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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 44 / Tuesday, March 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Niangua River Wheeler et al. 2003, pg.
155. The threats described above have already resulted in the functional extirpation of one of five populations of the eastern hellbender in Missouri and the declining condition of the remaining four populations. The lack of healthy populations, the limited spatial extent of the Missouri DPS and the likely loss of populations in the event of a catastrophic event greatly reduce the DPSs resiliency and redundancy the ability of eastern hellbenders to withstand normal environmental variation, periodic disturbances, stressors, and catastrophes currently and into the future. Based on threats currently affecting the Missouri DPS, we expect all populations to continue to decline in health Service 2018, Chapter 6. Additionally, under two out of three future scenarios, we expect an additional population to become extirpated within 10 years Service 2018, Chapter 6. Thus, after assessing the best available information, we determine that the Missouri DPS of the eastern hellbender is in danger of extinction throughout all of its range.

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Status Throughout a Significant Portion of Its Range Under the Act and our implementing regulations, a species may warrant listing if it is in danger of extinction or likely to become so in the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. We have determined that the Missouri DPS of the eastern hellbender is in danger of extinction throughout all of its range, and accordingly, did not undertake an analysis of any significant portion of its range. Because we have determined that the Missouri DPS of the eastern hellbender warrants listing as endangered throughout all of its range, our determination is consistent with the decision in Center for Biological Diversity v. Everson, 2020 WL 437289
D.D.C. Jan. 28, 2020, in which the court vacated the aspect of the 2014
Significant Portion of its Range Policy that provided the Services do not undertake an analysis of significant portions of a species range if the species warrants listing as threatened throughout all of its range.
Determination of Status Our review of the best available scientific and commercial information indicates that the Missouri DPS of the eastern hellbender meets the definition of an endangered species. Therefore, we are listing the Missouri DPS of the eastern hellbender as an endangered species in accordance with sections 36
and 4a1 of the Act.

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Available Conservation Measures Conservation measures provided to species listed as endangered or threatened species under the Act include recognition, recovery actions, requirements for Federal protection, and prohibitions against certain practices.
Recognition through listing results in public awareness, and conservation by Federal, State, Tribal, and local agencies; private organizations; and individuals. The Act encourages cooperation with the States and other countries, and calls for recovery actions to be carried out for listed species. The protection required by Federal agencies and the prohibitions against certain activities are discussed, in part, below.
The primary purpose of the Act is the conservation of endangered and threatened species and the ecosystems upon which they depend. The ultimate goal of such conservation efforts is the recovery of these listed species, so that they no longer need the protective measures of the Act. Subsection 4f of the Act calls for the Service to develop and implement recovery plans for the conservation of endangered and threatened species. The recovery planning process involves the identification of actions that are necessary to halt or reverse the species decline by addressing the threats to its survival and recovery. The goal of this process is to restore listed species to a point where they are secure, selfsustaining, and functioning components of their ecosystems.
Recovery planning consists of preparing draft and final recovery plans, beginning with the development of a recovery outline and making it available to the public within 30 days of a final listing determination. The recovery outline guides the immediate implementation of urgent recovery actions and describes the process to be used to develop a recovery plan.
Revisions of the plan may be done to address continuing or new threats to the species, as new substantive information becomes available. The recovery plan also identifies recovery criteria for review of when a species may be ready for delisting, and methods for monitoring recovery progress, which may include downlisting criteria when appropriate. Recovery plans also establish a framework for agencies to coordinate their recovery efforts and provide estimates of the cost of implementing recovery tasks. Recovery teams composed of species experts, Federal and State agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and stakeholders are often established to develop recovery plans. When
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completed, the recovery outline, draft recovery plan, and the final recovery plan will be available on our website http www.fws.gov/endangered, or from our Missouri Ecological Services Field Office see FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT.
Implementation of recovery actions generally needs the participation of a broad range of partners, including other Federal agencies, States, Tribes, nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and private landowners.
Examples of recovery actions include addressing factors contributing to sedimentation e.g., streambank stabilization, restoring riparian corridors, excluding cattle from streams, research, captive propagation and reintroduction, and outreach and education. The recovery of many listed species cannot be accomplished solely on Federal lands because their range may occur primarily or solely on nonFederal lands. To achieve recovery of these species requires cooperative conservation efforts on private, State, and Tribal lands.
Now that the Missouri DPS of the eastern hellbender listing is final, funding for recovery actions will be available from a variety of sources, including Federal budgets, State programs, and cost share grants for nonFederal landowners, the academic community, and nongovernmental organizations. In addition, pursuant to section 6 of the Act, the State of Missouri will be eligible for Federal funds to implement management actions that promote the protection or recovery of the Missouri DPS of the eastern hellbender. Information on our grant programs that are available to aid species recovery can be found at: http
www.fws.gov/grants.
Please let us know if you are interested in participating in recovery efforts for the Missouri DPS of the eastern hellbender. Additionally, we invite you to submit any new information on this species whenever it becomes available and any information you may have for recovery planning purposes see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT.
Section 7a of the Act requires Federal agencies to evaluate their actions with respect to any species that is proposed or listed as an endangered or threatened species and with respect to its critical habitat, if any is designated. Regulations implementing this interagency cooperation provision of the Act are codified at 50 CFR part 402. Section 7a4 of the Act requires Federal agencies to confer with the Service on any action that is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of a
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