[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 34 (Monday, February 22, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8739-8742]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-03559]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R1-ES-2016-N013; FXES11120100000-167-FF01E00000]
Proposed Weyerhaeuser Company Safe Harbor Agreement for the
Northern Spotted Owl and Draft 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), have
received an application from Weyerhaeuser Company for an Endangered
Species Act (ESA) Enhancement of Survival Permit (Permit) for the
federally threatened northern spotted owl. The Permit application
includes a draft safe harbor agreement (SHA) addressing access to
Weyerhaeuser Company lands for the survey and removal of barred owls as
part of the Service's Barred Owl Removal Experiment (Experiment) in
Lane County, Oregon. The Service also announces the availability of a
draft environmental assessment (EA) that has been prepared in response
to the Permit application in accordance with requirements of the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We are making the Permit
application, including the draft SHA and the draft EA, available for
public review and comment.
DATES: To ensure consideration, written comments must be received from
interested parties by March 23, 2016.
ADDRESSES: To request further information or submit written comments,
please use one of the following methods, and note that your information
request or comments are in reference to the Weyerhaeuser Company draft
SHA and draft EA.
Internet: Documents may be viewed and downloaded on the
Internet at http://www.fws.gov/ofwo/.
Email: barredowlsha@fws.gov. Include ``Weyerhaeuser SHA''
in the subject line of the message.
U.S. Mail: Betsy Glenn, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office, 2600 SE. 98th Ave., Suite 100,
Portland, OR 97266.
[[Page 8740]]
Fax: 503-231-6195.
In-Person Drop-off, Viewing, or Pickup: Call 503-231-6970
to make an appointment (necessary for viewing or pickup only) during
regular business hours at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon
Fish and Wildlife Office, 2600 SE. 98th Ave., Suite 100, Portland, OR
97266. Written comments can be dropped off during regular business
hours at the above address on or before the closing date of the public
comment period (see DATES).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Betsy Glenn, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (see ADDRESSES), telephone 503-231-6970. If you use a
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), please call the Federal
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 800-877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Weyerhaeuser Company has applied to the
Service for a Permit under section 10(a)(1)(A) of the ESA (16 U.S.C.
1531 et seq.). The Permit application includes a draft SHA. The Service
has drafted an EA addressing the effects of the proposed Permit action
on the human environment.
The SHA covers approximately 7,500 acres of forest lands owned by
the Weyerhaeuser Company within the treatment portion of the Oregon
Coast Ranges Study Area (Study Area) of the Experiment in Lane County,
Oregon. The proposed term of the Permit and the SHA is 10 years. In
return for permission to access their lands for barred owl surveys and
removal in support of the Experiment, the Permit would authorize
incidental take of the threatened northern spotted owl (Strix
occidentalis caurina) as a result of forest management activities at
currently unoccupied spotted owl sites if they become occupied during
the term of the Permit.
Background
Under a SHA, participating landowners voluntarily undertake
activities on their property to benefit species listed under the ESA
(16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). SHAs, and the subsequent Permits that are
issued to participating landowners pursuant to section 10(a)(1)(A) of
the ESA, encourage private and other non-Federal property owners to
implement conservation actions for federally listed species by assuring
the landowners that they will not be subject to increased property use
restrictions as a result of their conservation efforts. SHAs must
provide a net conservation benefit for the covered species.
The assurances provided under a SHA allow the property owner to
alter or modify the enrolled property to agreed-upon baseline
conditions, even if such alteration or modification results in the
incidental take of a listed species. The baseline conditions represent
the existing levels of use of the property by species covered in the
SHA. SHA assurances are contingent upon the property owner implementing
covered activities in accordance with the terms of the Permit and the
SHA. The SHA's net conservation benefits must be sufficient to
contribute, either directly or indirectly, to the recovery of the
covered listed species. Enrolled landowners may make lawful use of the
enrolled property during the Permit term and may incidentally take the
listed species named on the Permit provided that take does not modify
the agreed-upon net conservation benefit to the species.
Application requirements and issuance criteria for Permits for SHAs
are found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 50 CFR 17.22(c).
