[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 231 (Monday, December 4, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57288-57289]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-26041]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2017-0036; FXES11130200000-189-FF02ENEH00]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Final Mexican Wolf
Recovery Plan, First Revision
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the
availability of our Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, First Revision
(Recovery Plan). The Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) is listed as
endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA),
and is currently found in the U.S. States of Arizona and New Mexico,
and in Chihuahua, Mexico. The recovery plan includes specific recovery
criteria to be met to enable us to remove this species from the List of
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. The first Mexican wolf recovery
plan was completed in 1982.
ADDRESSES: You may obtain a copy of the recovery plan from our Web site
at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/species/recovery-plans.html or the
Mexican Wolf Recovery Program Web site at https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf/. The recovery plan and related materials,
including comments received on the draft recovery plan, are also
available for public review online at http://www.regulations.gov in
Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2017-0036. You may also request a copy of the
recovery plan by contacting Sherry Barrett, Mexican Wolf Recovery
Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2105 Osuna Road NE.,
Albuquerque, NM 87113 (telephone 505-761-4748).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sherry Barrett (see ADDRESSES).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
[[Page 57289]]
Background
A primary goal of our endangered species program and the Endangered
Species Act (ESA) (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) is recovering endangered or
threatened animals and plants to the point they are again secure,
viable ecosystem members. Recovery means improving listed species'
status to the point at which they no longer meet the definition of
threatened or endangered and listing is no longer appropriate under the
criteria set out in in section 4(a)(1) of the ESA. The ESA requires
developing recovery plans for listed species, unless such a plan would
not promote a particular species' conservation.
The Service has revised its approach to recovery planning; the
revised process is called Recovery Planning and Implementation (RPI).
The RPI process is intended to reduce the time needed to develop and
implement recovery plans, increase recovery plan relevancy over a
longer timeframe, and add flexibility to recovery plans so they can be
adjusted to new information or circumstances. Under RPI, a recovery
plan will include statutorily required elements (measurable criteria,
site-specific management actions, and estimates of time and costs),
along with a concise introduction and our strategy for how we plan to
achieve species recovery. The RPI recovery plan is supported by a
separate Species Status Assessment, or in some cases, a species
biological report that provides the background information and threat
assessment, which are key to recovery plan development. The essential
component to flexible implementation under RPI is producing a separate
working document called the Recovery Implementation Strategy
(implementation strategy). The implementation strategy steps down from
the more general description of actions described in the recovery plan
to detail the specific, near-term activities needed to implement the
recovery plan. The implementation strategy will be adaptable by being
able to incorporate new information without having to concurrently
revise the recovery plan, unless changes to statutory elements are
required.
The Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, First Revision, represents one of
the first products the Service has developed using RPI. On June 30,
2017, the Service made the draft Recovery Plan available for a 60-day
public comment period during which we received more than 100,000
comments (82 FR 29918). The public comments and additional materials
related to the Recovery Plan are available for public review online at
http://www.regulations.gov in Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2017-0036.
In addition to the recovery plan and implementation strategy, we
completed a Biological Report describing the Mexican wolf's current
status. The Biological Report supports the recovery plan by providing
the background, life-history, and threat assessment information. The
Biological Report and Recovery Plan were independently peer-reviewed by
scientists outside of the Service. As with the implementation strategy,
we will update the Biological Report as new species status information
becomes available.
Recovery Plan Strategy
The overall strategy for recovering the Mexican wolf focuses on
improving the two populations' resilience (i.e., population size) and
genetic representation, one focused south of Interstate 40 in Arizona
and New Mexico in the United States, and one focused in the northern
portion of the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico, across an adequate
ecological and geographic range of representation within each
population. The strategy involves carefully managing the captive-
breeding program, releasing Mexican wolves from the captive-breeding
program into the wild, and translocating Mexican wolves from the
Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area in portions of New Mexico and
Arizona to Mexico, to ensure two genetically and demographically viable
populations are extant in the wild for redundancy.
Another key component of the strategy includes working with
Federal, State, Tribal, local partners, and the public, to improve
Mexican wolf tolerance on the landscape.
Authority: We developed our recovery plan and publish this notice
under the authority of the Endangered Species Act, section 4(f), 16
U.S.C. 1533(f).
Dated: October 24, 2017.
Amy Lueders,
Regional Director, Southwest Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 2017-26041 Filed 12-1-17; 8:45 am]
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