Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Endangered Species Status for Barrens Darter

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), propose to list the Barrens darter (Etheostoma forbesi), a fish species from Cannon, Coffee, Grundy, and Warren Counties, Tennessee, as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). This determination also serves as our 12-month finding on a petition to list the Barrens darter. After a review of the best scientific and commercial data available, we find that listing the species is warranted. Accordingly, we propose to list the Barrens darter as an endangered species under the Act. If we finalize this rule as proposed, it would add this species to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and extend the Act's protections to the species. We find that designating critical habitat for this species is not determinable at this time.