The Service's Safe Harbor Policy (64 FR 32717, June 17, 1999) and the
Safe Harbor Regulations (68 FR 53320, September 10, 2003; and 69 FR
24084, May 3, 2004) are available at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/laws-policies/regulations-and-policies.html.
Weyerhaeuser's Safe Harbor Agreement
The Weyerhaeuser Company submitted an application for a Permit
under the ESA to authorize incidental take of the federally threatened
northern spotted owl. The Permit application includes a draft SHA
between Weyerhaeuser Company and the Service. The SHA addresses access
to support the Experiment (USFWS 2013a) in the Study Area in Lane
County, Oregon.
The SHA covers Weyerhaeuser Company lands within the treatment
portion of the Study Area. The treatment area is composed of lands
owned by many different landowners, including 58 percent Federal lands,
13 percent State lands, and 29 percent private lands. This is the focus
of the SHA because this is the area where the removal of barred owls
under the Experiment may lead to re-occupancy of sites that are not
currently occupied by spotted owls. If barred owl removal leads to the
re-occupancy of sites by spotted owls in the absence of this Permit,
some restrictions or limitations on forest management activities could
occur.
Activities covered under the SHA are forest management activities
including but not limited to road use, road construction, road
maintenance and the normal management activities associated with
managing private forestland for timber production such as timber
harvest, planting, spraying, fertilizing, monitoring, measuring,
patrolling and fighting wildfire.
The goal of Weyerhaeuser Company is to manage their timberlands for
timber production providing economic, community and stewardship values
on a long-term sustained-yield basis while meeting State and Federal
regulatory requirements. The Weyerhaeuser Company lands within the
Study Area are an important part the company's overall operating plans
from both a short-term and long-term perspective. The Weyerhaeuser
Company is anticipating significant changes and fluctuations in spotted
owl occupancy of well-surveyed sites and areas on or near Weyerhaeuser
Company lands in the treatment area after barred owl removal occurs,
and potential short-term regulatory impacts to operation plans after
barred owl removal in the treatment area occurs.
The purpose of the Weyerhaeuser Company's participation in the
Experiment is to demonstrate cooperation with the Service regarding
this recovery action while being held harmless and, to the maximum
extent allowable under the ESA, ensuring that adjacent landowners are
held harmless, by maintaining a reasonable level of certainty regarding
the anticipated biological response and subsequent regulatory
requirements impacting both forest operations and management during and
after the experiment period.
To support the Experiment, the Weyerhaeuser Company will provide
researchers access to Weyerhaeuser Company lands to survey for barred
owls throughout the Study Area and to remove barred owls located on
Weyerhaeuser Company lands within the treatment portion of the Study
Area. In addition, the Weyerhaeuser Company will maintain habitat to
support actively nesting spotted owls on any reoccupied sites during
the nesting season.
The Service's Proposed Action
The Service proposes to enter into the SHA and to issue a Permit to
the Weyerhaeuser Company for incidental take of the northern spotted
owl caused by covered activities, if Permit issuance criteria are met.
The Permit would have a term of 10 years.
Monitoring of spotted owls on Weyerhaeuser Company lands as part of
the ongoing spotted owl surveys conducted under the Northwest Forest
Plan Monitoring program has yielded a good dataset that may be included
in the SHA to establish a baseline for the estimated current occupancy
status of
[[Page 8741]]
each spotted owl site. Any spotted owl sites with a response from at
least one resident spotted owl between 2013 and present are considered
in the baseline of the SHA. Based on this approach, there are 10
baseline spotted owl sites in the treatment portion of the Oregon Coast
Ranges Study Area where Weyerhaeuser Company owns land or has
operations, easements or agreements.
The conservation benefits for the northern spotted owl under the
SHA arise from the Weyerhaeuser Company contribution to a successful
Experiment, specifically as it informs future recovery of the spotted
owl. This is accomplished by Weyerhaeuser Company allowing access to
their roads and lands for barred owl surveys and, within the treatment
area, barred owl removal. In the Study Area landscape of multiple
landowners, access to interspersed non-Federal roads and lands for
barred owl surveys and, within the treatment area, barred owl removal
is important to the efficient and effective completion of the
Experiment.
