[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 58 (Monday, March 27, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18173-18175]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-06240]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-HQ-MB-2023-N030; FF09M30000-234-FXMB12320900000; OMB Control
Number 1018-0167]
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Eagle Take
Permits and Fees
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are proposing to renew,
without change, an information collection.
DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before
April 26, 2023.
ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of
this notice to https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this
particular information collection by selecting ``Currently under
Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.
Please provide a copy of your comments to the Service Information
Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: PRB
(JAO/3W), 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803 (mail); or by
email to Info_Coll@fws.gov. Please reference ``1018-0167'' in the
subject line of your comments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request additional information
about this ICR, contact Madonna L. Baucum, Service Information
Collection Clearance Officer, by email at Info_Coll@fws.gov, or by
telephone at (703) 358-2503. Individuals in the United States who are
deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial
711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay
services. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay
services offered within their country to make international calls to
the point-of-contact in the United States.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 and 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1), we provide the general public and
other Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on new, proposed,
revised, and continuing collections of information. This helps us
assess the impact of our information collection requirements and
minimize the public's reporting burden. It also helps the public
understand our information collection requirements and provide the
requested data in the desired format.
On January 13, 2023, we published in the Federal Register (88 FR
2369) a notice of our intent to request that OMB approve this
information collection. In that notice, we solicited comments for 60
days, ending on March 14, 2023. In an effort to increase public
awareness of, and participation in, our public commenting processes
associated with information collection requests, the Service also
published the Federal Register notice on Regulations.gov (Docket FWS-
HQ-MB-2023-0009) to provide the public with an additional method to
submit comments (in addition to the typical Info_Coll@fws.gov email and
U.S. mail submission methods). We received the following comments in
response to that notice:
Comment 1: Electronic comment received January 14, 2023 from Jean
Publiee via Regulations.gov (FWS-HQ-MB-2023-0009-0002). The commenter
did not address the information collection requirements.
Agency Response to Comment 1: No response required.
Comment 2: Anonymous electronic comment received March 13, 2023 via
Regulations.gov (FWS-HQ-MB-2023-0009-0003). The commenter did not
address the information collection requirements.
[[Page 18174]]
Agency Response to Comment 2: No response required.
Comment 3: Electronic comment received March 13, 2023 from Kelsey
Royce via Regulations.gov (FWS-HQ-MB-2023-0009-0004). The commenter
requested an extension on the 60-day comment period of this notice.
Agency Response to Comment 3: We declined to grant the extension
due to the upcoming expiration date of this existing information
collection. We will inform the commenter when the 30-day comment period
opens for the renewal of this information collection, and we will also
notify them for the opening of the comment period for the final rule.
Comment 4: Electronic comment received March 14, 2023 from Brooke
Marcus with the Energy and Wildlife Action Coalition via
Regulations.gov (FWS-HQ-MB-2023-0009-0005). The commenter provided
comments addressing the Service's proposed rule (RIN 1018-BE70; Docket
No. FWS-HQ-MB-2020-0023) and did not address the current information
collection requirements in this notice.
Agency Response to Comment 4: The comments provided are outside the
scope of this notice and appear to be in response to the proposed
rulemaking. We will inform the commenter when the 30-day comment period
opens for the renewal of this information collection, and we will also
notify them for the opening of the comment period for the final rule.
Comment 5: Comment received March 15, 2023 from Evan Inman via
email. The commenter requested an extension on the 60-day comment
period of this notice.
Agency Response to Comment 5: We declined to grant the extension
due to the upcoming expiration date of this existing information
collection. We will inform the commenter when the 30-day comment period
opens for the renewal of this information collection, and we will also
notify them for the opening of the comment period for the final rule.
As part of our continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent
burdens, we are again soliciting comments from the public and other
Federal agencies on the proposed ICR that is described below. We are
especially interested in public comment addressing the following:
(1) Whether or not the collection of information is necessary for
the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including
whether or not the information will have practical utility;
(2) The accuracy of our estimate of the burden for this collection
of information, including the validity of the methodology and
assumptions used;
(3) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and
(4) How might the agency minimize the burden of the collection of
information on those who are to respond, including through the use of
appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological
collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g.,
permitting electronic submission of response.
Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of
public record. 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 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.
Abstract: The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (Eagle Act; 16
U.S.C. 668-668d) prohibits take of bald eagles and golden eagles except
pursuant to Federal regulations. The Eagle Act regulations at title 50,
part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) define the ``take'' of
an eagle to include the following broad range of actions: To ``pursue,
shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, destroy,
molest, or disturb.'' The Eagle Act allows the Secretary of the
Interior to authorize certain otherwise prohibited activities through
regulations.
All Service permit applications associated with eagles are in the
3-200 and 3-202 series of forms, each tailored to a specific activity
based on the requirements for specific types of permits. We collect
standard identifier information for all permits. The information that
we collect on applications and reports is the minimum necessary for us
to determine if the applicant meets/continues to meet issuance
requirements for the particular activity.
The Service proposes to renew this information collection, without
change, in order to extend the expiration date for the collection
(currently July 31, 2023) while the Service continues to finalize our
rulemaking under RIN 1018-BG70, Permits for Incidental Take of Eagles
and Eagle Nests. On September 30, 2022, we published the proposed rule
(87 FR 59598) to revise the regulations authorizing the issuance of
permits for eagle incidental take and eagle nest take to increase the
efficiency and effectiveness of permitting, facilitate and improve
compliance, and increase the conservation benefit for eagles. The
comment period for the proposed rule ended on November 29, 2022. On
November 28, 2022, we extended the proposed rule's comment period to
December 29, 2022 (87 FR 72957). We received no comments addressing the
information collection requirements.
In addition to continuing to authorize specific permits, the
proposed rule, if finalized as written, would create general permits
for certain activities under prescribed conditions (qualifying wind-
energy generation projects, power line infrastructure, activities that
may disturb breeding bald eagles, and bald eagle nest take). It also
would remove the current third-party monitoring requirement for eagle
incidental take permits, update current permit fees, and clarify
definitions. We anticipate publication of the final rule under RIN
1018-BE70 in late 2023 or early 2024.
The public may request copies of any form contained in this
information collection by sending a request to the Service Information
Collection Clearance Officer (see ADDRESSES).
Title of Collection: Eagle Permits, 50 CFR 22.
OMB Control Number: 1018-0167.
Form Numbers: Forms 3-200-14, 3-200-15a, 3-200-16, 3-200-18, 3-200-
71, 3-200-72, 3-200-77, 3-200-78, 3-200-82, 3-200-11 through 3-200-16,
3-1552, 3-1591, and 3-2480.
Type of Review: Extension without change of a currently approved
collection.
Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals and businesses. We expect
that the majority of applicants seeking long-term permits will be in
the energy production and electrical distribution business sectors.
Total Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 4,068.
Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 4,318.
Estimated Completion Time per Response: Varies from 15 minutes to
228 hours, depending on activity.
Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 25,894.
Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain a benefit.
Frequency of Collection: On occasion for applications; annually or
on occasion for reports.
Total Estimated Annual Nonhour Burden Cost: $1,369,200 (primarily
associated with application processing fees).
An agency may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required
to respond to a collection of information
[[Page 18175]]
unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.
The authority for this action is the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).
Signed:
Madonna Baucum,
Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
[FR Doc. 2023-06240 Filed 3-24-23; 8:45 am]
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