[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 12 (Friday, January 17, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3073-3074]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-00718]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R6-ES-2019-N056; FXES11130600000-189-FF06E00000]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Draft Recovery
Plan for the Topeka Shiner
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of document availability for review and comment.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announce the
availability of a draft recovery plan for Topeka shiner, a fish species
listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. We are
requesting review and comment from the public on this draft plan.
DATES: Comments on the draft recovery plan must be received on or
before March 17, 2020.
ADDRESSES:
Obtaining documents: Copies of the draft recovery plan are
available at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/species/recovery-plans.html.
Alternatively, you may request a copy by U.S. mail from the Kansas
Ecological Services Field Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2609
Anderson Avenue, Manhattan, KS 66502; or via telephone at 785-539-3474.
Submitting comments: Submit comments on the draft recovery plan via
email to kansases@fws.gov, or to the Field Supervisor at the address
above.
Viewing public comments: Comments and materials the Service
receives will be available for public inspection by appointment during
normal business hours at the address above.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jason Luginbill, Field Supervisor,
Kansas Ecological Services Field Office, at the above U.S. mail
address, or by telephone at 785-539-3474.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(Service), announce the availability of a draft recovery plan for
Topeka shiner (Notropis topeka), a fish species listed as endangered
under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C.
1531 et seq.). We are requesting review and comment from the public on
this draft plan.
Background
Restoring an endangered or threatened animal or plant to the point
where it is again a secure, self-sustaining member of its ecosystem is
a primary goal of the Service's endangered species program. In
furtherance of this goal, we prepare recovery plans to help guide
recovery efforts and to promote the conservation of the species.
Recovery plans describe site-specific actions necessary for the
conservation of the species, establish objective, measurable criteria
that, when met, would result in a determination that the species no
longer needs the protection of the ESA, and provide estimates of the
time and cost for implementing the needed recovery actions.
The ESA requires recovery plans for listed species unless such a
plan would not promote the conservation of a particular species.
Section 4(f) of the ESA, as amended in 1988, requires that public
notice and opportunity for public review and comment be provided during
recovery plan development. We will consider all information we receive
during a public comment period when preparing the recovery plan for
approval. The Service and other Federal agencies will take these
comments into consideration in the course of implementing an approved
recovery plan.
It is our policy to request peer review of recovery plans. We will
summarize and respond to the issues raised by the public and peer
reviewers in an appendix to the approved recovery plan. We will revise
the plan between draft and final stages as appropriate, including using
information gathered from peer and public review.
Species Information
The Topeka shiner is a small minnow that lives and breeds in low-
order prairie streams in the Great Plains States of South Dakota,
Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. It was listed as
endangered under the ESA in 1998 (effective in January 1999) because of
significant population declines due primarily to alteration of prairie
stream hydrology and habitat degradation (63 FR 69008, December 15,
1998). Post-listing, increased survey efforts revealed additional
populations not known at the time of listing, particularly in South
Dakota and Minnesota, while losses and/or reductions appeared to
continue in other States. Since 1999, the Topeka shiner has been
documented as occupying over 200 small to mid-size streams. In 2004,
the Service also designated critical habitat for the Topeka shiner in
Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa; areas in South Dakota, Missouri, and
Kansas were exempt from the designation due to the existence of
management plans (69 FR 44736, July 27, 2004).
[[Page 3074]]
Recovery Strategy
The recovery vision for the Topeka Shiner is to have multiple
resilient groups of populations, distributed across the species' range,
that encompass adequate geographic and genetic diversity of the species
to shield it from extirpation by catastrophic events and preserve
adaptive potential. To summarize, the recovery criteria are designed
to: (1) Maintain the species in currently known occupied habitats
across a broad portion of its current ecological settings to preserve
future adaptive capacity and potential; (2) maintain, increase, and
expand populations in currently known occupied habitats to ensure
species persistence by mitigating catastrophic events; (3) increase the
ability of populations in currently known occupied habitats to resist
impacts of stochastic events and persist long-term; (4) and ensure
management plans are in place for each of nine population complexes or
by state, to ensure future maintenance of those complexes, as well as
that of the populations/sub-populations within them. To accomplish
conservation and recovery of the Topeka shiner, recovery actions need
to be implemented that include the following general categories:
Habitat protection, management, and restoration; population management,
augmentation, translocations, and reintroductions; monitoring;
research; collaboration with stakeholders; and education and outreach.
Request for Public Comments
The Service solicits public comments on the draft recovery plan.
All comments we receive by the date specified (see DATES) will be
considered prior to approval of the plan. Written comments and
materials regarding the plan should be sent via the means in the
ADDRESSES section.
We are specifically seeking comments and suggestions on the
following questions:
--Understanding that the time and cost presented in the draft recovery
plan will be revised when localized recovery implementation strategies
are developed, are the estimated time and cost to recovery realistic?
Is the estimate reflective of the time and cost of similar previous
actions that have already been implemented? Please provide suggestions
or methods for determining a more accurate estimation of time and cost.
--Do the draft recovery criteria provide clear direction to partners on
what is needed to recover the species? How could they be improved for
clarity?
--Are the draft recovery criteria both objective and measurable given
the information available for this species now and into the future?
Please provide suggestions to improve the objectivity and measurability
of criteria.
--Understanding that specific, detailed, and area-specific recovery
actions will be developed in the localized recovery implementation
strategies, do the draft recovery actions presented in the draft
recovery plan generally cover the types of actions necessary to meet
the recovery criteria? If not, what general actions are missing? Are
any of the draft recovery actions unnecessary for achieving recovery?
Are the draft recovery actions prioritized appropriately?
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. You may
request at the top of your comment that we withhold this information
from public review; however, we cannot guarantee that we will be able
to do so.
Authority
The authority for this action is section 4(f) of the Endangered
Species Act, 16 U.S.C. 1533(f).
Dated: September 19, 2019.
Noreen Walsh,
Regional Director, Lakewood, Colorado.
Editorial note: This document was received for publication by
the Office of the Federal Register on January 14, 2020.
[FR Doc. 2020-00718 Filed 1-16-20; 8:45 am]
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