The impact of the increase in non-native barred owl populations as
they expand into the range of the spotted owl has been identified as
one of the primary threats to the continued existence of the spotted
owl. The Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl includes Recovery
Action 29--``Design and implement large-scale control experiments to
assess the effects of barred owl removal on spotted owl site occupancy,
reproduction, and survival'' (USFWS 2011, p. III-65). The Service
developed the Experiment to implement this Recovery Action, and
completed an EIS and ROD addressing the Experiment in 2013 (USFWS 2013a
and b). The Experiment is being conducted on four study areas,
including the Oregon Coast Ranges Study Area. Timely results from the
Experiment are crucial for informing the development of a long-term
barred owl management strategy that is essential to the conservation of
the northern spotted owl.
While the Study Area is focused on Federal lands, it still contains
significant interspersed non-Federal lands. To complete the Experiment
in the most efficient and complete manner, the Service requires access
on non-public roads and the ability to remove barred owls on the non-
Federal lands within the treatment area. While the Experiment is
possible without access to non-Federal lands, failure to remove barred
owls from portions of the treatment area could reduce the power of the
Experiment to detect any changes in spotted owl population dynamics
resulting from the removal of barred owls and potentially extend the
duration of the Experiment. The Service has repeatedly indicated the
need to gather this information in a timely manner. Failure to access
non-Federal lands could delay the results.
Incidental take of spotted owls under this SHA would likely be in
the form of harm from forest operation activities that result in
habitat degradation, or harassment from forest management activities
that cause disturbance to spotted owls. Incidental take in the form of
harassment by disturbance is most likely to occur near former spotted
owl nest sites if they become reoccupied. Harm and harassment could
occur during timber operations and management that will continue during
the Permit term. The Weyerhaeuser Company will perform routine harvest,
road maintenance and construction activities, including rock pit
development, spraying and fertilization that may disturb spotted owls.
Net Conservation Benefits to the Northern Spotted Owl
The Weyerhaeuser Company owns lands in the treatment portion of the
Oregon Coast Ranges Study Area. Access to the Weyerhaeuser Company
lands is important to the efficient and effective completion of the
Experiment within a reasonable timeframe. All of the currently occupied
spotted owl sites are within the baseline and no take of these sites is
authorized under this SHA. If barred owl removal does allow spotted
owls to re-occupy sites that are not currently occupied (non-baseline),
the Weyerhaeuser Company will be allowed to incidentally take these
spotted owls. It is highly unlikely that these sites would ever be re-
occupied by spotted owls without the removal of barred owls.
The removal of barred owls on the Study Area will end within 10
years. The Service anticipates that, once released from the removal
pressure, barred owl populations will rebound to pre-treatment levels
within 3 to 5 years. This is likely to result in the loss of the newly
re-occupied spotted owl sites. Therefore, any spotted owl occupancy of
these sites is likely to be temporary and short- term.
The SHA allows for the take of spotted owls on 16 non-baseline
sites in the treatment area of the Study Area if these sites become
reoccupied during the barred owl removal study. Take of non-baseline
owl sites that may be reoccupied can result from disturbance from
forest management activities or habitat loss. For 7 of the 16 sites,
take is anticipated primarily from disturbance. Take resulting from
disturbance is temporary, short-term, and only likely to occur if
activities occur very close to nesting spotted owls. None of the 48
historic spotted owl site centers in the treatment area occur on
Weyerhaeuser Company lands, and only 3 site centers are close enough
that forest management activities on Weyerhaeuser Company lands could
result in some disturbance of the sites if these site centers were
reoccupied.
For the remaining 9 sites, take of spotted owls may occur as a
result of disturbance or habitat removal if these sites become re-
occupied by spotted owls during the Experiment. Loss of habitat has
longer term effects, and the degree to which it may affect the study
depends on the amount of potential habitat loss compared to the
condition of the spotted owl site. The Weyerhaeuser Company is a minor
owner on seven of these sites with less than 10 percent of the land
ownership and less than 5 percent of the remaining suitable habitat on
these seven sites. Federal lands contain the majority of the remaining
suitable spotted owl habitat on these seven sites. Thus, even if all
non-baseline spotted owl sites are re-occupied by spotted owls, and the
Weyerhaeuser Company removed all spotted owl habitat remaining on their
lands within these sites under their Permit, many of these sites are
likely to remain viable at some level as a result of habitat remaining
on adjacent ownerships.
