The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public comments on an application by the Michigan Electric Transmission Company for a five-year incidental take permit and habitat conservation plan for the endangered Karner blue butterfly in Muskegon and aygo counties.
The company proposes to reconductor a four-mile segment of electric power transmission line within a right-of-way segment running from east-central Muskegon County into the southwest corner of aygo County. To mitigate for possible loss of Karner blue butterfly habitat, the company would implement a conservation program, described in the proposed Cobb to Brickyard Reconductoring Low-Effect Habitat Conservation Plan.
An incidental take permit is issued under Section 10 of the federal Endangered Species Act to private parties undertaking otherwise lawful projects that might result in the take—defined as harming, pursuit, hunting, shooting, wounding, killing, trapping, capturing, or collecting--of an endangered or threatened species. Application for an incidental take permit is subject to certain requirements, including preparation by the permit applicant of a conservation plan, generally known as a habitat conservation plan.
A habitat conservation plan outlines ways of maintaining, enhancing and protecting a habitat type needed to protect an endangered or threatened species. The plan usually includes measures to minimize impacts, and might include provisions for permanently protecting land, restoring habitat, and relocating plants or animals to another area. A habitat conservation plan is required before an incidental take permit may be issued.
The Service has made a preliminary determination that approval of the proposed plan qualifies as a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act and as a “low-effect” plan. Determination of low-effect habitat conservation plans is based on three criteria: (1) implementation of the proposed plan would result in minor or negligible effects on federally listed, proposed, and candidate species and their habitats; (2) implementation of the proposed plan would result in minor or negligible effects on other environmental values or resources; and (3) impacts of the proposed plan, considered together with the impacts of other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable similarly situated projects, would not result in cumulative effects to environmental values or resources which would be considered significant.
The draft Habitat Conservation Plan and Low Effect Determination are available on the Service’s Website at: peter_fasbender@fws.gov, or by writing to: Peter Fasbender, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecological Services, 1 Federal Drive, Fort Snelling, MN 55111-4056.
Written comments may be submitted by mail or e-mail to the addresses listed above, or via fax to (612)713-5292. Comments should be submitted no later than March 24, 2005.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.
The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 63 Fish and Wildlife Management offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
