[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 60 (Friday, March 27, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17347-17349]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [http://www.gpo.gov/]
[FR Doc No: 2020-06421]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2019-0066; FXES11130200000-190-FF02ENEH00]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Draft Revised
Recovery Plan for Kearney's Blue Star
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announce the
availability of our draft revised recovery plan for Kearney's blue
star, listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Kearney's
blue star is a perennial flowering plant, a narrow endemic known from a
single mountain range in Pima County, Arizona. We provide this notice
to seek comments
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from the public and Federal, Tribal, State, and local governments.
DATES: We must receive written comments on or before May 26, 2020.
ADDRESSES:
Reviewing documents: You may obtain a copy of the draft revised
recovery plan and recovery implementation strategy in Docket No. FWS-
R2-ES-2019-0066 at http://www.regulations.gov/.
Submitting Comments: You may submit comments by one of the
following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov/.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments on Docket No. FWS-R2-
ES-2019-0066.
U.S. mail or hand-delivery: Public Comments Processing;
Attn: Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2019-0066; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Headquarters, MS: JAO/1N; 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-
3803.
For additional information about submitting comments, see Request
for Public Comments and Public Availability of Comments under
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Julie McIntyre, Assistant Field
Supervisor, by phone at 520-670-6150, by email at
[email protected], or via the Federal Relay Service at 800-877-
8339 for TTY service.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(Service), announce the availability of our draft revised recovery plan
for Kearney's blue star (Amsonia kearneyana), listed as endangered
under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C.
1531 et seq.). Kearney's blue star is a perennial flowering plant, a
narrow endemic known from a single mountain range in Pima County,
Arizona. The draft revised recovery plan includes specific recovery
objectives and criteria that, when achieved, will enable us to remove
Kearney's blue star from the list of endangered and threatened plants.
We request review and comment on this plan from local, State, and
Federal agencies; Tribes; and the public. We will also accept any new
information on the status of Kearney's blue star throughout its range
to assist us in finalizing the recovery plan.
Background
Recovery of endangered or threatened animals and plants to the
point where they are again secure, self-sustaining members of their
ecosystems is a primary goal of our endangered species program and the
ESA. Recovery means improvement of the status of listed species to the
point at which listing is no longer appropriate under the criteria set
out in section 4(a)(1) of the ESA. The ESA requires the development of
recovery plans for listed species, unless such a plan would not promote
the conservation of a particular species. The Service approved a
recovery plan for Kearney's blue star in 1993; however, the original
plan did not establish criteria for removing Kearney's blue star from
the list of endangered and threatened plants (delisting).
This recovery plan revision is part of a larger effort underway to
revise up to 182 recovery plans covering up to 305 species, in order to
achieve the following Department of the Interior Agency Priority
Performance Goal (APG) outlined in the Department's Strategic Plan for
Fiscal Years 2018-2022: ``By September 30, 2019, 100 percent of all
Fish and Wildlife Service recovery plans will have quantitative
criteria for what constitutes a recovered species.'' In addition to
satisfying the Department of the Interior's APG, new information has
been gathered over the last 25 years on the species' biology,
distribution, and threats, leading us to develop new downlisting
criteria (reclassifying Kearney's blue star from an endangered to
threatened status). Therefore, this plan will serve as a revision to
the 1993 recovery plan for Kearney's blue star.
We utilized a streamlined approach to recovery planning and
implementation for Kearney's blue star by preparing a separate recovery
plan document and recovery implementation strategy. The information in
the draft recovery plan provides the biological background, a threats
assessment, a strategy for recovery of Kearney's blue star,
quantitative downlisting and delisting criteria, an abbreviated list of
prioritized recovery actions, and the estimated time and cost to
recovery. The separate recovery implementation strategy document
further describes in detail the specific near-term activities needed to
implement the prioritized recovery actions (Service 2019).
Summary of Species Information
Kearney's blue star is a long-lived perennial flowering plant
endemic to Pima County in southern Arizona. We listed it as an
endangered species on January 19, 1989, at which time it was only known
from a single location in the riparian area of South Canyon in the
Baboquivari Mountains on lands administered by the Tohono O'odham
Nation (54 FR 2131). Since then, the discovery of new plants on lands
administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the Arizona State
Land Department, along with the establishment of a new location on
private land (now owned and administered by the Buenos Aires National
Wildlife Refuge), has increased the known spatial distribution of the
species to include ridges in Brown Canyon, Jaguar Canyon, and Thomas
Canyon in southern Arizona. Recently uncovered herbarium records also
indicate there are multiple locations of Kearney's blue star in
Sycamore and Baboquivari Canyons on Tohono O'odham Nation lands.
Kearney's blue star produces large white flowers tinged with blue
at the base in late April and May. The species is capable of
reproducing both vegetatively (asexually, through roots) and through
seed (sexually). Sexual reproduction of this species requires
pollinators, and a wide variety have been documented visiting Kearney's
blue star plants and flowers. Specifically, the pollinators noted
visiting plants include: Skipper butterfly (Hesperidae); pipevine
swallowtail (Papilionidae); gossamer-winged butterfly (Lycaenidae);
sphinx moth (Sphingidae); tiger moth (Arctiidae); snout moth
(Lasiocampidae); thrips (Thysanoptera); long-winged black Coleoptera;
mordellid and various other beetles; broad-tailed hummingbird
(Selasphorus platycercus); bee flies (Bombyliidae); and Arizona
metalmarks (Riodinidae) (Service 2012, p. 5).
