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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 41 / Thursday, March 4, 2021 / Proposed Rules additional populations to reduce extinction risk, the only historical extirpated location with the essential physical or biological features is Agua Caliente, where the species has already been reintroduced; therefore, it is currently occupied. We are not aware of which additional locations may have a reasonable certainty of contributing to conservation.
In summary, for areas within the geographic area occupied by the species at the time of listing, we delineated critical habitat unit boundaries using the following criteria: Evaluate habitat suitability of cienegas within the geographic area occupied at the time of listing, and retain those cienegas that contain some or all of the physical or biological features that are essential to support life history processes of the species.
When determining proposed critical habitat boundaries, we made every effort to avoid including developed areas such as lands covered by buildings, pavement, and other structures because such lands lack physical or biological features necessary for the Arizona eryngo. The scale of the maps we prepared under the parameters for publication within the Code of Federal Regulations may not reflect the
exclusion of such developed lands. Any such lands inadvertently left inside critical habitat boundaries shown on the maps of this proposed rule have been excluded by text in the proposed rule and are not proposed for designation as critical habitat. Therefore, if the critical habitat is finalized as proposed, a Federal action involving these lands would not trigger section 7 consultation with respect to critical habitat and the requirement of no adverse modification unless the specific action would affect the physical or biological features in the adjacent critical habitat.
We propose to designate as critical habitat lands that we have determined are occupied at the time of listing i.e., currently occupied and that contain one or more of the physical or biological features that are essential to support life-history processes of the species.
Units are proposed for designation based on one or more of the physical or biological features being present to support Arizona eryngos life-history processes. Some units contain all of the identified physical or biological features and support multiple life-history processes. Some units contain only some of the physical or biological features necessary to support the
Arizona eryngos particular use of that habitat.
The critical habitat designation is defined by the map or maps, as modified by any accompanying regulatory text, presented at the end of this document under Proposed Regulation Promulgation. We include more detailed information on the boundaries of the critical habitat designation in the preamble of this document. We will make the coordinates or plot points or both on which each map is based available to the public at https www.fws.gov/
southwest/es/arizona/ and at http
www.regulations.gov under Docket No.
FWSR2ES20200130.
Proposed Critical Habitat Designation We are proposing three units as critical habitat for the Arizona eryngo, all of which are in Arizona. The critical habitat areas we describe below constitute our current best assessment of areas that meet the definition of critical habitat for the Arizona eryngo. The three areas we propose as critical habitat are: 1 Lewis Springs, 2 La Cebadilla, and 3 Agua Caliente. The table below shows the proposed critical habitat units and the approximate area of each unit. All units are occupied.

TABLE OF PROPOSED CRITICAL HABITAT UNITS FOR THE ARIZONA ERYNGO
Area estimates reflect all land within critical habitat unit boundaries Size of unit in acres hectares
Critical habitat unit
Subunit
Land ownership by type
1. Lewis Springs
2. La Cebadilla

9.6 3.9
3.1 1.3

Yes.
Yes.

3. Agua Caliente

3a. Pond 1 Wetland

0.04 0.02

Yes.

3b. Pond 1 Wildlife Island
3c. Pond 2

Federal BLM
Private, Pima County Regional Flood Control District.
Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation.

13.0 5.3

Total

Occupied?

0.2 0.07
0.09 0.04

Note: Area sizes may not sum due to rounding.

We present brief descriptions of all units, and reasons why they meet the definition of critical habitat for the Arizona eryngo, below.

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Unit 1: Lewis Springs Unit 1 consists of 9.6 acres 3.9
hectares encompassing the wetlands at Lewis Springs just to the east of the San Pedro River in Cochise County, within the San Pedro River Basin. The unit is located within the SPRNCA, which is owned and managed by the BLM to conserve, protect, and enhance a rare remnant of desert riparian ecosystem.
The unit is occupied by the species and
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contains all the physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the Arizona eryngo. The Lewis Springs Unit is being affected by drought, nonnative species invasion, woody vegetation encroachment, and ongoing human demand for water resulting in declining groundwater levels. Therefore, special management is necessary to reduce invasion of nonnative species and encroachment of woody vegetation and to improve groundwater levels to support continued springflow.

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Unit 2: La Cebadilla Unit 2 consists of 3.1 acres 1.3
hectares of cienega habitat at La Cebadilla Cienega, adjacent to the Tanque Verde Wash east of Tucson in Pima County, within the Santa Cruz River Basin. The majority of the unit is located on lands owned by La Cebadilla Estates, with a smaller portion of the unit located on lands owned and managed by PCFCD. The homeowners association of La Cebadilla Estates manages their portion of the cienega as common property for the common use and enjoyment of its members. PCFCD
manages their portion of the cienega as
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