[Federal Register: March 30, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 60)]
[Notices]
[Page 15723]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr30mr10-89]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R1-ES-2009-N207; 10120-1113-0000-C2]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Draft Revised
Recovery Plan for the Mariana Fruit Bat or Fanihi (Pteropus mariannus
mariannus)
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of document availability for review and comment; draft
revised recovery plan.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announce the
availability of the Draft Revised Recovery Plan for the Mariana Fruit
Bat or Fanihi (Pteropus mariannus mariannus), for public review and
comment.
DATES: Comments on the recovery plan must be received on or before June
28, 2010.
ADDRESSES: An electronic copy of the recovery plan is available at
http://endangered.fws.gov/recovery/index.html#plans. The recovery plan
is also available by request from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office, 300 Ala Moana Boulevard, Room
3-122, Box 50088, Honolulu, Hawaii 96850 (phone: 808/792-9400).
Requests for copies of the recovery plan and written comments and
materials regarding this plan should be addressed to the Field
Supervisor, Ecological Services, at the above Honolulu address.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Holly Freifeld, Fish and Wildlife
Biologist, at the above Honolulu address.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Recovery of endangered or threatened animals and plants is a
primary goal of the Endangered Species Act (Act) (16 U.S.C. 1531 et
seq.) and our endangered species program. Recovery means improvement of
the status of listed species to the point at which listing is no longer
required under the criteria in section 4(a)(1) of the Act.
The Act requires the development of recovery plans for endangered
or threatened species unless such a plan would not promote the
conservation of the species. Recovery plans help guide the recovery
effort by describing actions considered necessary for the conservation
of the species, establishing criteria for downlisting or delisting
listed species, and estimating time and cost for implementing the
measures needed for recovery. This draft revised recovery plan was
developed with the input and assistance of a Recovery Team appointed by
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Section 4(f) of the Act requires that public notice, and an
opportunity for public review and comment, be provided during recovery
plan development. We will consider all information presented during the
public comment period, and substantive comments may result in changes
to the recovery plan. Substantive comments regarding recovery plan
implementation may not necessarily result in changes to the recovery
plan, but will be forwarded to the appropriate Federal agency or other
entities so that they can take these comments into account during the
course of implementing recovery actions. Individual responses to
comments will not be provided.
This subspecies of the Mariana fruit bat or fanihi (Pteropus
mariannus mariannus) is endemic to the Mariana archipelago (the
Territory of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
[CNMI]), where it is known from most of the 15 major islands. The
subspecies was federally listed as endangered on the island of Guam in
1984, and was reclassified as threatened throughout its range in 2005
(70 FR 1190). Surveys on most or all islands in the archipelago were
conducted in 1983, 2000, and 2001. A conservative interpretation of
these data indicates a steep decline in fruit bat numbers has taken
place since 1983. Available information indicates the chief threats to
the fanihi are hunting, chronic habitat degradation by ungulates,
predation by brown treesnakes, and risk factors associated with small
population size (bats are highly vulnerable to extirpation on islands
where they persist in chronically low numbers). Therefore, the recovery
strategy in this plan focuses on the following actions: (1) Reduction
or elimination of hunting to allow increase in fanihi numbers
throughout the archipelago; (2) protection of the best existing habitat
and enhancement of additional suitable habitat; (3) effective control
and interdiction of the brown treesnake; and (4) population monitoring
and modeling to (a) assess the fanihi's sensitivity to specific threats
and management actions and (b) forecast the species' persistence.
Implementing these actions requires building long-term support for
and participation in the recovery effort through outreach and
education; enhancing existing survey methodologies; developing research
and monitoring projects to address gaps in our scientific knowledge of
fanihi and provide new information for effective conservation and
recovery; and application of this research and monitoring through
adaptive management. The recovery strategy will be implemented as a
collaborative effort among technical experts, agencies, the governments
of the CNMI and Guam, and other participants and stakeholders. Owing to
the limitations in our current knowledge of fanihi life history and
ecology, this recovery plan focuses on the first 10 years of the
recovery process. As additional information is gained about the fanihi
through management, monitoring, and research, recovery strategies and
measures should be reassessed to determine the appropriate steps toward
recovery and delisting.
Request for Public Comments
We solicit written comments on the recovery plan described. All
comments received by the date specified above will be considered prior
to approval of this plan.
Authority: The authority for this action is section 4(f) of the
Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. 1533(f).
Dated: November 2, 2009.
David J. Wesley,
Regional Director, Region 1, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-6991 Filed 3-29-10; 8:45 am]
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