[Federal Register: October 20, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 203)]
[Notices]
[Page 62305-62307]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20oc08-79]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R6-R-2008-N0268; 61411-0000-1115-F4]
Proposed Candidate Conservation Agreement With Assurances for the
Black-Tailed Prairie Dog, Mountain Plover, Burrowing Owl, and
Ferruginous Hawk for the 4W Ranch in Niobrara and Weston Counties, WY
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability; receipt of application.
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SUMMARY: This notice advises the public that the 4W Ranch, FLP
(Applicant) has applied to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service)
for an enhancement of survival permit (permit) pursuant to section
10(a)(1)(A) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act).
This permit application includes a Candidate Conservation Agreement
with Assurances (Agreement) between the Applicant and the Service. The
Service requests information, views, and opinions from the public via
this notice. Further, the Service is soliciting information regarding
the adequacy of the Agreement as measured against the Service's
Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances policy and the
regulations that implement it.
DATES: Written comments on the permit application must be received on
or before November 19, 2008.
ADDRESSES: Persons wishing to review the Agreement and permit
application may obtain copies by writing to the Wyoming Ecological
Services Field Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 5353 Yellowstone
Road, Suite 308A, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001. Documents also will be
available for public inspection during normal business hours at this
office. Documents also may be viewed on the following Web site:
[[Page 62306]]
http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/es/wyoming/index.htm. Written data
or comments concerning the Agreement or permit application should be
addressed to Brian T. Kelly, Field Supervisor, at the above address, to
be adequately considered in the Service's decision-making process.
Written comments also may be sent by facsimile to (307) 772-2358.
Please reference permit number TE184530 in your comments, or in the
request of the documents discussed herein.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brian T. Kelly, Field Supervisor,
Wyoming Ecological Services Field Office, at the above address;
telephone (307) 772-2374. People who use a telecommunications device
for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service at
(800) 877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Under a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances,
participating landowners voluntarily undertake management activities on
their property to enhance, restore, or maintain habitat benefiting
species that are proposed for listing under the Act, candidates for
listing, or may become candidates. Candidate Conservation Agreements
with Assurances, and the subsequent permits that are issued pursuant to
section 10(a)(1)(A) of the Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), encourage
private and other non-Federal property owners to implement conservation
efforts for species by assuring property owners that they will not be
subjected to increased land use restrictions as a result of efforts to
attract or increase the numbers or distribution of a listed species on
their property, if that species becomes listed under the Act in the
future. Application requirements and issuance criteria for permits
through the Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances are found
in 50 CFR 17.22(d) and 17.32(d).
We have worked with the Applicant to develop this proposed
Agreement for the conservation of the black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys
ludovicianus), mountain plover (Charadrius montanus), burrowing owl
(Athene cunicularia), and ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis) (covered
species) on the 4W Ranch, which lies in Niobrara and Weston Counties,
Wyoming. Within the 29,000 acres of 4W Ranch owned or leased lands, the
landowners have identified 3,370 acres of their privately owned
property on which habitat for the covered species will be restored,
enhanced, and managed pursuant to the Agreement. The proposed duration
of the Agreement and permit is 10 years. The Agreement fully describes
the proposed management activities to be undertaken by the Applicant
and the conservation benefits expected to be gained for the covered
species. We have made a preliminary determination that the Agreement
qualifies as a low-effect plan, since it has minor to negligible
effects on federally listed, proposed or candidate species and their
habitats, and qualifies for a categorical exclusion under the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Upon approval of this Agreement, and consistent with the Service's
Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances' policy published in
the Federal Register on June 17, 1999 (64 FR 32726), the Service would
issue a permit to the applicant authorizing take of the covered species
by the Applicant associated with the implementation of the management
activities specified in the Agreement. To benefit the covered species,
the Applicant agrees to undertake site-specific management activities,
which are specified in their Agreement.
The black-tailed prairie dog is considered a keystone species,
because the effects of its foraging and burrowing behaviors maintain
habitat features important to a variety of other species and it serves
as a food source for predators. Prairie dog activities result in mixing
subsoil with topsoil, which redistributes nutrients and increases water
infiltration rates. The resulting soil and moisture conditions
consequently increase plant diversity, which in turns attracts a
variety of animals to prairie dog colonies. However, prairie dogs can
also have significant adverse effects on vegetation communities in
localized areas in and near their colonies. Prairie dogs can denude
areas of vegetation under prolonged drought and heat conditions. As a
result, prairie dogs have often been viewed by landowners as directly
competing with livestock for forage resources.
