[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 111 (Monday, June 10, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Page 34669]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-13714]
[[Page 34669]]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R4-ES-2013-N117; 40120-1112-0000-F2]
Incidental Take Permit and Environmental Assessment for Forest
Management Activities, Southern Arkansas
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: Under the Endangered Species Act (Act), we, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, announce the receipt and availability of a proposed
habitat conservation plan (HCP) and accompanying documents for proposed
forest management activities by Potlatch Forest Holdings, Inc.
(Applicant) that would take the endangered red-cockaded Woodpecker
(Picoides borealis) on the Applicant's lands in south Arkansas. We
invite public comments on these documents.
DATES: We must receive any written comments at our Regional Office (see
ADDRESSES) on or before August 9, 2013.
ADDRESSES: Documents are available for public inspection by appointment
during normal business hours at the Fish and Wildlife Service's
Regional Office, 1875 Century Boulevard, Suite 200, Atlanta, GA 30345;
or the Arkansas Ecological Services Field Office, 110 South Amity Road,
Suite 300, Conway, AR 72032.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. David Dell, Regional HCP
Coordinator, (see ADDRESSES), telephone: 404-679-7313; or Ms. Erin
Leone, Field Office Project Manager, at the Arkansas Ecological
Services Field Office (see ADDRESSES), telephone: 501-513-4472.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We announce the availability of the proposed
HCP, accompanying incidental take permit (ITP) application, and an
environmental assessment (EA), which analyze the take of the red-
cockaded woodpecker incidental to activities conducted by the
Applicant. The Applicant requests a 30-year ITP under section
10(a)(1)(B) of the Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), as amended. The
Applicant's HCP describes the mitigation and minimization measures
proposed to address the impacts to the species.
We specifically request information, views, and opinions from the
public via this notice on our proposed Federal action, including
identification of any other aspects of the human environment not
already identified in the EA pursuant to National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA) regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 40
CFR 1506.6. Further, we specifically solicit information regarding the
adequacy of the HCP per 50 CFR parts 13 and 17.
The EA assesses the likely environmental impacts associated with
the implementation of the activities, including the environmental
consequences of the no-action alternative and the proposed action. The
proposed action alternative is issuance of the ITP and implementation
of the HCP as submitted by the Applicant. The HCP covers activities
associated with the translocation of the red-cockaded woodpecker into a
proposed conservation area on the Applicant's lands in Calhoun County,
Arkansas; timber harvesting activities on Potlatch lands in Arkansas;
and provisioning and maintenance activities associated with red-
cockaded woodpecker groups within the conservation area. Avoidance,
minimization, and mitigation measures include consolidation of red-
cockaded woodpecker groups into the conservation area, land management
to maintain habitat, and management of additional red-cockaded
woodpecker groups that may be available to use for mitigation by
landowners besides the Applicant.
Public 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.
If you wish to comment, you may submit comments by any one of
several methods. Please reference TE85629A-0 in such comments. You may
mail comments to the Fish and Wildlife Service's Regional Office (see
ADDRESSES). You may also comment via the internet to david_dell@fws.gov. Please include your name and return address in your
internet message. If you do not receive a confirmation from us that we
have received your internet message, contact us directly at either
telephone number listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Finally, you may hand-deliver comments to either of our offices
listed under ADDRESSES.
Covered Area
The HCP and ITP application covers 419,278 acres of timberland in
south Arkansas containing 21 red-cockaded woodpecker groups, 17
potential breeding groups and four single bird groups. Six of these
groups are currently located outside the proposed conservation area,
which will encompass 13,122 acres of timberland and be the focus of
red-cockaded woodpecker conservation activities. The red-cockaded
woodpecker historically ranged throughout south Arkansas, but is now
restricted to Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Ouachita
National Forest, Warren Prairie Natural Area, one privately-owned
conservation area managed under a separate HCP adjacent to Felsenthal
NWR, Potlatch lands, and up to eight isolated groups on other private
lands.
Next Steps
We will evaluate the ITP application, including the HCP and any
comments we receive, to determine whether the application meets the
requirements of section 10(a)(1)(B) of the Act. We will also evaluate
whether issuance of a section 10(a)(1)(B) ITP complies with section 7
of the Act by conducting an intra-Service section 7 consultation. We
will use the results of this consultation, in combination with the
above findings, in our final analysis to determine whether or not to
issue the ITP. If we determine that the requirements are met, we will
issue the ITP for the incidental take of red-cockaded woodpecker.
Authority: We provide this notice under section 10 of the Act
(16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) and NEPA regulations (40 CFR 1506.6).
Dated: May 20, 2013.
Mike Oetker,
Acting Regional Director.
[FR Doc. 2013-13714 Filed 6-7-13; 8:45 am]
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