATES prior
to final approval of the plan.
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.
Authority
The authority for this action is section 4(f) of the Endangered
Species Act, 16 U.S.C. 1533(f).
Dated: October 15, 2018.
Mike Oetker,
Acting Regional Director, Southeast Region.
Editorial Note: This document was received for publication by
the Office of the Federal Register on July 11, 2019.
[FR Doc. 2019-15043 Filed 7-15-19; 8:45 am]
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