The primary conservation value of the Barred Owl Removal Experiment
is the information it provides on the efficacy of removal as a tool to
manage barred owl populations for the conservation of the spotted owl.
This information is crucial to the development of a long-term barred
owl management strategy that is essential to the conservation of the
northern spotted owl. In this landscape of multiple landowners that
exists within the Study Area, access to interspersed non-Federal lands
is important to the efficient and effective completion of the Barred
Owl Removal Experiment within a reasonable timeframe. Under the
Weyerhaeuser Company SHA, researchers would have access to their roads
and lands for barred owl surveys and, within the treatment area, barred
owl removal. This access contributes significantly to the conservation
value of the Experiment. Thus, the take of spotted owls on the
temporarily reoccupied sites is more than offset by the value of the
information gained from the experiment and its potential contribution
to the timely development of a long-term barred owl management
strategy. For these reasons, the Service finds this
[[Page 8742]]
SHA advances the recovery of the spotted owl.
National Environmental Policy Act Compliance
The development of the draft SHA and the proposed issuance of a
Permit is a Federal action that triggers the need for compliance with
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C.
4321 et seq.) (NEPA). We have prepared a draft EA to analyze the
impacts of Permit issuance and implementation of the SHA on the human
environment in comparison to the no-action alternative.
Public Comments
You may submit your comments and materials by one of the methods
listed in the ADDRESSES section above. We request data, new
information, or suggestions from the public, other concerned
governmental agencies, Tribes, the scientific community, industry, or
any other interested party on our proposed Federal action. In
particular, we request information and comments regarding the following
issues:
1. The direct, indirect, and cumulative effects that implementation
of the SHA could have on endangered and threatened species;
2. Other reasonable alternatives consistent with the purpose of the
proposed SHA as described above, and their associated effects;
3. Measures that would minimize and mitigate potentially adverse
effects of the proposed action;
4. Identification of any impacts on the human environment that
should have been analyzed in the draft EA pursuant to NEPA;
5. Other plans or projects that might be relevant to this action;
6. The proposed term of the Permit and whether the proposed SHA
would provide a net conservation benefit to the spotted owl; and
7. Any other information pertinent to evaluating the effects of the
proposed action on the human environment.
Public Availability of Comments
All comments and materials we receive become part of the public
record associated with this action. Before including your address,
phone number, email address, or other personally identifiable
information in your comments, you should be aware that your entire
comment--including your personally identifiable information--may be
made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your
comment to withhold your personally identifiable information from
public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. All
submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals
identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations
or businesses, will be made available for public disclosure in their
entirety. Comments and materials we receive, as well as supporting
documentation we used in preparing the draft EA, will be available for
public inspection by appointment, during normal business hours, at our
Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office (see ADDRESSES).
Next Steps
We will evaluate the draft SHA, associated documents, and any
public comments we receive to determine whether the Permit application
and the EA meet the requirements of section 10(a)(1)(A) of the ESA and
NEPA, respectively, and their respective implementing regulations. We
will also evaluate whether issuance of a Permit would comply with
section 7(a)(2) of the ESA by conducting an intra-Service section 7
consultation on the proposed Permit action. If we determine that all
requirements are met, we will sign the proposed SHA and issue a Permit
under section 10(a)(1)(A) of the ESA to the applicant, the Weyerhaeuser
Company, for incidental take of the northern spotted owl caused by
covered activities implemented in accordance with the terms of the
Permit and the SHA. We will not make our final decision until after the
end of the 30-day public comment period, and we will fully consider all
comments and information we receive during the public comment period.
Authority
We provide this notice pursuant to section 10(c) of the ESA (16
U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), its implementing regulations (50 CFR 17.22), and
the NEPA (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and its implementing regulations (40
CFR 1506.6).
Dated: February 3, 2016.
Theresa Rabot,
Deputy Regional Director, Pacific Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, Portland, Oregon.
[FR Doc. 2016-03559 Filed 2-19-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4333-15-P