Quiero saber acerca de...

jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with PROPOSALS

36680

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 131 / Tuesday, July 13, 2021 / Proposed Rules
or biological feature essential to the conservation of the species;
iii Explaining whether or not unoccupied areas fall within the definition of habitat at 50 CFR 424.02
and why.
3 Land use designations and current or planned activities in the subject areas and their possible impacts on proposed critical habitat.
4 Information on the projected and reasonably likely impacts of climate change on the pearl darter and proposed critical habitat.
5 Any probable economic, national security, or other relevant impacts of designating any area that may be included in the final designation, and the benefits of including or excluding areas that may be impacted.
6 Information on the extent to which the description of probable economic impacts in the draft economic analysis is a reasonable estimate of those impacts.
7 Whether any specific areas we are proposing for critical habitat designation should be considered for exclusion under section 4b2 of the Act, and whether the benefits of potentially excluding any specific area outweigh the benefits of including that area under section 4b2 of the Act. For any additional areas that you may request be excluded from the designation, we will undertake an exclusion analysis if you provide credible information regarding the existence of a meaningful economic or other relevant impact supporting a benefit of inclusion or if we otherwise decide to exercise the discretion to evaluate the areas for possible exclusion.
8 Whether we could improve or modify our approach to designating critical habitat in any way to provide for greater public participation and understanding, or to better accommodate public concerns and comments.
Please include sufficient information with your submission such as scientific journal articles or other publications to allow us to verify any scientific or commercial information you include.
You may submit your comments and materials concerning this proposed rule by one of the methods listed in ADDRESSES. We request that you send comments only by the methods described in ADDRESSES.
If you submit information via http
www.regulations.gov, your entire submissionincluding any personal identifying informationwill be posted on the website. If your submission is made via a hardcopy that includes personal identifying information, you
VerDate Sep<11>2014

17:03 Jul 12, 2021

Jkt 253001

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.
We will post all hardcopy submissions on http www.regulations.gov.
Comments and materials we receive, as well as supporting documentation we used in preparing this proposed rule, will be available for public inspection on http www.regulations.gov.
Because we will consider all comments and information we receive during the comment period, our final critical habitat designation may differ from this proposal. Based on the new information we receive and any comments on that new information, we may conclude that some additional areas meet the definition of critical habitat, and some areas proposed as critical habitat may not meet the definition of critical habitat. In addition, we may find that the benefit of excluding some areas outweigh the benefits of including those areas pursuant to section 4b2 of the Act, and we may exclude them from the final designation unless we determine that exclusion would result in extinction of the pearl darter.
Public Hearing Section 4b5 of the Act provides for a public hearing on this proposal, if requested. Requests must be received by the date specified in DATES. Such requests must be sent to the address shown in FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT. We will schedule a public hearing on this proposal, if requested, and announce the date, time, and place of the hearing, as well as how to obtain reasonable accommodations, in the Federal Register and local newspapers at least 15 days before the hearing. For the immediate future, we will provide these public hearings using webinars that will be announced on the Services website, in addition to the Federal Register. The use of these virtual public hearings is consistent with our regulations at 50 CFR 424.16c3.
Previous Federal Actions Please refer to the final listing rule for the pearl darter, which published in the Federal Register on September 20, 2017
82 FR 43885, for a detailed description of previous Federal actions concerning this species.
Critical Habitat Background Critical habitat is defined in section 3
of the Act as:
1 The specific areas within the geographical area occupied by the species, at the time it is listed in
PO 00000

Frm 00008

Fmt 4702

Sfmt 4702

accordance with the Act, on which are found those physical or biological features a Essential to the conservation of the species, and b Which may require special management considerations or protection; and 2 Specific areas outside the geographical area occupied by the species at the time it is listed, upon a determination that such areas are essential for the conservation of the species.
Our regulations at 50 CFR 424.02
define the geographical area occupied by the species as an area that may generally be delineated around species occurrences, as determined by the Secretary i.e., range. Such areas may include those areas used throughout all or part of the species life cycle, even if not used on a regular basis e.g., migratory corridors, seasonal habitats, and habitats used periodically, but not solely by vagrant individuals.
Additionally, our regulations at 50 CFR
424.02 define the word habitat as follows: For the purposes of designating critical habitat only, habitat is the abiotic and biotic setting that currently or periodically contains the resources and conditions necessary to support one or more life processes of a species.
Conservation, as defined under section 3 of the Act, means to use and the use of all methods and procedures that are necessary to bring an endangered or threatened species to the point at which the measures provided pursuant to the Act are no longer necessary. Such methods and procedures include, but are not limited to, all activities associated with scientific resources management such as research, census, law enforcement, habitat acquisition and maintenance, propagation, live trapping, and transplantation, and, in the extraordinary case where population pressures within a given ecosystem cannot be otherwise relieved, may include regulated taking.
Critical habitat receives protection under section 7 of the Act through the requirement that Federal agencies ensure, in consultation with the Service, that any action they authorize, fund, or carry out is not likely to result in the destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat. The designation of critical habitat does not affect land ownership or establish a refuge, wilderness, reserve, preserve, or other conservation area. Designation also does not allow the government or public to access private lands. Designation does not require implementation of
E:FRFM13JYP1.SGM

13JYP1