Designation of Critical Habitat for the Peck’s Cave Amphipod, Comal Springs Dryopid Beetle, and Comal Springs Riffle Beetle
About the Document
Title: Proposed Rule to Designate Critical Habitat for the Peck’s Cave Amphipod (Stygobromus pecki), Comal Springs Dryopid Beetle (Stygoparnus comalensis), and Comal Springs Riffle Beetle (Heterelmis comalensis)
Purpose: The document describes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) proposal to designate critical habitat for the endangered the Peck’s cave amphipod (Stygobromus pecki), Comal Springs cryopid beetle (Stygoparnus comalensis), Comal Springs riffle beetle (Heterelmis comalensis) under section 4 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Act). The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register (71 FR 40587 40621, July 17, 2006) for public review and was an assessment of the best scientific data available at this time and was the basis, in addition to any comments received, for a finding by the Service to designate critical habitat for the Devils River minnow.
About the Peer Review Process
Type of Review: Influential
Date of Peer Review: July 17, 2006 – September 15, 2007
Estimated Dissemination Date : July 16, 2006
Process: In accordance with our policy published on July 1, 1994 (59 FR 34270), we solicited expert opinions from nine knowledgeable individuals with scientific expertise that included familiarity with the species, the geographic region in which the species occur, and conservation biology principles. We received responses from four of the peer reviewers.
Peer reviewers were selected based on the following criteria:
- Expertise: Reviewers should have knowledge in one or more of the following areas: familiarity with the species, the geographic region in which the species occurs, and conservation biology principles.
- Independence: Reviewers should not be employed by the Service. Academic and consulting scientists should have sufficient independence from the Service or the Department if the government supports their work.
- Objectivity: Reviewers should be recognized by their peers as being objective, open-minded, and thoughtful. The reviewers should be comfortable sharing their knowledge and identifying their knowledge gaps.
- Advocacy: Reviewers should not be known or recognized for an affiliation with an advocacy position regarding the protection of this species under the Endangered Species Act.
- Conflict of Interest: Reviewers should not have any financial or other interest that conflicts or that could impair their objectivity.
Peer reviewers were not asked to provide recommendations on the designation of critical habitat. Peer reviewers were asked to: comment specifically on the quality of any information and analyses used or relied on in the document; identify oversights, omissions, and inconsistencies; provide advice on reasonableness of judgments made from the scientific evidence; ensure that scientific uncertainties were clearly identified and characterized, and that potential implications of uncertainties for the technical conclusions drawn were clear; and provided advice on the overall strengths and limitation of the scientific data used in the document. We used information received from the peer review in the final rule designating critical habitat for the Peck’s Cave Amphipod, Comal Springs Dryopid Beetle, and Comal Springs Riffle Beetle (72 FR 39248, July 17, 2007).
About Public Participation
Public comments on the proposed critical habitat were sought concurrently with the peer review by a Federal Register announcement and the distribution by mail and press release of this announcement to interested parties.
We published a final rule for critical habitat of the Peck’s Cave Amphipod, Comal Springs Dryopid Beetle, and Comal Springs Riffle Beetle on July 17, 2007, in 72 FR 39248, which included a summary of the results of the peer review process.
Both the proposed and final rules were published on the Service’s website at
http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/SpeciesReport.do?spcode=K019
http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/SpeciesReport.do?spcode=I0MI
http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/SpeciesReport.do?spcode=I0MH
Contact: Cyndee Watson, Austin Ecological Services Office, at Cyndee_Watson@fws.gov or 512-490-0057 ext. 223.