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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 146 / Tuesday, August 3, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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of droughts affecting snowpack levels have been affected by climate change in ways that have likely increased coyote numbers in the DPSs range. It is possible that a gradual increase in coyote numbers during the mid 1900s was one of the factors causing the DPSs numbers to drop. Whatever the cause, this drop in population size eventually led to inbreeding depression, which would have tended to lower the population size even more. The recent instances of hybridization with immigrant males from the Great Basin appears to have helped alleviate the most obvious reproductive impacts of inbreeding depression, but as discussed above risks from inbreeding depression and deleterious chance events remain so long as the population remains small.
Current Condition Summary We considered several risk factors involving both environmental and demographic characteristics affecting the Sierra Nevada DPS. The available information does not show that any environmental risk factors are currently threatening the DPSs viability.
Increased primary productivity in high elevation areas due to climate change may have increased coyote numbers in the foxs range, but we lack evidence of the extent of increase or of resulting impacts. Important prey species remain generally available, and we lack evidence of population-level impacts resulting from habituation.
Several demographic risk factors do appear to constitute current threats to the viability of the Sierra Nevada DPS.
The DPS currently consists of a single known population of fewer than 50
individuals. This small size leaves the DPS susceptible to serious impacts from relatively common stochastic changes in the environment, such as drought or wildfire. The resiliency and redundancy of the DPSits ability to survive and quickly rebound from both common stochastic changes and more serious catastrophesis thus low. Since this one small population is the last representative of a DPS that was once much larger, the representation of the DPS is also threatened by the populations small size and susceptibility to extirpation.
The small size of the population has also led to inbreeding depression in the recent past, which in turn likely contributed to further contractions in size due to lowered reproductive success. Population size appears to have begun increasing again since the arrival and interbreeding of two nonnative male foxes in 2011, but it is too early to determine if previous impacts from inbreeding depression have been
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ameliorated. Additionally, renewed inbreeding depression remains a possibility so long as the population size remains low. Thus, inbreeding depression also constitutes an apparent threat to the resiliency, redundancy, and representation of the DPS.
Finally, the DPS is currently at risk of genetic swamping due to ongoing interbreeding with nonnative immigrant foxes. The extent of this risk cannot be precisely determined because it depends on currently unknown factors, such as the extent to which ongoing immigration and interbreeding will continue into the future.
Critical Habitat Section 4a3 of the Act, as amended, and implementing regulations 50 CFR 424.12, require that, to the maximum extent prudent and determinable, the Secretary shall designate critical habitat at the time a species is determined to be an endangered or threatened species. In the proposed rule 85 FR 862, January 8, 2020, we determined that designation of critical habitat was not prudent because the present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of habitat or range is not a threat to the Sierra Nevada DPS, and habitat does not appear to be a limiting factor for the species.
Summary of Comments and Recommendations In the proposed rule published on January 8, 2020 85 FR 862, we requested that all interested parties submit written comments on the proposal by March 9, 2020. We also contacted appropriate Federal and State agencies, scientific experts and organizations, and other interested parties and invited them to comment on the proposal. Newspaper notices inviting general public comment were published in the Fresno Bee. We did not receive any requests for a public hearing. All substantive information received during the comment period has either been incorporated directly into this final determination or addressed below. We did not receive comments from Tribes.
Peer Reviewer Comments In accordance with our joint policy on peer review published on July 1, 1994
59 FR 34270, and our August 22, 2016, memorandum updating and clarifying the role of peer review of listing actions under the Act, we sought peer review of the SSA report. We sent the SSA report to five independent peer reviewers and received two responses. The purpose of peer review is to ensure that our listing
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determinations are based on scientifically sound data, assumptions, and analyses. The peer reviewers have scientific expertise that included familiarity with the Sierra Nevada DPS
and its habitat, biological needs, and threats.
We incorporated the peer reviewers comments into the final SSA report Service 2018, entire. The changes consisted of adjustments and additions regarding average litter size; certainty regarding the genetic basis of local adaptations; the importance of coyotes, leporids, and snowmobiles; the extent to which snowpack level may affect coyote presence; and the extent to which ongoing hybridization may constitute a potential benefit or threat. The peer reviewers comments did not change our determination that this DPS meets the definition of an endangered species under the Act.
Federal Agency Comments 1 Comment: The USFS requested that we work closely with the Sierra Nevada Red Fox Conservation Advisory Team, an informal recovery planning organization with representative members from numerous State and Federal agencies, universities, and environmental organizations. They noted that the Conservation Advisory Team is currently drafting a Conservation Strategy for the Sierra Nevada red fox subspecies, and asked us to update our Sierra Nevada red fox SSA
report with new information from the Conservation Strategy.
Our Response: We participate as members of the Sierra Nevada Red Fox Conservation Advisory Team and will continue to work closely with them. We consider the SSA report a living document, and will update it as substantive new information becomes available and as funding permits. We will consider all such information as we proceed with recovery-related actions for the species.
2 Comment: The USFS stated that our range map and habitat description do not reflect recent data made available by the Sierra Nevada Red Fox Working Group, and that the lower elevational limit for detections is 2,469 m 8,100 ft rather than 2,743 m 9,000 ft. They also noted that the range map should show a higher resolution, and it should show elevation, spatial references, and landmarks.
Our Response: We recognize that the range map included in our proposed listing rule is not at a high resolution nor as finely detailed as the commenter would prefer, rather it is just intended to give the public an understanding of where the DPS generally occurs. Species
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