[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 159 (Tuesday, August 18, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50024-50025]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-20334]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS-HQ-ES-2015-N158; FGES111309WLLF0 156]


Proposed Information Collection; Wolf-Livestock Demonstration 
Project Grant Program

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: We (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) will ask the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) to approve the information collection (IC) 
described below. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and 
as part of our continuing efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent 
burden, we invite the general public and other Federal agencies to take 
this opportunity to comment on this IC. This IC is scheduled to expire 
on December

[[Page 50025]]

31, 2015. We may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to 
respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently 
valid OMB control number.

DATES: To ensure that we are able to consider your comments on this IC, 
we must receive them by October 19, 2015.

ADDRESSES: Send your comments on the IC to the Information Collection 
Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS BPHC, 5275 
Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803 (mail); or hope_grey@fws.gov 
(email). Please include ``1018-0154'' in the subject line of your 
comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request additional information 
about this IC, contact Hope Grey at hope_grey@fws.gov (email) or 703-
358-2482 (telephone).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract

    Subtitle C of Title VI of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 
2009 (Act; Pub. L. 111-11) authorizes the Secretary of the Interior and 
the Secretary of Agriculture to develop a Wolf-Livestock Demonstration 
Project Grant Program (WLDPGP) to:
     Assist livestock producers in undertaking proactive, 
nonlethal activities to reduce the risk of livestock loss due to 
predation by wolves; and
     Compensate livestock producers for livestock losses due to 
such predation.
    The Act directs that the program be established as a grant program 
to provide funding to States and tribes, that the Federal cost-share 
not exceed 50 percent, and that funds be expended equally between the 
two purposes. The Act included an authorization of appropriations up to 
$1 million each fiscal year for 5 years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service Endangered Species Program will allocate the funding as 
competitively awarded grants to States and tribes with a prior history 
of wolf depredation. States with delisted wolf populations are eligible 
for funding, provided that they meet the eligibility criteria contained 
in Public Law 111-11.
    The following additional criteria apply to all WLDPGP grants and 
must be satisfied for a project to receive WLDPGP funding:
     A proposal cannot include U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
full-time equivalent (FTE) costs.
     A proposal cannot seek funding for projects that serve to 
satisfy regulatory requirements of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), 
including complying with a biological opinion under section 7 or 
fulfilling commitments of a habitat conservation plan (HCP) under 
section 10, or for projects that serve to satisfy other Federal 
regulatory requirements (e.g., mitigation for Federal permits).
     State administrative costs must be assumed by the State or 
included in the proposal in accordance with Federal requirements.
    We will publish notices of funding availability on the Grants.gov 
Web site at http://www.grants.gov, as well as in the Catalog of Federal 
Domestic Assistance at http://cfda.gov. To compete for grant funds, 
eligible States and tribes must submit an application that describes in 
substantial detail project locations, project resources, future 
benefits, and other characteristics that meet the Wolf-Livestock 
Demonstration Project Grant Program purposes as listed above. In 
accordance with the Act, States and tribes that receive a grant must:
     Maintain files of all claims received under programs 
funded by the grant, including supporting documentation; and
     Submit an annual report that includes a summary of claims 
and expenditures under the program during the year and a description of 
any action taken on the claims.
    Materials that describe the program and assist applicants in 
formulating project proposals will be available on our Web site at 
www.fws.gov/grants. Persons who do not have access to the Internet may 
obtain instructional materials by mail.

II. Data

    OMB Control Number: 1018-0154.
    Title: Wolf-Livestock Demonstration Project Grant Program.
    Service Form Number: None.
    Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Description of Respondents: States and Indian tribes.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to Obtain or Retain a Benefit.
    Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 10.
    Frequency of Collection: On occasion.
    Estimated Annual Nonhour Burden Cost: None.

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                                                                                    Completion
                            Activity                                 Number of       time per      Total annual
                                                                     responses       response      burden hours
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Applications....................................................              10         8 hours              80
Reports and Recordkeeping.......................................              10        14 hours             140
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Totals......................................................              20  ..............             220
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III. Comments

    We invite comments concerning this information collection on:
     Whether or not the collection of information is necessary, 
including whether or not the information will have practical utility;
     The accuracy of our estimate of the burden for this 
collection of information;
     Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
     Ways to minimize the burden of the collection of 
information on respondents.
    Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of 
public record. We will include or summarize each comment in our request 
to OMB to approve this IC. 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 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.

    Dated: August 13, 2015.
Tina A. Campbell,
Chief, Division of Policy, Performance, and Management Programs, U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 2015-20334 Filed 8-17-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P