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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 87 / Friday, May 7, 2021 / Notices
prescribed fires within Boot Canyon.
The absence of wildfire in Boot Canyon has resulted in the accumulation of leaf litter and small-diameter trees, which increases the risk of a much more intense wildfire that would potentially be catastrophic to the vegetation within the Chisos Mountains and to the Guadalupe fescue population there. For these reasons, reducing fuel loads in the Chisos Mountains and conducting small-scale experimental prescribed burns in collaboration with personnel of Big Bend National Park are high priority recovery actions.
Horehound Marrubium vulgare, King Ranch bluestem Bothriochloa ischaemum, and other invasive plant species potentially threaten Guadalupe fescue through competition for water, nutrients, and light. The 2008 candidate conservation agreement calls for periodic monitoring of the Guadalupe fescue population and control of invasive species, and Big Bend National Park has also proposed a programmatic management plan to carefully monitor and control invasive species in the Chisos Mountains. Therefore, the magnitude of this threat is currently low within the Boot Canyon population. We have no information on introduced invasive species in the known Mexican sites or their impacts on Guadalupe fescue Service 2016.
In general, the physical clustering of numerous genetically diverse plants in close proximity is necessary for effective fertilization, out-crossing, seed production, and the maintenance of genetically diverse populations.
However, considering the small population size and low population density of the Chisos Mountains site, this population is very likely to be highly inbred as a result of extensive self-fertilization. Currently, we cannot project what the net results of beneficial and detrimental effects of climate changes will be Service 2016.
Recovery Plan Goals The objective of a recovery plan is to provide a framework for the recovery of a species so that protection under the ESA is no longer necessary. A recovery plan includes scientific information about the species and provides objective and measurable criteria and site-specific management actions necessary for us to be able to reclassify the species to threatened status or remove it from the lists of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants. Recovery plans help guide our recovery efforts by describing actions we consider necessary for the species conservation, and by estimating time and costs for implementing needed recovery measures.

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The primary objectives of this recovery plan are to: 1 Increase population resilience by managing habitats to promote population growth, and controlled propagation to augment population sizes to attain and sustain minimum viable population MVP
levels within each population or metapopulation; 2 increase species redundancy through searches for undiscovered populations in areas of potential habitat, and through propagation and reintroduction into potential habitats; and 3 sustain species representation through conservation of populations throughout the species range, and investigate the potential benefits and risks of genetic augmentation of extant populations. The recovery plan provides objective, measurable recovery criteria aimed at managing or eliminating threats to meet the goal of delisting Guadalupe fescue.
These recovery criteria are based on the conservation of habitat, natural recruitment of new individuals, their growth to maturity, and the increase of populations to a viable level that is sustained without further human intervention other than appropriate habitat management. The time frame required to assess the species viability trends of Guadalupe fescue is influenced largely by its life history and climate cycles.
Site specific management actions include: Investigating changes in wildfire frequency and evaluating the response of Guadalupe fescue to prescribed burns; monitoring and management of introduced invasive plants; public education and management of sensitive habitat in recreational areas of Boot Canyon;
preventing grazing from pack animals and livestock in Boot Canyon;
improving knowledge of the species abundance, distribution and demographic trends in known populations and surveying other potential habitats in Texas and Mexico;
investigating gene flow, genetic diversity and conservation genetics;
developing a propagation and reintroduction program; and investigating responses to climate factors and projecting future responses of known populations to climate changes.
Request for Public Comments Section 4f of the ESA requires us to provide public notice and an opportunity for public review and comment during recovery plan development. It is also our policy to request peer review of recovery plans July 1, 1994; 59 FR 34270. In an appendix to the approved recovery plan,
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we will summarize and respond to the issues raised by the public and peer reviewers. Substantive comments may or may not result in changes to the recovery plan; comments regarding recovery plan implementation will be forwarded as appropriate to Federal or other entities so that they can be taken into account during the course of implementing recovery actions.
Responses to individual commenters will not be provided, but we will provide a summary of how we addressed substantive comments in an appendix to the approved recovery plan.
We invite written comments on the draft recovery plan. In particular, we are interested in additional information regarding the current threats to the species and the implementation of the recommended recovery actions.
Public Availability of Comments All comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of the administrative record and will be available to the public. Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire commentincluding your personal identifying informationmay be made publicly available. If you submit a hardcopy comment that includes personal identifying information, you may request at the top of your document that we withhold this information from public review. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
Authority We developed our draft recovery plan and publish this notice under the authority of section 4f of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq..
Amy L. Lueders, Regional Director, Interior Region 6, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
FR Doc. 202109709 Filed 5621; 8:45 am BILLING CODE 433355P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service Docket No. FWSR4ES20210038;
FXES11140400000212FF04EF4000

Receipt of Incidental Take Permit Application and Proposed Habitat Conservation Plan for the Sand Skink, Lake County, FL; Categorical Exclusion AGENCY:

Fish and Wildlife Service,
Interior.

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