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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 170 / Tuesday, September 7, 2021 / Proposed Rules
considerations or protections; and ii specific areas outside the geographical area occupied by the species at the time it is listed, upon a determination by the Secretary that such areas are essential for the conservation of the species.
Our implementing regulations at 50
CFR 424.12 describe our criteria for designating critical habitat. We are to consider physical and biological features essential to the conservation of the species. Our implementing regulations at 50 CFR 424.02 define the physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the species as the features that occur in specific areas and that are essential to support the lifehistory needs of the species, including, but not limited to, water characteristics, soil type, geological features, sites, prey, vegetation, symbiotic species, or other features. A feature may be a single habitat characteristic, or a more complex combination of habitat characteristics. Features may include habitat characteristics that support ephemeral or dynamic habitat conditions. Features may also be expressed in terms relating to principles of conservation biology, such as patch size, distribution distances, and connectivity. In addition, our implementing regulations at 50 CFR
424.02 define special management considerations or protection as methods or procedures useful in protecting the physical or biological features essential to the conservation of listed species.
Section 4b2 of the Act requires us to designate and make revisions to critical habitat for listed species on the basis of the best scientific data available and after taking into consideration the economic impact, the impact on national security, and any other relevant impact of specifying any particular area as critical habitat. The Secretary may exclude any particular area from critical habitat if she determines that the benefits of such exclusion outweigh the benefits of specifying such area as part of the critical habitat, unless she determines that the failure to designate such area as critical habitat will result in the extinction of the species concerned.
5 U.S.C. 553e gives interested persons the right to petition for the issuance, amendment, or repeal of a Federal rule. Section 4b3D of the Act 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq. requires that we make a finding on whether a petition to revise critical habitat for a species presents substantial scientific information indicating that the revision may be warranted. Our regulations at 50
CFR 424.14i1i state that substantial scientific information
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refers to credible scientific information in support of the petitions claims such that a reasonable person conducting an impartial scientific review would conclude that the revision proposed in the petition may be warranted.
Conclusions drawn in the petition without the support of credible scientific information will not be considered substantial information.
In determining whether substantial scientific information exists, we consider several factors, including information submitted with, and referenced in, the petition and all other information readily available in our files. Our regulations at 50 CFR
424.14e4 require that when the petitioner requests removal of areas from currently designated critical habitat within the geographical area occupied by the species at the time it was listed, we consider whether the petition contains information indicating that areas petitioned to be removed from currently designated critical habitat do not contain the physical or biological features that are essential to the conservation of the species, or that these features do not require special management considerations or protection. Our regulations at 50 CFR
424.14e5 require that, for areas petitioned to be added to or removed from designated critical habitat that were outside the geographical area occupied by the species at the time it was listed, the petitioner must present information indicating why the petitioned areas are essential if areas are being added or are not essential if areas are being removed for the conservation of the species.
To the maximum extent practicable, we are to make this finding within 90
days of our receipt of the petition and publish our notification of the finding promptly in the Federal Register. We are to base this finding on information provided in the petition, supporting information submitted with the petition, and information otherwise available in our files. If we find that a petition presents substantial scientific information indicating that the revision may be warranted, we are required to determine how we intend to proceed with the requested revision within 12
months after receiving the petition and promptly publish notification of such intention in the Federal Register.
Previous Federal Actions In 1972, the jaguar was listed as endangered 37 FR 6476; March 30, 1972 in accordance with the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969 ESCA, a precursor to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as
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amended Act; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq..
Under the ESCA, the Service maintained separate listings for foreign species and species native to the United States. At that time, the jaguar was believed to be extinct in the United States; thus, the jaguar was included only on the foreign species list. The jaguars range was described as extending from the international boundary of the United States and Mexico southward to include Central and South America 37 FR 6476; March 30, 1972. In 1973, the Act superseded the ESCA. The foreign and native lists were replaced by a single List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife List, which was first published in the Federal Register on September 26, 1975
40 FR 44412. In the 1975 List, the jaguars range again was described as including Central and South America 40 FR 44412, September 26, 1975, p. 40
FR 44418, but not the United States. On July 22, 1997, we published a final rule clarifying that endangered status for the jaguar extended into the United States 62 FR 39147.
The 1997 clarifying rule included a determination that designation of critical habitat for the jaguar was not prudent 62 FR 39147, July 22, 1997, p.
62 FR 39155. However, after several petitions and legal actions, on August 20, 2012, we published in the Federal Register 77 FR 50214 a proposed rule to designate critical habitat for the jaguar. In that proposed rule, we proposed to designate approximately 339,220 hectares 838,232 acres as critical habitat in six units located in Pima, Santa Cruz, and Cochise Counties, Arizona, and Hidalgo County, New Mexico. The comment period opened August 20, 2012, and closed October 19, 2012.
On March 12, 2013, we received a report from the bi-national Jaguar Recovery Team entitled Jaguar Habitat Modeling and Database Update Sanderson and Fisher 2013, entire that included a revised habitat model for the jaguar in the proposed Northwestern Recovery Unit. This report recommended defining habitat patches of less than 100 square kilometers km2
38.6 square miles mi2 in size as unsuitable for jaguars, as well as slight changes to some of the features comprising jaguar habitat. Therefore, we incorporated this information into the physical and biological features for the jaguar, resulting in changes to the boundaries as described in our August 20, 2012, proposed critical habitat rule.
On July 1, 2013, we published in the Federal Register 78 FR 39237 a revised proposed rule that described the revisions explained above to our
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