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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 157 / Wednesday, August 18, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Wilcove et al. 1996, pp. 115; Bean 2002, pp. 17.
Partnerships with non-Federal landowners are vital to the conservation of listed species, especially on nonFederal lands; therefore, the Service is committed to supporting and encouraging such partnerships through the recognition of positive conservation contributions. In the case considered here, excluding these areas from critical habitat will help foster the partnerships the landowners and land managers in question have developed with Federal and State agencies and local conservation organizations; will encourage the continued implementation of voluntary conservation actions for the benefit ofthe Salado salamander and its habitat on these lands; and may also serve as a model and aid in fostering future cooperative relationships with other parties here and in other locations for the benefit of other endangered or threatened species. We find that the judicious exclusion of specific areas of non-federally owned lands from critical habitat designation can contribute to species recovery and provide a superior level of conservation than critical habitat. Therefore, we consider the positive effect of excluding active conservation partners from critical habitat to be a significant benefit of exclusion.
Benefits of Exclusion Outweigh the Benefits of InclusionSolana Ranch Preserve: We evaluated the exclusion of 204 ha 84 ac of private land within the boundaries of the 256 ac 104 ha Solana Ranch under a perpetual conservation easement with The Nature Conservancy, from our designation of critical habitat, and we determined the benefits of excluding these lands outweigh the benefits of including them as critical habitat for the Salado salamander.
We conclude that the additional regulatory and educational benefits of including these lands as critical habitat are relatively small, because of the unlikelihood of a Federal nexus on these private lands. These benefits are further reduced by the existence of a 256-ac 104-ha conservation easement on the Solana Ranch that contains 204
ha 84 ac of proposed critical habitat.
We anticipate that there will be little additional Federal regulatory benefit to the taxon on private land because there is a low likelihood that those parcels will be negatively affected to any significant degree by Federal activities requiring section 7 consultation, and ongoing management activities indicate there would be no additional requirements pursuant to a consultation that addresses critical habitat.

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Furthermore, the potential educational and informational benefits of critical habitat designation on lands containing the physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the Salado salamander would be minimal, because the landowners and land managers under consideration have demonstrated their knowledge of the species and its habitat needs in the process of developing their partnerships with the Service. Additionally, the current active conservation efforts on some of these lands contribute to our knowledge of the species through monitoring and scientific research.
In contrast, the benefits derived from excluding these owners and enhancing our partnership with these landowners and land managers is significant.
Because voluntary conservation efforts for the benefit of listed species on nonFederal lands are so valuable, the Service considers the maintenance and encouragement of conservation partnerships to be a significant benefit of exclusion. The development and maintenance of effective working partnerships with non-Federal landowners for the conservation of listed species is particularly important in areas such as Texas, a State with relatively little Federal landownership but many species of conservation concern. Excluding these areas from critical habitat will help foster the partnerships the landowners and land managers in question have developed with Federal and State agencies and local conservation organizations, and will encourage the continued implementation of voluntary conservation actions for the benefit of the Salado salamander and its habitat on these lands. In addition, these partnerships not only provide a benefit for the conservation of these species, but may also serve as a model and aid in fostering future cooperative relationships with other parties in this area of Texas and in other locations for the benefit of other endangered or threatened species.
We find that excluding areas from critical habitat that are receiving both long-term conservation and management for the purpose of protecting the habitat that supports the Salado salamander will preserve our partnership with the Solana Ranch owner and operator and will encourage future collaboration towards conservation and recovery of listed species. The partnership benefits are significant and outweigh the small potential regulatory, educational, and ancillary benefits of including the land in the final critical habitat designation for the Salado salamander. Therefore,
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the Solana Ranch Preserve conservation easement provides greater protection of habitat for the Salado salamander than could be gained through the project-byproject analysis of a critical habitat designation.
Exclusion Will Not Result in Extinction of the SpeciesSolana Ranch Preserve: We determined that the exclusion of 204 ha 84 ac of land within the boundaries of the Solana Ranch Preserve conservation easement held by The Nature Conservancy in perpetuity will not result in extinction of the taxon. Protections afforded the taxon and its habitat by the conservation easement provide assurances that the taxon will not go extinct as a result of excluding these lands from the critical habitat designation.
An important consideration as we evaluate these exclusions and their potential effect on the species in question is that critical habitat does not carry with it a regulatory requirement to restore or actively manage habitat for the benefit of listed species; the regulatory effect of critical habitat is only the avoidance of destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat should an action with a Federal nexus occur. It is, therefore, advantageous for the conservation of the species to support the proactive efforts of nonFederal landowners who are contributing to the enhancement of essential habitat features for listed species through exclusion. The jeopardy standard of section 7 of the Act will also provide protection in these occupied areas when there is a Federal nexus.
Therefore, based on the above discussion, the Secretary is exercising her discretion to exclude 204 ha 84 ac of land from the designation of critical habitat for the Salado salamander.
Required Determinations Regulatory Planning and Review Executive Orders 12866 and 13563
Executive Order 12866 provides that the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs OIRA in the Office of Management and Budget will review all significant rules. OIRA has determined that this rule is not significant.
Executive Order E.O. 13563
reaffirms the principles of E.O. 12866
while calling for improvements in the nations regulatory system to promote predictability, to reduce uncertainty, and to use the best, most innovative, and least burdensome tools for achieving regulatory ends. The executive order directs agencies to consider regulatory approaches that reduce burdens and maintain flexibility and freedom of choice for the public
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