[Federal Register: January 15, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 10)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 2465-2467]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr15ja09-65]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
50 CFR Part 17
[FWS-R2-ES-2008-0059; MO 9221050083-B2]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Status Review of
the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in the Sonoran Desert Area of
Central Arizona and Northwestern Mexico
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of continuing information collection for a status
review.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the
continuation of information collection on a status review for the bald
eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in the Sonoran Desert area of central
Arizona and northwestern Mexico, hereafter referred to as the ``Sonoran
Desert area bald eagle.'' Through this action, we
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encourage all interested parties to provide us with information
regarding the status of, and any potential threats to, the Sonoran
Desert area bald eagle. Information previously submitted for this
status assessment does not need to be resubmitted, and will be
incorporated into the public record and fully considered in our status
review.
DATES: To allow us adequate time to consider and incorporate submitted
information into our review which is due by October 12, 2009, we
request that we receive the information on or before July 10, 2009.
ADDRESSES: You may submit information by one of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for comments or submissions.
U.S. mail or hand-delivery: Public Comments Processing,
Attn: FWS-R2-ES-2008-0059; Division of Policy and Directives
Management; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; 4401 N. Fairfax Drive,
Suite 222; Arlington, VA 22203.
We will not accept e-mail or faxes. We will post all information
received on http://www.regulations.gov. This generally means that we
will post any personal information you provide us (see the Information
Solicited section below for more information).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steve Spangle, Field Supervisor,
Arizona Ecological Services Office, 2321 West Royal Palm Road, Suite
103, Phoenix, AZ 85021-4951; telephone 602-242-0210; facsimile 602-242-
2513. If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), call
the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 800-877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Information Solicited
To ensure that the status review is complete and based on the best
available scientific and commercial information, we are continuing to
collect information concerning the status of the Sonoran Desert area
bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). We will use information gained
during this process to evaluate whether the Sonoran Desert area bald
eagle is a Distinct Population Segment (DPS) as described in our policy
on determining a DPS (61 FR 4722, February 7, 1996; DPS Policy), and if
listing as threatened or endangered is warranted under the Endangered
Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act) (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). If we
determine that listing the Sonoran Desert area bald eagle is warranted,
we would propose critical habitat to the maximum extent prudent and
determinable at the time we prepare a proposed listing rule.
To allow us adequate time to incorporate submitted information into
our review, we request that we receive the information on or before
July 10, 2009. Because this status review will not result in
establishing a rule, this date is an advisory. However, please note
that the court has established a deadline of October 12, 2009, for
completion of this status review. As a result, the Service must be able
to compile, evaluate, and incorporate substantial information into this
status review. Therefore, receiving substantial information on or
before July 10, 2009, maximizes our ability to incorporate that
information into our review.
At this time, we request any additional information from the
public, other concerned governmental agencies, Native American Tribes,
the scientific community, industry, or any other interested parties on
the status of the Sonoran Desert area bald eagle, including:
(1) Information regarding Sonoran Desert area bald eagles'
historical and current population status, distribution, and trends;
biology and ecology; and habitat selection. We also solicit information
of this type on adjacent populations and geographic areas for use in
evaluating discreteness and significance of the Sonoran Desert area
bald eagle under the Service's DPS Policy.
(2) Information that supports or refutes the appropriateness of
considering the Sonoran Desert area bald eagle to be discrete, as
defined in the DPS Policy including, but not limited to:
(a) Information indicating whether Sonoran Desert area bald eagles
are markedly separated from other populations of bald eagles due to
physical, physiological, ecological, or behavioral factors. This may
include information regarding bald eagles that hatched in the Sonoran
Desert area and that breed with bald eagles that hatched in other
locations outside this area, and information regarding the Sonoran
Desert area bald eagles' isolation from other breeding populations of
eagles.
(b) Information indicating whether or not the Sonoran Desert area
bald eagle is delimited by international governmental boundaries within
which significant differences in control of exploitation, management of
habitat, conservation status, or regulatory mechanisms exist.
(3) Information that supports or refutes the appropriateness of
considering the Sonoran Desert area bald eagle to be significant, as
defined in the DPS Policy including, but not limited to:
(a) Information indicating whether the ecological setting,
including such factors as temperature, moisture, weather patterns, and
plant communities, in which the Sonoran Desert area bald eagle persists
is unusual or unique when compared to that of bald eagles found
elsewhere in North America. This may also include information
indicating that the Sonoran Desert area bald eagle has or has not
developed adaptations to that unique environment, such as breeding
behavior, morphological characteristics, egg development and
characteristics, or nest types.
(b) Information indicating whether loss of the Sonoran Desert area
bald eagle would or would not result in a significant gap in the range
of the taxon.
