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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 157 / Wednesday, August 18, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
debris removal; 10 repairs to existing and damaged roads, bridges, utilities, and parks; 11 construction of tornado safe rooms, and demolition of floodprone structures; 12 return of land to open space in perpetuity; and 13
removal of hazardous fuels in wildland urban interface to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. We considered each industry or category individually.
Additionally, we considered whether their activities may have any Federal involvement. Critical habitat designation generally will not affect activities that do not have any Federal involvement; under the Act, designation of critical habitat only affects activities conducted, funded, permitted, or authorized by Federal agencies. In areas where the Georgetown or Salado salamander are present, Federal agencies already are required to consult with the Service under section 7 of the Act on activities they fund, permit, or implement that may affect the species.
When this critical habitat designation is effective see DATES, above, consultations to avoid the destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat will be incorporated into the existing consultation process.
In our IEM, we attempted to clarify the distinction between the effects that result from the species being listed and those attributable to the critical habitat designation i.e., difference between the jeopardy and adverse modification standards for the Georgetown and Salado salamanders critical habitat.
Because all of the units we are designating as critical habitat for the Georgetown and Salado salamanders are occupied, we do not expect that the critical habitat designation will result in any additional consultations above and beyond those caused by the species listing. The conservation recommendations provided to address impacts to the occupied critical habitat will be the same as those recommended to address impacts to the species because the habitat tolerances of the Georgetown and Salado salamanders are inextricably linked to the health, growth, and reproduction of the salamanders, which are present and confined year-round in their occupied critical habitat. Furthermore, because the designated critical habitat and the Georgetown and Salado salamanders known range are identical, the results of consultation under adverse modification are not likely to differ from the results of consultation under jeopardy. In the event of an adverse modification determination, we expect that reasonable and prudent alternatives to avoid jeopardy to the species will also
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avoid adverse modification of the critical habitat. The only incremental impact of critical habitat designation that we anticipate is the small not expected to exceed $38,500 per year administrative effort required during section 7 consultation to document effects on the physical and biological features of the critical habitat and whether the action appreciably diminishes the value of critical habitat as a whole for the conservation of the listed species IEc 2021.
The critical habitat designations for the Georgetown and Salado salamanders amount to a total of approximately 1,315
ac 538 ha in Bell and Williamson Counties, Texas. In these areas, any actions that may affect the species or its habitat will also affect designated critical habitat, and it is unlikely that any additional conservation efforts will be recommended to address the adverse modification standard over and above those recommended as necessary to avoid jeopardizing the continued existence of the Georgetown and Salado salamanders. While this additional analysis will require time and resources by both the Federal action agency and the Service, it is believed that, in most circumstances, these costs will predominantly be administrative in nature and will not be significant.
Incremental costs are likely to be minor and primarily limited to administrative efforts that consider adverse modification in consultation.
This finding is based on these factors:
1 All activities with a Federal nexus occurring within the critical habitat designations will be subject to section 7
consultation requirements regardless of critical habitat designation due to the presence of listed species; and 2 since the Service predicts that the majority of project modifications avoiding jeopardy and adverse modification overlap, there will only be a limited number of project modification requests that are solely caused by a critical habitat designation IEc 2020. The estimated $38,500 per year of incremental costs associated with the designation of critical habitat is well below $100 million and, therefore, is unlikely to trigger additional requirements under State or local regulations. Further, while some perceptional effects may arise, they are not expected to result in substantial costs.
Consideration of Impacts on National Security and Homeland Security The Service must consider impacts on national security, including homeland security, under section 4a3Bi and on those DoD lands or areas not covered by section 4a3Bi, because section
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4b2 requires the Service to consider those impacts whenever it designates critical habitat. Accordingly, if DoD, Department of Homeland Security DHS, or another Federal agency has requested exclusion based on an assertion of national-security or homeland-security concerns, or we have otherwise identified national-security or homeland-security impacts from designating particular areas as critical habitat, we generally have reason to consider excluding those areas. We did not identify any national security or homeland security impacts, nor did we receive any requests for exclusion based on national or homeland security.
Consideration of Other Relevant Impacts Under section 4b2 of the Act, we consider any other relevant impacts, in addition to economic impacts and impacts on national security discussed above. Other relevant impacts may include, but are not limited to, impacts to Tribes, States, local governments, public health and safety, community interests, the environment such as increased risk of wildfire or pest and invasive species management, Federal lands, and conservation plans, agreements, or partnerships. To identify other relevant impacts that may affect the exclusion analysis, we consider a number of factors, including whether there are permitted conservation plans covering the species in the areasuch as HCPs, safe harbor agreements SHAs, or candidate conservation agreements with assurances CCAAsor whether there are non-permitted conservation agreements and partnerships that may be impaired by designation of, or exclusion from, critical habitat. In addition, we look at whether Tribal conservation plans or partnerships, Tribal resources, or government-togovernment relationships of the United States with Tribal entities may be affected by the designation. We also consider any State, local, public-health, community-interest, environmental, or social impacts that might occur because of the designation.
Exclusions Exclusions Based on Economic Impacts The Service considered the economic impacts of the critical habitat designation as described above. Based on this information, the Secretary has determined not to exercise her discretion to exclude any areas from this designation of critical habitat for the Georgetown or Salado salamander based on economic impacts.

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