[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 15 (Thursday, January 23, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3941-3943]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [http://www.gpo.gov/]
[FR Doc No: 2020-01008]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2018-0079; FXES11140400000-178-FF04EF2000]
Receipt of Incidental Take Permit Application; Eastern Collier
Property Owners, LLC, Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan, Collier
County, Florida; Additional Applicant
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce
receipt of an application from Gargiulo, Inc. (applicant) for an
incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act. The
applicant requests to join 11 other landowners, collectively known as
``Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC,'' in requesting individual 50-
year ITPs authorizing take of the Florida panther and 18 other Federal
or State-listed species. The take would be incidental to residential
and commercial development, earth mining, and low-intensity rural land
activities on properties in Collier County, Florida (project). We are
accepting comments on Gargiulo, Inc.'s ITP application.
DATES: We will accept comments received or postmarked on or before
February 21, 2020. Comments submitted electronically at http://www.regulations.gov/ must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on the
closing date. Any comments we receive after the closing date may not be
considered in the final decision on these actions.
ADDRESSES:
Obtain Documents: You may obtain copies of documents related to
this application by the following methods:
Internet: http://www.regulations.gov/ (search for Docket No. FWS-R4-
ES-2018-0079).
Field Office: https://www.fws.gov/verobeach/.
Submit Comments: You may submit written comments by the following
methods:
Internet: http://www.regulations.gov/. Follow the instructions for
submitting
[[Page 3942]]
comments on Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2018-0079.
Hard Copy: Via U.S. mail or hand-delivery to Public Comments
Processing, Attn: FWS-R4-ES-2018-0079, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Headquarters, JAO/1N, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.
Review Public Comments: Submitted comments may be viewed at http://www.regulations.gov/ in Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2018-0079.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Dell, Regional HCP Coordinator,
by mail at Attn: ECPO, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1875 Century
Boulevard, Atlanta, GA 30345, or by telephone at 404-679-7313; or
Constance Cassler, Supervisory Fish and Wildlife Biologist, by mail at
the South Florida Ecological Services Office, Attn: ECPO, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, 1339 20th Street, Vero Beach, FL 32960; or by
telephone at 772-469-4356.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have
received an application for an incidental take permit (ITP) under the
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et
seq.). The applicant seeks to join 11 other landowners, collectively
known as ``Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC'' (ECPO), in obtaining
individual 50-year ITPs. ECPO collaborated on a joint HCP to address
long-term land-use planning and conservation issues related to the
Florida panther in the east Collier County area (see also http://www.floridapantherprotection.com/). Table 1 lists the species covered by
the HCP. The Service announced the availability of 11 landowners' ITP
applications in the Federal Register on October 19, 2018 (83 FR 53078).
The applications included a jointly prepared habitat conservation plan
(HCP). We also sought comment on our draft environmental impact
statement (EIS). The comment period closed on December 3, 2018. All 12
applicants are listed below in Table 2.
Applicant
Gargiulo, Inc. purchased approximately 5,000 acres from another
ECPO member, Collier Enterprises Management, Inc. The purchased tracts
are already included in the HCP area, and there have been no changes to
the activities covered by the HCP since publication of the October 19,
2018, notice.
Table 1--HCP-Covered Wildlife Species and Their Protected Statuses
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Status Common name Scientific name
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Listed as endangered under the Florida panther... Puma concolor
ESA. coryi.
Florida bonneted Eumops floridanus.
bat.
Red-cockaded Picoides borealis.
woodpecker.
Everglade snail Rostrhamus
kite. sociabilis
plumbeus.
Listed as threatened under the Wood stork........ Mycteria
ESA. americana.
Crested caracara.. Polyborus plancus
audubonii.
Florida scrub jay. Aphelocoma
coerulescens.
Eastern indigo Drymarchon corais
snake. couperi.
Candidate species or species Gopher tortoise... Gopherus
under review for Federal polyphemus.
listing.
Eastern Crotalus
diamondback adamanteus.
rattlesnake.
Gopher frog....... Lithobates capito.
State-listed species............ Big Cypress fox Sciurus niger
squirrel. avicennia.
Everglades mink... Neovison vison
evergladensis.
Burrowing owl..... Athene
cunicularia.
