[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 127 (Tuesday, July 2, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39763-39765]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-15945]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R2-ES-2012-N128; FXES11130200000C2-112-FF02ENEH00]
Recovery Plan Addendum; Thick-Billed Parrot
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of document availability.
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SUMMARY: We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the
availability of our final recovery plan addendum for the Thick-billed
Parrot, which is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act
of 1973, as amended (Act). We have developed this final recovery plan
addendum to comply with a December 14, 2010, Stipulated Settlement
Agreement between WildEarth Guardians and the Secretary of the
Interior. This species is currently found in Mexico but has not been
detected in the United States (U.S.) since 1938; however, historically
the northern edge of its range also included southern Arizona and
possibly southwestern New Mexico. The recovery plan addendum includes
specific recovery objectives and criteria to be met in order to enable
us to remove this species from the list of endangered and threatened
wildlife and plants.
ADDRESSES: If you wish to review the recovery plan addendum, you may
obtain a copy by any one of the following methods:
Internet: http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/arizona/T-B_Parrot.htm
or http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/ElectronicLibrary_ListDocs.cfm Find
Thick-billed_Parrot_Final_Recovery_Plan_Addendum_June_2013.pdf.
U.S. mail: Arizona Ecological Services Office, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, 2321 West Royal Palm Road, Phoenix, AZ 85021-4951; or
Telephone: 602-242-0210.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Susan Sferra, Fish and Wildlife
Biologist, at Arizona Ecological Services Office, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, 201 N Bonita Ave., Suite 141, Tucson AZ 85745; or
Telephone: (520) 670-6150 ext 230, or by email at Susan_Sferra@fws.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We announce the availability of our final
recovery plan addendum for the thick-billed parrot (Rhynchopsitta
pachyrhyncha). The recovery plan addendum was prepared by biologists
from the United States with participation by experts in Mexico. We made
the draft recovery plan addendum available via a Federal Register
notice published on June 19, 2012 (77 FR 36569); this notice opened a
comment period that ran through August 20, 2012, and requested comments
from local, State, and Federal agencies; Tribes; and the public. We
considered information we received from these entities, as well as that
obtained from fourteen independent peer reviewers, in finalizing this
revised 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
Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). 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 Act.
The Act requires the
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development of recovery plans for listed species, unless such a plan
would not promote the conservation of a particular species.
Species' History
Historically the thick-billed parrot's range extended from Mexico
into southern Arizona and possibly southwestern New Mexico in the
United States. There are no formal historical nesting records for the
United States; however, thick-billed parrots visited southeastern
Arizona, and in some years large flocks were observed (Snyder et al.
1999). The last confirmed report of a thick-billed parrot flock in
United States was from the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona
in 1938 (Monson and Phillips 1981 in Snyder et al. 1999). Loss of
thick-billed parrots in the U.S. was likely caused by excessive,
unregulated shooting (Snyder et al. 1999). In Mexico, this species
occurs in the States of Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango, Jalisco, Colima,
and Michoac[aacute]n, spanning the Sierra Madre Occidental.
The thick-billed parrot (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha) was listed as
an endangered species on June 2, 1970 (35 FR 8491), pursuant to the
Endangered Species Conservation Act (ESCA), the precursor of the
Endangered Species Act. Based on the different listing procedures for
foreign and domestic species under the ESCA, the thick-billed parrot
was listed as a ``foreign'' species. When the Endangered Species Act
replaced the ESCA, the thick-billed parrot was not carried forward onto
the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants
(List) for the United States due to an oversight, although the thick-
billed parrot remained listed in Mexico. Subsequently, the parrot was
proposed to be listed in the United States on July 25, 1980, wherein
the proposed listing rule acknowledged that it was always the intention
of the Service to list the thick-billed parrot as endangered in the
United States (see 45 FR 49844, page 49845). In 2009, the U.S.
Department of the Interior's Assistant Solicitor for Fish and Wildlife
provided an explanation stating that the species has always been listed
as endangered throughout its entire range (see 74 FR 33957). Today, the
thick-billed parrot is listed throughout its range, including Mexico
and the United States. Critical habitat has not been proposed for the
thick-billed parrot.
Although thick-billed parrots no longer occur in the United States,
the Service has developed this recovery plan addendum to comply with
the December 14, 2010, Stipulated Settlement Agreement between
WildEarth Guardians and the Secretary of the Interior. The Thick-billed
Parrot Recovery Plan Addendum was created by adopting the 2009 thick-
billed parrot recovery plan for Mexico, ``Programa de Acci[oacute]n
para la Conservaci[oacute]n de las Especies: Cotorras Serranas
(PACE),'' and adding contents required by the Act (such as Recovery
Criteria, Management Actions in the United States, and an
Implementation Table) as an Addendum. In addition to statutory
requirements of the Act, this addendum to the PACE addresses the
species' historical occurrence in the United States, summarizes
information from scientific literature and U.S. and Mexican biologists
regarding the status and threats to the thick-billed parrot, and
presents additional information required by U.S. recovery planning
policy. We support the strategy for recovering the thick-billed parrot
set forth in the PACE (2009) and note that this is the first time the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is adopting a Mexican recovery
plan for a species to serve as the best available science to inform a
U.S. recovery plan.
