[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 219 (Monday, November 14, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 79515-79516]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-27272]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R4-ES-2016-N124; FXES1130400000C2-167-FF04E00000]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Final Recovery
Plan for the Laurel Dace
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the
availability of the final recovery plan for the endangered laurel dace,
a small fish native to the Tennessee River Basin in Tennessee. The
recovery plan includes specific recovery objectives and criteria that
must be met in order for us to downlist the fish to threatened status
or delist it under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended.
ADDRESSES: You may obtain a copy of the recovery plan from our Web site
at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/species/recovery-plans.html or the
Tennessee Field Office Web site at http://www.fws.gov/cookeville. You
may also request a copy of the recovery plan by contacting Geoff Call,
by U.S. mail at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tennessee Field Office,
446 Neal Street, Cookeville, TN 38501 (telephone 931-525-4983).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Geoff Call (see ADDRESSES).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Recovery Plans Under the Endangered Species Act
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
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (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 needed under any criteria
specified in section 4(a)(1) of the Act. To help guide the recovery
effort, we prepare recovery plans for most listed species. Recovery
plans describe actions considered necessary for conservation of the
species, establish criteria for downlisting or delisting, and estimate
time and cost for implementing recovery measures. The Act requires the
development of recovery plans for listed species, unless such a plan
would not promote the conservation of a particular species.
About the Species
We listed the laurel dace (Chrosomus saylori) as an endangered
species under the Act on August 9, 2011 (76 FR 48722), and designated
critical habitat for the species on October 16, 2012 (77 FR 63604). The
laurel dace is a small fish native to the Tennessee River Basin in
Tennessee. This fish, from the family Cyprinidae, is found or collected
from pools or slow runs from undercut banks or under slab boulders in
headwater tributaries. The vegetation surrounding the first or second
order streams where laurel dace occur includes mountain laurel,
rhododendron, and hemlocks.
Historically, laurel dace is known from seven streams, and it
currently occupies six of these, in three creek systems on the Walden
Ridge of the Cumberland Plateau. Only a few individuals have been
collected from headwaters of the two creek systems in the southern part
of their range, Soddy and Sale Creeks, although laurel dace are more
abundant in headwaters of the Piney River system in their northern
range. Threats to the laurel dace include land use activities that
affect silt levels, temperature, or hydrologic processes of these small
tributaries; invasive species, including sunfishes, basses, and hemlock
woolly adelgid; the species' naturally small population size and
geographic range; and climate change.
Recovery Plan Development
Section 4(f) of the Act requires us to provide public notice and an
opportunity for public review and comment prior to final approval of
recovery plans. We and other Federal agencies will take these public
comments into account in the course of implementing approved recovery
plans.
The Technical/Agency Draft Recovery Plan for the Laurel Dace was
developed by the Tennessee Field Office. This draft plan was published
on January 14, 2015, and made available for public comment through
March 16, 2015 (79 FR 1933). We received no comments from the general
public on the draft plan.
The Service also asked four peer reviewers to review and provide
comments on the draft plan. We received comments from all four peer
reviewers: Dr. J. Brian Alford of University of Tennessee, Dr. Hayden
T. Mattingly of Tennessee Tech University, Dr. Christopher E. Skelton
of Georgia College and State University, and Mr. Mark Thurman of the
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. All of the peer reviewers offered
general support and praise for the draft plan. For a summary of our
responses to peer review comments, see Appendix A in
[[Page 79516]]
the final recovery plan. We considered the information we received from
peer reviewers in our preparation and approval of this final recovery
plan. Specifically, we made a slight modification to recovery criteria
(see below) by adding the clarification of 500 individuals in the
definition of a viable population. We also adjusted budgets of recovery
actions in the implementation schedule.
Recovery Plan Components
Objectives for Reclassification to Threatened and Delisting
The goal of this recovery plan is to conserve populations of laurel
dace and enable the species to recover to the point that listing under
the Act is no longer necessary. Because recovery and delisting will
take a long time to achieve, and may be unachievable, an intermediate
goal of this recovery plan is to reduce threats to the point that the
species could be reclassified from endangered to threatened.
Reclassification to Threatened
Reclassification of the laurel dace to threatened status will be
possible when habitat conditions in occupied streams are suitable for
the conservation of the species, and viable populations are present
throughout suitable habitat in five of the six currently occupied
streams.
Delisting
In order for the laurel dace to recover to the point that listing
under the Act is no longer necessary, it will be necessary to conserve
all existing populations by maintaining, and in some cases restoring,
suitable habitat conditions in all streams where the species currently
occurs. It will also be necessary to discover or establish one
additional population.
Criteria for Reclassification From Endangered to Threatened or
Delisting
The following criteria will be used to determine whether the
objectives for reclassification and delisting described above have been
met. The criteria will be achieved by reducing or removing threats to
the species' habitat and conserving or establishing viable populations
throughout the species' range, as determined by monitoring of
demographic and genetic parameters.
Criteria for Reclassification From Endangered to Threatened
Criterion 1: Suitable instream habitat, flows, and water quality
for laurel dace, as defined by Recovery Tasks in the recovery plan,
exist in occupied streams.
Criterion 2: Viable populations * are present throughout suitable
habitat in Bumbee, Moccasin, and Youngs Creeks, and at least two of the
following streams: Soddy Creek, Cupp Creek or Horn Branch.
Criteria for Delisting
Criterion 1: Suitable instream habitat, flows, and water quality
for laurel dace exist in all occupied streams, and mechanisms exist to
ensure that land use activities (including road maintenance) in
catchments of streams inhabited by laurel dace will be compatible with
the species' conservation for the foreseeable future. Such mechanisms
could include, but are not necessarily limited to, conservation
agreements, conservation easements, land acquisition, and habitat
conservation plans.
Criterion 2: Viable populations * are present throughout suitable
habitat in Bumbee, Moccasin, Youngs, Soddy, and Cupp Creeks and Horn
Branch, and one additional viable population, created either through
reintroduction into Laurel Branch or by discovery of an additional wild
population.
* Populations will be considered viable when the following
demographic and genetic conditions exist:
Demographics--Monitoring data demonstrate that (a)
populations are stable or increasing, (b) average census size is at
least 500 individuals and two or more age-classes are consistently
present over a period of time encompassing five generations (i.e., 15
years), and (c) evidence of recruitment is not absent in more than 3
years or during consecutive years at any point within that period of
time.
Genetics--Populations will be considered to have
sufficient genetic variation to be viable if measurements of observed
number of alleles and estimates of heterozygosity and effective
population size have remained stable or increased during the five
generations used to establish demographic viability.
Authority
The authority for this action is section 4(f) of the Endangered
Species Act, 16 U.S.C. 1533(f).
Dated: August 22, 2016.
Mike Oetker,
Acting Regional Director, Southeast Region.
[FR Doc. 2016-27272 Filed 11-10-16; 8:45 am]
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