(c) Information indicating whether the Sonoran Desert area bald
eagle differs markedly from other populations of bald eagles in its
genetic characteristics.
(4) Information regarding the availability of suitable, but
unoccupied, breeding habitat that might allow for expansion of the
Sonoran Desert area bald eagle populations. This may include
information on areas outside of the boundaries delineated for the
Sonoran Desert area bald eagle in our May 1, 2008, final listing rule
(73 FR 23966).
(5) Information on the effects of potential threat factors to the
Sonoran Desert area bald eagle populations that are the basis for a
listing determination under section 4(a) of the Act, which are:
(a) The present or threatened destruction, modification, or
curtailment of the Sonoran Desert area bald eagle's breeding habitat or
range, including but not limited to the effects on habitat from: water
management (river diversions, dams, dam operations, surface and
groundwater withdrawals); human population growth and accompanying
increases in water demands; human recreation; reduced riparian health
and regrowth of streamside trees for nesting, foraging, and roosting;
urban development; and climate change;
(b) Overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or
educational purposes;
(c) Disease or predation, including but not limited to the effects
of avian pox or West Nile virus, Mexican chicken bugs, or ticks;
(d) The inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms, including but
not limited to adequacy or inadequacy of funding for ongoing
management; and the adequacy or inadequacy of
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protections under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act; and
(e) Other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued
existence, including but not limited to information on: Productivity,
survival, and mortality rates of this population; the occurrence and
effect of inbreeding; effects to Sonoran Desert area bald eagles while
outside the Sonoran Desert area; effects to Sonoran Desert area bald
eagles' prey base and productivity, including effects of nonnative
predatory fish and native fish restoration; effects of low-flying
aircraft; the presence and abundance of pesticides and contaminants
such as lead, mercury, or dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE); the
effects of climate change; and the effects from eggshell thinning.
(6) Information supporting the existing boundary developed in our
May 1, 2008, final listing rule (73 FR 23966) for Sonoran Desert area
bald eagles under consideration in this status review, or information
indicating that the boundary should be modified.
If you submitted information in response to our notice of
initiation of a status review, which was published in the Federal
Register on May 20, 2008 (73 FR 29096), you do not need to resend it.
We will include the submission in the public record, and we will
consider the information in the preparation of our status review.
You may submit your information concerning this status review by
one of the methods listed in the ADDRESSES section. We will not
consider submissions sent by e-mail or fax or to an address not listed
in the ADDRESSES section.
If you submit information via http://www.regulations.gov, your
entire submission--including any personal identifying information--will
be posted on the Web site. If you submit personal identifying
information, you may request at the top of your document that we
withhold this personal identifying information from public review.
However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. We will
post all hardcopy submissions on http://www.regulations.gov.
Information and materials we receive, as well as supporting
documentation we used in preparing this notice, will be available for
public inspection on http://www.regulations.gov, or by appointment,
during normal business hours, at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Arizona Ecological Services Office (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT).
Background
Section 4(b)(3)(B) of the Act requires that, for any petition to
revise the Lists of Threatened and Endangered Wildlife and Plants that
contains substantial scientific or commercial information that the
action may be warranted, we make a finding within 12 months of the date
of the receipt of the petition on whether the petitioned action is: (a)
Not warranted, (b) warranted, or (c) warranted but precluded by other
pending proposals. Such 12-month findings are to be published promptly
in the Federal Register.
Federal actions taken prior to May 2008 are described in a notice
of initiation of a status review of the Sonoran Desert area bald eagle,
which was published in the Federal Register on May 20, 2008 (73 FR
29096). On August 27, 2008, the U.S. District Court for the District of
Arizona granted the Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa
Audubon Society's unopposed motion to amend the previous court order
(Center for Biological Diversity v. Kempthorne, CV 07-0038-PHX-MHM (D.
Ariz.)) to extend the completion date of the bald eagle status review
to October 12, 2009. Included in the motion submitted to the court were
declarations discussing the need for additional time for Native
American Tribes to compile and submit information.
At this time, we are soliciting new information on the status of
and potential threats to the Sonoran Desert population of bald eagles.
We will base our new determination as to whether listing is warranted
on a review of the best scientific and commercial information
available, including all such information received as a result of this
notice. For more information on the biology, habitat, and range of the
Sonoran Desert population of bald eagles, please refer to our previous
90-day finding published in the Federal Register on August 30, 2006 (71
FR 51549), and our final delisting rule for the bald eagle published in
the Federal Register on July 9, 2007 (72 FR 37346).
Author
The primary authors of this notice are the staff members of the
Arizona Ecological Services Office.
Authority
The authority for this action is the Endangered Species Act of 1973
(16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).
Dated: January 7, 2009.
Kenneth Stansell,
Acting Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. E9-552 Filed 1-14-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P