Coaster Brook Trout

Federal Register Notice (May19, 2009):

12-Month Finding on a Petition To List the Coaster Brook Trout as Endangered

 

The Federal Register Notice is a 13-page PDF document. Below is the Summary and Background. Go here for the complete Federal Register Notice.

 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

50 CFR Part 17

[FWS–R3–ES–2008–0030; 92210–1111–0000–FY09–B3]

 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

 

ACTION: Notice of 12-month petition finding.

 

SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a 12-month finding on a petition to list the coaster brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). The petition also asked that critical habitat be designated for the species. After review of all available scientific and commercial information, we find that the coaster brook trout is not a listable entity under the Act, and therefore, listing is not warranted. We ask the public to continue to submit to us any new information that becomes available concerning the taxonomy, biology, ecology, and status of coaster brook trout and to support cooperative conservation of coaster brook trout within its historical range in the Great Lakes.

 

DATES: The finding announced in this document was made on May 19, 2009.

 

ADDRESSES: This finding is available on the Internet at http:// www.regulations.gov at Docket Number [FWS–R3–ES–2008–0030]. Supporting documentation for this finding is available for inspection, by appointment, during normal business hours at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 3 Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Office, 1 Federal Drive, Bishop Henry Whipple Federal
Building, Fort Snelling, MN 55111.

 

Please submit any new information, materials, comments, or questions concerning this finding to the above address, Attention: Coaster brook trout.

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jessica Hogrefe, Region 3 Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Office (see ADDRESSES) (telephone 612–713–5346; facsimile 612–713–5292). Persons who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 800–877–8339.

 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

Section 4(b)(3)(B) of the Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) requires that, for any petition to revise the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants that contains substantial scientific and commercial information that listing may be warranted, we make a finding within 12 months of the date of our receipt of the petition on whether the petitioned action is: (a) Not warranted, (b) warranted, or (c) warranted, but the immediate proposal of a regulation implementing the petitioned action is precluded by other pending proposals to determine whether species are threatened or endangered, and expeditious progress is being made to add or remove qualified species from the List of Endangered and Threatened Species. Section 4(b)(3)(C) of the Act requires that we treat a petition for which the requested action is found to be warranted but precluded as though resubmitted on the date of such finding, that is, requiring that we make a subsequent finding within 12 months. Such 12-month findings must be published in the Federal Register. This notice constitutes our 12-month finding for the petition to list the U.S. population of coaster brook trout.

 

Previous Federal Action

The Sierra Club Mackinac Chapter, Huron Mountain Club, and Marvin J. Roberson filed a petition, dated February 22, 2006, with the Secretary of the Interior to list as endangered the ‘‘naturally spawning anadromous (lakerun) coaster brook trout throughout its known historic range in the conterminous United States’’ and to designate critical habitat under the Act. The petition clearly identified itself as such and included the requisite identification information for the petitioners, as required in 50 CFR 424.14(a). On behalf of the petitioners, Peter Kryn Dykema, Secretary of the Huron Mountain Club, submitted supplemental information, dated May 23, 2006, in support of the original petition. This supplemental information provided further information on the species’ status and biology, particularly for brook trout in the Salmon Trout River.

 

On September 13, 2007, we received a 60-day notice of intent to sue over the Service’s failure to determine, within 1 year of receiving the petition, whether the coaster brook trout warrants listing. Under section 4 of the Act, the Service is to make a finding, to the maximum extent practicable within 90 days of receiving a petition, that it does or does not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted. Further, the Act requires that, within 12 months of receiving a petition found to present substantial information, the Service must determine whether the petitioned action is warranted. A complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia on December 17, 2007, for failure to make a timely finding (Sierra Club, et al. v. Kempthorne, No. 1:07–cv–02261 (D.D.C. December 17, 2007)). The Service reached a negotiated settlement with the plaintiffs to submit the 90-day finding to the Federal Register by March 15, 2008. We published a ‘‘substantial’’ 90-day finding March 20, 2008. The negotiated settlement further required the Service to publish the 12-month finding in the
Federal Register by December 15, 2008. The deadline for the 12-month finding was extended to April 15, 2009, by mutual consent. On April 15, 2009, we filed an unopposed motion to extend the deadline for the coaster brook trout 12-month finding to May 12, 2009.

 

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