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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 171 / Wednesday, September 8, 2021 / Rules and Regulations connected to the occupied Shoal Creek and Short Creek subunit, and thereby provide redundancy needed to support the species recovery. Therefore, we conclude that this stream is essential for the conservation of the slenderclaw crayfish, because it will provide habitat for population expansion in known historical habitat that is necessary to increase viability of the species by increasing its resiliency, redundancy, and representation.
Exemptions Application of Section 4a3 of the Act Section 4a3Bi of the Act 16
U.S.C. 1533a3Bi provides that the Secretary shall not designate as critical habitat any lands or other geographical areas owned or controlled by the Department of Defense, or designated for its use, that are subject to an integrated natural resources management plan INRMP prepared under section 101 of the Sikes Act 16
U.S.C. 670a, if the Secretary determines in writing that such plan provides a benefit to the species for which critical habitat is proposed for designation.
There are no Department of Defense lands with a completed INRMP within the final critical habitat designation.
Exclusions
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Consideration of Impacts Under Section 4b2 of the Act Section 4b2 of the Act states that the Secretary shall designate and make revisions to critical habitat on the basis of the best available scientific data after taking into consideration the economic impact, national security impact, and any other relevant impact of specifying any particular area as critical habitat.
The Secretary may exclude an 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, based on the best scientific data available, that the failure to designate such area as critical habitat will result in the extinction of the species. In making that determination, the statute on its face, as well as the legislative history, are clear that the Secretary has broad discretion regarding which factors to use and how much weight to give to any factor.
Consideration of Economic Impacts Section 4b2 of the Act and its implementing regulations require that we consider the economic impact that may result from a designation of critical habitat. In order to consider economic impacts, we prepared an incremental effects memorandum IEM and
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screening analysis which together with our narrative and interpretation of effects we consider our draft economic analysis DEA of the proposed critical habitat designation and related factors IEc 2018, entire. The analysis, dated June 29, 2018, addressed probable economic impacts of critical habitat designation for the slenderclaw crayfish.
The DEA was made available for public review from October 9, 2018, through December 10, 2018 Industrial Economics, Inc. IEc 2018, entire, but we did not receive any comments on the draft DEA. Additional information relevant to the probable incremental economic impacts of critical habitat designation for the slenderclaw crayfish is summarized below and available in the screening analysis for the slenderclaw crayfish IEc 2018, entire, available at http www.regulations.gov.
The final critical habitat designation for the slenderclaw crayfish totals approximately 78 river mi 126 river km, which includes both occupied and unoccupied streams. This final critical habitat designation is likely to result, annually, in a maximum of three informal section 7 consultations and five technical assistance efforts at a total incremental cost of less than $10,000
per year. Within the occupied streams, any actions that may affect the species would likely also affect critical habitat, and it is unlikely that any additional conservation efforts would be required to address the adverse modification standard over and above those recommended as necessary to avoid jeopardizing the continued existence of the species. Within all unoccupied critical habitat, the Service will consult with Federal agencies on any projects that occur within the hydrologic unit code HUC 12-digit watershed boundaries, due to overlap with the ranges of other listed species such as Indiana bat Myotis sodalis, gray bat Myotis grisescens, northern long-eared bat Myotis septentrionalis, harperella Ptilimnium nodosum, and green pitcher-plant Sarracenia oreophila in these HUCs. In addition, all of the HUC
12-digit watershed boundaries containing unoccupied habitat are within the HUC 12-digit range of watersheds occupied by slenderclaw crayfish. Thus, no incremental project modifications resulting solely from the presence of unoccupied critical habitat are anticipated. Therefore, the only additional costs that are expected in all of the critical habitat designation are administrative costs, due to the fact that this additional analysis will require time and resources by both the Federal action agency and the Service.

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Exclusions Based on Economic Impacts As discussed above, the Service considered the economic impacts of the critical habitat designation and the Secretary is not exercising her discretion to exclude any areas from this designation of critical habitat for the slenderclaw crayfish based on economic impacts. A copy of the IEM and screening analysis with supporting documents may be obtained by contacting the Alabama Ecological Services Field Office see ADDRESSES or by downloading from the internet at http www.regulations.gov.
Exclusions Based on Impacts on National Security and Homeland Security Section 4a3Bi of the Act may not cover all Department of Defense DoD lands or areas that pose potential national-security concerns e.g., a DoD
installation that is in the process of revising its INRMP for a newly listed species or a species previously not covered. If a particular area is not covered under section 4a3Bi, national-security or homeland-security concerns are not a factor in the process of determining what areas meet the definition of critical habitat.
Nevertheless, when designating critical habitat under section 4b2 of the Act, the Service must consider impacts on national security, including homeland security, on lands or areas not covered by section 4a3Bi of the Act.
Accordingly, we will always consider for exclusion from the designation areas for which DoD, Department of Homeland Security DHS, or another Federal agency has requested exclusion based on an assertion of nationalsecurity or homeland-security concerns.
However, no lands within the designation of critical habitat for slenderclaw crayfish are owned or managed by DoD or DHS. Consequently, the Secretary is not exercising her discretion to exclude any areas from the final designation based on impacts on national security.
Exclusions Based on 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. We consider a number of factors including whether there are permitted conservation plans covering the species in the area, such as habitat conservation plans, safe harbor agreements, or candidate conservation agreements with assurances, or whether there are nonpermitted conservation agreements and
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