Florida sandhill Antigone
crane. canadensis
pratensis.
Little blue heron. Egretta caerulea.
Roseate spoonbill. Platalea ajaja.
Southeastern Falco sparverius
American kestrel. paulus.
Tricolored heron.. Egretta tricolor.
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Table 2--Members of Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC, and Their
Incidental Take Permit Application Numbers
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Applicants Permit application Nos.
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Alico Land Development, Inc............... TE05647D-0
Barron Collier Investment, Ltd............ TE04440D-0
Collier Enterprises Management, Inc....... TE04443D-0
Consolidated Citrus Limited Partnership... TE04471D-0
English Brothers Partnership.............. TE04152D-0
Gargiulo, Inc............................. TE54442D-0
Half Circle L Ranch, LLP.................. TE05238D-0
Heller Bros. Packing Corp................. TE05668D-0
JB Ranch I, LLC........................... TE04473D-0
Owl Hammock Immokalee, LLC................ TE06114D-0
Pacific Land, Ltd......................... TE05665D-0
Sunniland Family Limited Partnership...... TE04472D-0
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Background
Section 9 of the ESA and its implementing regulations prohibit
``take'' of federally listed ``threatened'' or ``endangered'' fish and
wildlife species. However, section 10(a) of the ESA provides exceptions
to the prohibition by allowing the Service to issue permits authorizing
take of listed species where such take is incidental to, and not the
purpose of, otherwise lawful activities, provided the applicant meets
certain statutory requirements.
The ECPO HCP proposes a programmatic approach and framework for
engaging in incidental take of the covered species while providing for
the permanent protection of portions of the HCP area via conservation
easements and funding for conservation activities in addition to those
provided in the HCP. ECPO collectively owns a total of 151,779 acres
within the approximately 174,000-acre HCP area. Up to 45,000 acres of
the area could be developed or used for other activities under the HCP.
Impacts to covered species from the project would be mitigated through
habitat management measures, the placement of conservation easements on
up to 107,000 acres of the HCP area, and contributions to a
conservation endowment, the Marinelli Fund, to implement conservation
measures for the covered species throughout and beyond the HCP area.
Draft Environmental Impact Statement
We published a notice of intent to prepare an EIS for ECPO's HCP in
the Federal Register on March 25, 2016 (81 FR 16200). A public scoping
meeting was held in Naples, Florida, on April 12, 2016, and an online
public participation webcast was conducted on April 19, 2016. We
incorporated issues identified during the scoping meetings into the
draft EIS. A summary of the comments received during the scoping period
is provided in the scoping report appended to the draft EIS. We
published
[[Page 3943]]
a notice of availability of the draft EIS on October 19, 2018.
The draft EIS assesses the likely environmental impacts associated
with the implementation of the activities proposed in the HCP compared
to the likely consequences of not issuing the requested ITPs, i.e.,
uncoordinated project-by-project and lot-by-lot planning and
mitigation. The Department of the Army, through its bureau the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, is a cooperating agency
in the development of the draft EIS.
Public Comments
Comments previously submitted on the HCP, draft EIS, or 11 ITP
applications need not be resubmitted. We have incorporated them into
the public record and will fully consider them in our deliberations on
whether to issue the requested ITPs.
If you wish to comment on Gargiulo, Inc.'s ITP application, you may
submit comments by any one of the methods listed above in ADDRESSES.
Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other
personal identifying information in your comment, be aware that your
entire comment--including your personal identifying information--may be
made available to the public at any time. While you may request in your
comment that we withhold your personal identifying information, we
cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
Next Steps
We will evaluate the HCP, draft EIS, and public comments to
determine whether the ITP application meets the permit issuance
requirements of section 10(a) of the ESA. We will also conduct an
intra-Service consultation pursuant to section 7 of the ESA. If the
requirements for permit issuance are met, we will issue an ITP to the
applicant.
Authority
We provide this notice under section 10 of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1531
et seq.), ESA regulations in Title 50 of the Code of Federal
Regulations, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 42 U.S.C.
4321 et seq.) and NEPA regulation 40 CFR 1506.6.
Mike Oetker,
Deputy Regional Director.
[FR Doc. 2020-01008 Filed 1-22-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4333-15-P