[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 26 (Thursday, February 7, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9066-9067]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-02728]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R6-ES-2012-N305; FF06E13000-123-FXES11130600000D2]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Enhancement of
Survival Permit Application; Draft Greater Sage-Grouse Umbrella
Candidate Conservation Agreement With Assurances for Wyoming Ranch
Management, and Environmental Assessment
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are
announcing the availability of the following documents for review and
comment by the public and Federal, Tribal, State, and local
governments:
Draft Greater Sage-grouse Umbrella Candidate Conservation
Agreement with Assurances for Wyoming Ranch Management (Umbrella CCAA),
and
Draft Environment Assessment of the Greater Sage-grouse
Umbrella Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances for Wyoming
Ranch Management (EA).
The Service and several State, Federal, and local partners prepared
the draft Umbrella CCAA to provide
[[Page 9067]]
Wyoming ranchers with the opportunity to voluntarily conserve greater
sage-grouse and its habitat while carrying out their ranching
activities. Ranchers may apply for an enhancement of survival permit
under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA), by agreeing
to implement certain conservation measures in the Umbrella CCAA that
apply to their properties. Pursuant to the National Environmental
Policy Act, we also prepared a draft environmental assessment (EA) that
analyzes the potential impacts to the human environment from the
proposed Umbrella CCAA and alternatives to the action.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted by March 11, 2013.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments by U.S. mail to Tyler Abbott, Deputy
Field Supervisor, Wyoming Ecological Services Field Office, U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, 5353 Yellowstone Road, Suite 308A, Cheyenne, WY
82009, or via email to WYSagegrouseCCAA@fws.gov. You also may send
comments by facsimile to 307-772-2358. The draft CCAA and EA are
available on our Mountain-Prairie Region Ecological Services Web site
at www.fws.gov/wyominges/. You also may review copies of these
documents during regular business hours at the Wyoming Ecological
Services Field Office (see address above). If you do not have access to
the Web site or cannot visit our office, you may request copies by
telephone at 307-772-2374 ext. 231 or by letter to the Wyoming Field
Office.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tyler Abbott, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, 307-772-2374 ext. 231; tyler_abbott@fws.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under a Candidate Conservation Agreement
with Assurances (CCAA), participating landowners voluntarily undertake
management activities on their property to enhance, restore, or
maintain habitat benefiting species that are proposed for listing or
candidates for listing under the ESA, or those species that may become
candidates. A CCAA, and the subsequent permits that are issued pursuant
to section 10(a)(1)(A) of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), encourage
private and non-Federal property owners to implement conservation
efforts for species by assuring property owners that they will not be
subjected to increased land use restrictions as a result of efforts to
attract or increase the numbers or distribution of a listed species on
their property if that species becomes listed under the ESA in the
future. CCAA permit application requirements and issuance criteria are
found in 50 CFR 17.22(d) and 17.32(d).
On March 23, 2010, the Service determined that listing the greater
sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) under the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1538)
was warranted, but precluded by the need to address higher priority
species first. As result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in
coordination with the Wyoming Governor's Office, the Bureau of Land
Management, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Wyoming
Department of Agriculture, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and the
Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts, developed a draft
statewide umbrella CCAA for ranch management. The intent of the
umbrella CCAA is to use voluntary, proactive conservation measures to
reduce or remove threats to the greater sage-grouse, thereby
potentially reducing the need to list the species. The draft umbrella
CCAA covers an area of approximately 17 million acres of privately
owned lands within the range of the greater sage-grouse in Wyoming.
The draft umbrella CCAA contains a comprehensive menu of
conservation measures designed to reduce or remove each identified
potential threat to the greater sage-grouse that may occur on a
ranching operation in Wyoming. This approach allows each interested
rancher to select conservation measures specific to their operation,
rather than require each participant to conform to one prescriptive
action. A private landowner who wishes to enroll in the umbrella CCAA
would develop a streamlined individual CCAA for the enrolled property.
Partner agencies would assist the landowner in selecting the
conservation measures from the umbrella CCAA that would address threats
occurring on the property to be enrolled. Each landowner would submit
their individual CCAA to the Service to apply for a section 10(a)(1)(A)
permit for take of the sage-grouse incidental to conservation and
ranching activities, should the species become listed.
The Service and other participating agencies have also prepared a
draft EA that considers the potential impacts of implementing the
umbrella CCAA and issuing assurances and individual permits to private
landowners participating in the umbrella CCAA.
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.
Dated: January 23, 2013.
Michael Thabault,
Acting Regional Director, Mountain-Prairie Region, Denver, Colorado.
[FR Doc. 2013-02728 Filed 2-6-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P