The habitat of Kearney's blue star lies at the lower elevation
transition of the Madrean pine-oak woodland and the semi-desert
grassland. Within this habitat, Kearney's blue star occurs in both open
woodland on unconsolidated slopes of over 20 degrees, and canyon
bottoms in full sun to partial shade. We estimate that the known
habitat for Kearney's blue star is 2,064 hectares (5,101 acres). It is
not fully understood what constitutes a population of Kearney's blue
star; therefore, we use the terms ``site'' (areas supporting Kearney's
blue star individuals that are surrounded by a 1,000-meter radius of
suitable habitat for the species and its pollinators) and ``sub-site''
(areas within sites that support Kearney's blue star individuals that
likely share pollinators) to describe the current distribution of the
species.
Despite the discovery of plants at new locations, the overall
abundance of Kearney's blue star individuals has decreased, and
documentation of reproduction is limited to one incident in 1982. A
comparison of recent and historical survey results from accessible sub-
sites indicates that the number of individuals has declined by about 48
percent. Although the overall
[[Page 17349]]
abundance of Kearney's blue star individuals has decreased since the
time of listing, the quantity of the species' habitat does not appear
to have declined. It is therefore believed that habitat quality for the
species is changing due to a combination of factors, likely including
poorly managed livestock grazing, nonnative plant presence and spread
and the resulting altered wildfire regime, border activities, and
drought and climate change. As a result, woodland habitats, such as
those that support Kearney's blue star, are becoming more desertified,
with fewer trees and more grassland species associates (Service 2012,
p. 1).
Recovery Plan Goals
The objective of a recovery plan is to provide a framework for the
recovery of a species so that protection under the ESA is no longer
necessary. A recovery plan includes scientific information about the
species and provides criteria and actions necessary for us to be able
to reclassify the species to threatened status or remove it from the
lists of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants. Recovery plans
help guide our recovery efforts by describing actions we consider
necessary for the species' conservation, and by estimating time and
costs for implementing needed recovery measures.
The original Kearney's blue star recovery plan includes downlisting
criteria; however, no delisting criteria were established due to the
unknown nature of the species' life history and habitat requirements at
that time (Service 1993). The downlisting criteria in the original plan
focus on the maintenance of self-sustaining natural populations and
establishing procedures to ensure continued protection of these
populations from human and natural threats (Service 1993). Once these
downlisting criteria were met, the intention was to revise the original
recovery plan to establish specific delisting objectives. In this
revised recovery plan, our core strategy is to ensure the viability of
Kearney's blue star across its range, and to conserve and manage
habitat for the species and its pollinators. Our population-based
recovery objective is to conserve existing, newly discovered, and
introduced plants and their seedbanks throughout the species' range to
ensure the long-term survival of the taxon. Our habitat and threat-
based recovery objective is to conserve, restore, and manage the
quantity and quality of Kearney's blue star habitat and pollinator
habitat. This may be accomplished by minimizing significant threats to
the species, such as habitat degradation, the spread of nonnative plant
species, an altered fire regime, and other stressors such as climate
change-induced drought and border activities.
The revised recovery plan establishes both population-based and
habitat-based downlisting and delisting criteria. These criteria focus
on maintaining a viable level of Kearney's blue star individuals, and
conserving habitat of sufficient quantity and quality for the species
and its pollinators. To achieve these recovery criteria, various
actions are needed, such as monitoring and augmentation of existing
sub-sites; surveying for and establishing new sub-sites; monitoring and
minimizing threats; and conducting research, education, and outreach.
When the recovery criteria established in this plan are met, we will
review the species' status and consider downlisting and, ultimately,
removal from the list of endangered and threatened plants.
Request for Public Comments
Section 4(f) of the ESA requires us to provide public notice and an
opportunity for public review and comment during recovery plan
development. It is also our policy to request peer review of recovery
plans (July 1, 1994; 59 FR 34270). In an appendix to the approved
recovery plan, we will summarize and respond to the issues raised by
the public and peer reviewers. Substantive comments may or may not
result in changes to the recovery plan; comments regarding recovery
plan implementation will be forwarded as appropriate to Federal or
other entities so that they can be taken into account during the course
of implementing recovery actions. Responses to individual commenters
will not be provided, but we will provide a summary of how we addressed
substantive comments in an appendix to the approved recovery plan.
We invite written comments on the draft recovery plan. In
particular, we are interested in additional information regarding the
current threats to the species, ongoing beneficial management efforts,
and the costs associated with implementing the recommended recovery
actions.
Public Availability of Comments
All comments received, including names and addresses, will become
part of the administrative record and will be available to the public.
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--will be publicly available. If you submit a hardcopy
comment that includes personal identifying information, you may request
at the top of your document that we withhold this information from
public review. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do
so.
Authority
We developed our draft recovery plan and publish this notice under
the authority of section 4(f) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as
amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).
Jeffrey Fleming,
Acting Regional Director, Southwest Region.
[FR Doc. 2020-06421 Filed 3-26-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4333-15-P