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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 108 / Tuesday, June 8, 2021 / Notices circumstances. Specifically, on a caseby-case basis, NMFS may issue a onetime one-year Renewal IHA following notice to the public providing an additional 15 days for public comments when 1 up to another year of identical or nearly identical, or nearly identical, activities as described in the Detailed Description of Specified Activities section of the initial IHA issuance notice is planned or 2 the activities as described in the Detailed Description of Specified Activities section of the initial IHA issuance notice would not be completed by the time the initial IHA
expires and a Renewal would allow for completion of the activities beyond that described in the DATES section of the notice of issuance of the initial IHA, provided all of the following conditions are met:
1 A request for renewal is received no later than 60 days prior to the needed Renewal IHA effective date recognizing that the Renewal IHA expiration date cannot extend beyond one year from expiration of the initial IHA.
2 The request for renewal must include the following:
An explanation that the activities to be conducted under the requested Renewal IHA are identical to the activities analyzed under the initial IHA, are a subset of the activities, or include changes so minor e.g., reduction in pile size that the changes do not affect the previous analyses, mitigation and monitoring requirements, or take estimates with the exception of reducing the type or amount of take.
A preliminary monitoring report showing the results of the required monitoring to date and an explanation showing that the monitoring results do not indicate impacts of a scale or nature not previously analyzed or authorized.
3 Upon review of the request for Renewal, the status of the affected species or stocks, and any other pertinent information, NMFS
determines that there are no more than minor changes in the activities, the mitigation and monitoring measures will remain the same and appropriate, and the findings in the initial IHA
remain valid.
An additional public comment period of 15 days for a total of 45 days, with direct notice by email, phone, or postal service to commenters on the initial IHA, is provided to allow for any additional comments on the proposed Renewal. A description of the Renewal process may be found on our website at:
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/
marine-mammal-protection/incidentalharassment-authorization-renewals.
Any comments received on the potential
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Renewal, along with relevant comments on the initial IHA, have been considered in the development of this proposed IHA Renewal, and a summary of agency responses to applicable comments is included in this notice. NMFS will consider any additional public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested Renewal, and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision.
The NDAA Pub. L. 108136
removed the small numbers and specified geographical region limitations indicated above and amended the definition of harassment as it applies to a military readiness activity.

slough-phase-ii-2020 which confirms that the applicant has implemented the required mitigation and monitoring, and which also shows that no impacts of a scale or nature not previously analyzed or authorized have occurred as a result of the activities conducted. However, NMFS did note that there were a few instances where work continued during the pupping season during what was noted as foggy or hard to see conditions.
Despite the low visibility, there were no unexpected changes in behavior noted during the activity. These instances were rare and CDFW has been reminded to shut down activity during times where monitoring cannot be efficiently implemented, especially during pupping season MarchJuly.

National Environmental Policy Act The current action is consistent with categories of activities identified in Categorical Exclusion B4 incidental harassment authorizations with no anticipated serious injury or mortality of the Companion Manual for NOAA
Administrative Order 2166A, which do not individually or cumulatively have the potential for significant impacts on the quality of the human environment and for which we have not identified any extraordinary circumstances that would preclude this categorical exclusion. Accordingly, NMFS has preliminarily determined that the issuance of the proposed renewal qualifies to be categorically excluded from further NEPA review just as the initial IHA did.

Description of the Specified Activities and Anticipated Impacts CDFW is unable to complete all of the planned work under the initial 2020
IHA for Phase II of the Elkhorn Slough Tidal Marsh Restoration Project. The initial IHA planned to restore 58 acres of saltmarsh habitat in two areas, Minhoto-Hester Restoration Area subareas M4ab, M5, and M6 and the Seal Bend Restoration Area S1S4
Figure 1. To date, the majority of earthwork at the Minhoto-Hester Restoration Area has been completed, including earthwork in subareas M4ab and M5, however outstanding work in subareas M5 and M6 will not be completed before the May 31, 2021 IHA
expiration date. Therefore, CDFW has requested a Renewal IHA to authorize the take of marine mammals for a subset of the initially planned work that has not been completed which will include the outstanding work in subareas M5
and M6. A separate IHA application will be submitted by CDFW for the work at the Seal Bend Restoration Area which has not been initiated to date, and is expected to start later in the year. Of note, the work in the Minhoto-Hester Restoration Area has taken more days to conduct than initially expected, but the completion of work in that Area is still expected to occur within the total number of workdays contemplated in the initial IHA.
Anticipated impacts would include only Level B harassment of marine mammals though fewer, since the duration of the proposed activity is shorter. CDFWs request is for one species of pinniped by Level B
harassment: Harbor seal Phoca vitulina richardii. Monitoring results from the 2020 restoration activities indicate that observed exposures above Level B
harassment thresholds were well below the amount authorized in associated with the amount of work conducted to
History of Request On March 13, 2020, NMFS issued an IHA to CDFW to take marine mammals incidental to construction activities associated with the second phase of the tidal marsh restoration project in Elkhorn Slough, California 85 FR
14640; March 13, 2021, effective from June 01, 2020 through May 31, 2021. On May 11, 2021, NMFS received an application for the Renewal of that initial IHA. Although the request was not received 60 days prior to the expiration date of the initial IHA, the applicant has been informed that the Renewal may not be issued until 60
days past the May 11, 2021 submission date. As described in the application for Renewal IHA, the activities for which incidental take is requested consist of activities that are covered by the initial authorization but will not be completed prior to its expiration. As required, the applicant also provided a preliminary monitoring report available at https
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/
incidental-take-authorization-tidalmarsh-restoration-project-elkhorn-

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