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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 155 / Monday, August 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
in KRS 146.615 that this list of endangered or threatened plants shall not obstruct or hinder any development or use of public or private land.
Furthermore, the intent of this statute is not to ameliorate the threats identified for the species, but to provide information on the species.
The Tennessee Rare Plant Protection and Conservation Act of 1985 see Tennessee Code, title 70, chapter 8, part 3 authorizes the TDEC to, among other things, conduct investigations on species of rare plants throughout the State of Tennessee; maintain a listing of species of plants determined to be endangered, threatened, or of special concern within the State; and regulate the sale or export of endangered species via a licensing system. This statute forbids persons from knowingly uprooting, digging, taking, removing, damaging, destroying, possessing, or otherwise disturbing for any purpose, any endangered species from private or public lands without the written permission of the landowner, lessee, or other person entitled to possession and prescribes penalties for violations. The TDEC may use the list of threatened and special concern species when commenting on proposed public works projects in Tennessee, and the department shall encourage voluntary efforts to prevent the plants on this list from becoming endangered species. It may not, however, be used to interfere with, delay, or impede any public works project.
Cumberland sandwort listing under these State laws may continue following Federal delisting, although Federal delisting may prompt changes in the species status in Kentucky or Tennessee. However, we are unaware of any planned changes to State protections at this time.
Cumberland sandwort habitats on both State and Federal conservation lands will remain protected by rules, regulations, or plans governing the establishment or management of those lands, relevant sections of which are summarized below. As noted above in Table 2, 66 of the 71 extant Cumberland sandwort occurrences are located on Federal or State conservation lands at BSF, PSF, PCNA, and PSP.
Establishment of the BSF was authorized by section 108 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1974
Pub. L. 93251, March 7, 1974. The NPS manages the 125,000-acre ac BSF
according to prescriptions established for eight management zones in Alternative D of the Final General Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement for Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area,
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Kentucky and Tennessee NPS 2005, entire. Under this management framework, habitats occupied by Cumberland sandwort and those that are potentially suitable for the species fall within the Sensitive Resource Protection Zone, which is managed to reflect natural processes and for careful protection from unnatural degradation NPS 2005, pp. 3140. As a result, this designation provides adequate protection to the 27 occurences within the BSF.
The 20,887-ac PSF was established in 1935, on lands donated to the State of Tennessee by Stearns Coal and Lumber Company Tennessee Department of Agriculture 2019. The rules of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry Tennessee Administrative Code TAC, chapter 008071, Protection of State Forests prohibit destruction or damaging of any natural resource or collection of plants or botanical specimens, unless authorized by permit from the district forester. Pickett Civilian Conservation Corps CCC Memorial State Park is situated within the PSF, but as a State park is managed under separate rules from the State forest lands surrounding it. The rules of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation TAC, chapter 040002
02, Public Use and Recreation prohibit users of State parks from destroying, digging, cutting, removing, or possessing any tree, shrub, or other plant, except as permitted by the Assistant Commissioner of Parks and Recreation see TAC 04000202.18.
Permits may only be issued for scientific or educational purposes see TAC 0400
0202.23. The 3,000-ac PCNA is contiguous to PSF and very near PSP, the latter of which provides local management of the natural area, albeit according to more protective regulations applicable to designated State natural areas. The Tennessee Natural Areas Preservation Act of 1971 forbids the unauthorized removal or destruction of any rare, threatened, or endangered species of plants in any natural areas, with civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day for each day during which the prohibited act occurs see Tennessee Code, title 11, chapter 14, part 1, section 1114115. Thus, we do not anticipate stressors to increase on conservation lands where nearly all of the occurrences are located. For the reasons discussed above, we conclude that regulatory mechanisms are adequate to address threats that could result in habitat loss or curtailment of the species range into the foreseeable future.

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Determination of Cumberland Sandworts Status Section 4 of the Act 16 U.S.C. 1533
and its implementing regulations 50
CFR part 424 set forth the procedures for determining whether a species meets the definition of endangered species or threatened species. The Act defines an endangered species as a species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range, and a threatened species as a species that is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. The Act requires that we determine whether a species meets the definition of endangered species or threatened species because of any of the following factors: A The present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range; B
overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; C disease or predation; D
the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; or E other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence.
Status Throughout All of Its Range After evaluating threats to the species and assessing the cumulative effect of the threats under the section 4a1
factors, and considering the comments we received, we have found that since listing under the Act, Cumberland sandwort representation has increased with the discovery of occurrences in the Obey River watershed. Redundancy also has increased from 11 occurrences at the time of listing to 71 occurrences known to be extant, including 25 of the 28
occurrences that were included in the species recovery plan Service 1996, pp.
68. An assessment of resiliency of these occurrences, taking into account estimated abundance, substrate condition, and forest condition, indicates that 57 occurrences ranked medium or higher, which we consider to be resilient. Of these resilient occurrences, 42 meeting and exceeding recovery criteria because they are selfsustaining and located on protected land. Of the 15 resilient occurrences that are not counted towards meeting recovery criteria, 10 are located on protected lands but lack a sufficient number of observations over time to judge trends in their abundance and evaluate whether they are selfsustaining; thus, we expect they will also contribute to the species overall resiliency and redundancy, ensuring its ability to withstand future catastrophic events but we are not relying upon these 10 to make this final
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