The PACE was initiated by the Mexican National Commission of
Protected Natural Areas (Comisi[oacute]n Nacional de [Aacute]reas
Protegidas, CONANP) under the 2007 Federal ``Commitment to
Conservation'' programs in Mexico. Experts and public officials were
brought together to prevent the deterioration of Mexican ecosystems and
biodiversity. Thirty-five priority and endangered species were
selected, including the thick-billed parrot, with the objective of
creating the framework for, coordinating, and promoting the Federal
government's efforts to recover these species within the Conservation
Program for Species at Risk (PROCER). The focus of the PACE (2009) is
on extant populations of the thick-billed parrot; it does not address
extirpated thick-billed parrots or their historical range in the United
States. As a result, our recovery actions are focused primarily on
conservation within the current range of this species in Mexico and, to
a lesser degree, on the potential for expansion into the historical
range in the United States. Recommended actions for addressing current
threats to the species and evaluating recovery may be applied or
refined in the future.
The parrot's current range is limited to high elevations of the
Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico, extending from northwestern
Chihuahua and northeastern Sonora into Durango and continuing in a
southeasterly direction to Jalisco, Colima, and Michoac[aacute]n.
Thick-billed parrots migrate seasonally from their primary breeding
(summering) grounds in Chihuahua to wintering areas farther south,
possibly migrating 1,000 kilometers (km) (621 miles (mi)) or more
between their summering and wintering areas (Snyder et al. 1999, PACE
2009). The northernmost breeding area is Mesa de Guacamayas, located
within 80 km (50 mi) of the U.S.-Mexico border (Snyder et al. 1999).
Thick-billed parrots live in gregarious flocks in old-growth mixed-
conifer forests and require a diversity of food resources and the
availability of size-specific cavities for nesting. The thick-billed
parrot primarily feeds on seeds of several pine species, and to a
lesser extent on acorns and terminal buds of pine trees (Snyder et al.
1999). As an obligate cavity nester, the thick-billed parrot needs
cavities typically found in large-diameter pines and snags. Because of
their specialized habitat needs, thick-billed parrot populations have
experienced significant historical declines, corresponding to a drastic
loss of high-elevation mixed-conifer forests, mainly from a legacy of
logging. Only 1 percent of the old-growth forests is estimated to
remain, supporting small populations of thick-billed parrots
concentrated in a handful of sites.
Threats to the thick-billed parrot include loss of habitat,
primarily driven by extensive logging of large mature pines, removal of
nesting snags (Snyder et al. 1999), and, to a lesser degree,
catastrophic forest fires (PACE 2009); low numbers of individuals and
small remaining populations, leaving them vulnerable to stochastic
events; removal of birds from the wild in Mexico for the illegal pet
trade; and climate change, based on projections for the Southwestern
United States and northern Mexico predicting warmer, drier, and more
drought-like conditions (Hoerling and Eischeid 2007; Seager et al.
2007). Loss of the thick-billed parrot in the United States was likely
caused by excessive, unregulated shooting (Snyder et al. 1999). The
recovery plan addendum recommends protection of currently occupied
habitat; additional research to understand relationships between
habitat, migration patterns, and population dynamics; development of a
standardized monitoring protocol; development of replacement nesting
habitat; verification of occupied wintering habitat; development of
forest management plans; and the enforcement of existing environmental
and species collection laws. The plan recognizes the need to manage
these forest landscapes in both the United States and Mexico to
maximize resources for the species.
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Recovery Plan Goals
The objective of an agency recovery plan is to provide a framework
for the recovery of a species so that protection under the Act 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 Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants
(List). 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. To
achieve its goals, this recovery plan addendum identifies the following
objectives:
Support the thick-billed parrot throughout its range in
perpetuity.
Maintain habitat conditions necessary to provide feeding,
nesting, and wintering habitat for the thick-billed parrot through
time.
Assess the potential for the United States to support
naturally dispersing or actively relocated thick-billed parrots,
including a review of U.S. historical habitat, current habitat
management, and habitat connectivity with Mexico.
The recovery plan addendum contains recovery criteria based on
maintaining and increasing population numbers and habitat quality and
quantity. The recovery plan addendum focuses on protecting populations,
managing threats, maintaining habitat, monitoring progress, and
building partnerships to facilitate recovery.
As the thick-billed parrot meets recovery criteria, we will review
the subspecies' status and consider downlisting, and, ultimately,
removal from the List.
References Cited
A complete list of all references cited herein is available upon
request from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Branch of Recovery
(see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section).
Authority
We developed our final recovery plan addendum under the authority
of section 4(f) of the Act, 16 U.S.C. 1533(f). We publish this notice
under section 4(f) Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (16
U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).
Dated: June 20, 2013.
Joy E. Nicholopoulos,
Acting Regional Director, Southwest Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
[FR Doc. 2013-15945 Filed 7-1-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P