The black-tailed prairie dog was eliminated from much of its
historic range as a result of control efforts by both public and
private landowners. Control efforts no longer appear to be
significantly reducing the range-wide distribution of the species, but
continued control efforts by some landowners can have localized effects
to prairie dog populations. Due to the perceived conflict of prairie
dogs with other land uses, landowners are more inclined to maintain or
increase habitat as viable and productive for prairie dog, if doing so
can be balanced with other land uses. Because most of the black-tailed
prairie dog habitat in the eastern range occurs on private lands,
private landowners willing to manage for suitable habitat can play an
important role in the long-term conservation of the black-tailed
prairie dog. Accordingly, the 4W Ranch agrees to undertake management
activities to enhance habitat and protect the ranch's populations of
black-tailed prairie dogs, mountain plovers, burrowing owls, and
ferruginous hawks. However, the willingness for participation by the
property owner depends on the ability to manage these species to allow
maintenance of the ranch's economic viability and protection of high-
value forage areas for livestock.
Management activities described in the Agreement provide for the
restoration, enhancement, and management of native habitats of the
covered species on 3,370 acres of the 4W Ranch. The objective of such
activities is to enhance populations of the covered species by
increasing the amount and quality of suitable habitat on the enrolled
properties. Management of black-tailed prairie dogs, outlined in the
Agreement, will focus on maintaining colonies within a 3,000-acre core
management area. Conservation measures to be implemented by the 4W
Ranch under the Agreement include control of prickly pear cactus, range
soil aeration, reseeding grasses, and livestock grazing rotation. These
measures also would benefit the other covered species, which depend on
the prairie dog for suitable habitat and prey. The implementation of
these measures, as well as some routine ranching activities, may result
in the incidental take of the covered species. Such take would be
authorized by the issuance to the property owner of a section
10(a)(1)(A) permit under the authority of 50 CFR 17.22(d) for species
federally listed as endangered or 50 CFR 17.32 (d) for species
federally listed as threatened.
An incentive for long-term conservation of the black-tailed prairie
dog on the 4W Ranch is the assurance that the property owner will be
able to maintain economic viability of the ranch by preventing
encroachment of prairie dogs onto important ranch production areas
(e.g., hay meadows). The property owner would be authorized to use
primarily regulated recreational shooting and other measures as
necessary to control prairie dogs when populations on the 4W Ranch are
above established thresholds. Such regulated take would be authorized
by the section 10(a)(1)(A) permit issued to the property owner under
the authority of 50 CFR 17.22(a)
[[Page 62307]]
for species federally listed as endangered or 50 CFR 17.32 (a) for
species federally listed as threatened.
A single section 10(a)(1)(A) permit would be issued with separate
authorizations, as cited above, for the incidental take of the covered
species and for the intentional take of the black-tailed prairie dog.
The permit also would contain separate sets of special terms and
conditions for each of the two types of take. The permit would become
effective upon Federal listing of any of the covered species.
Annual monitoring, required by the Agreement, will be conducted to
determine active burrow densities, which can be used as an index of
population levels. Recreational shooting will not occur unless
monitoring indicates the population threshold has been exceeded. For
example, when plague epizootics have reduced the population below
established thresholds, all recreational shooting will be suspended,
pending the recovery of the population back to threshold levels.
Additionally, ongoing monitoring and adaptive management will allow
adjustment of management goals and thresholds should new information
indicate populations are decreasing or increasing outside the threshold
parameters.
Baseline population and habitat conditions for the covered species
are described in the Agreement. Annual monitoring is a key component of
the Agreement and is one of the requirements for receiving assurances
that no further measures would be required of the property owner and
that take of any of the covered species, if federally listed, under the
permit would continue to be authorized. Adaptive management provides
the plan flexibility, if monitoring indicates changes in management are
necessary (e.g., threshold levels need to be raised to meet the
conservation goals, as fully described in the Agreement).
Public Review and Comments
The Service has made a preliminary determination that the proposed
Agreement and permit issuance are eligible for categorical exclusion
under NEPA. We explain the basis for this determination in an
Environmental Action Statement, which also is available for public
review at the office listed in the ADDRESSES section above.
If you wish to comment on the permit application or the Agreement,
you may submit your comments to the address listed in the ADDRESSES
section of this document. Before including your address, phone number,
e-mail 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. 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.
We will evaluate this permit application, associated documents, and
comments submitted thereon to determine whether the permit application
meets the requirements of section 10(a) of the Act and NEPA regulations
at 40 CFR 1506.6. If we determine that the requirements are met, we
will sign the proposed Agreement and issue a permit under section
10(a)(1)(A) of the Act to the Applicants for take of the covered
species in accordance with the terms of the Agreement. We will not make
our final decision until after the end of the 30-day comment period and
will fully consider all comments received during the comment period.
The Service provides this notice under section 10(c) of the Act and
implementing regulations for NEPA (40 CFR 1506.6).
Dated: May 20, 2008.
Scott Hicks,
Deputy Field Supervisor, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
[FR Doc. E8-24884 Filed 10-17-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P