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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 109 / Wednesday, June 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations the Service is evaluating potentially significant portions of the range by applying any reasonable definition of significant in terms of its biological importance. Factors we considered in the significance analysis were: 1
Whether the portion is large geographically or in its contribution to resiliency, redundancy, and representation relative to the remainder of the range; 2 whether the portion contains high-quality habitat relative to the remainder of the range; 3 whether the portion constitutes high-value or unique habitat for the species; or 4
whether the portion contains habitat that is essential to the life history, and therefore the overall conservation, of the species.
We examined the first question of whether these portions could be significant portions of the Neuse River waterdogs range by examining their contribution to the resiliency, redundancy, and representation of the species. We determined that the Trent MU contains 1 out of 20 occupied HUC10 watersheds identified in the SSA report; thus, the Trent represents approximately 5 percent of the geographical range of the species.
Similarly, the Upper Neuse MU
contains 1 out of 20 HUC10 watersheds, or approximately 5 percent of the range as well. The Middle Neuse MU contains 4 out of 20 HUC10 watersheds, or approximately 20 percent of the geographical range. Currently, these areas individually or together representing approximately 30 percent represent a small portion of the waterdogs geographical range. Because these units collectively have few healthy populations, they are not currently contributing in an important way to the species overall resiliency.
Neuse River waterdog populations are distributed over two physiographic regions in three river basins, and we considered geographic range as a surrogate for geographic variation and proxy for potential local adaptation and adaptive capacity. The Piedmont streams in the upper and middle Tar and upper and middle Neuse river basins contain similar features and instream habitats as those of the Coastal Plain streams in the lower Tar-Pamlico, lower Neuse, and Trent River basins.
There are no data indicating genetic or morphological differentiation between the three river basins for the species.
Further, the waterdog occurs in similar aquatic habitats and does not use unique observable environmental or behavioral characteristics attributable to any of the basins. Therefore, it exhibits similar basin-scale use of habitat.

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At a management unit level, the Trent, Upper Neuse, and Middle Neuse MUs occur in stream habitat comprised of similar substrate types to the other MUs where the Neuse River waterdog performs the important life-history functions of breeding, feeding, and sheltering, and occurs in areas with water quality sufficient to sustain these essential life-history traits. The Trent, Upper Neuse, and Middle Neuse do not act as a refugia for the species or as an important spawning ground. Since the waterdog occurs in similar aquatic habitats, the Trent, Upper Neuse, and Middle Neuse exhibit similar habitat use as populations in the remainder of the range. Therefore, there is no unique, observable environmental usage or behavioral characteristics attributable to just the Trent, Upper Neuse, and Middle Neuse MUs.
Overall, we found no substantial information that would indicate the Trent, Upper Neuse, or Middle Neuse are portions of the range that may be significant in terms of their overall contribution to the species resiliency, redundancy, and representation, or that they may be significant in terms of highquality habitat or habitat that is otherwise important for the species life history. As a result, we determined there is no portion of the Neuse River waterdogs range that constitutes a significant portion of the range. This is consistent with the courts holdings in Desert Survivors v. Department of the Interior, No. 16cv01165JCS, 2018
WL 4053447 N.D. Cal. Aug. 24, 2018, and Center for Biological Diversity v.
Jewell, 248 F. Supp. 3d, 946, 959 D.
Ariz. 2017. Accordingly, we determine that the species is likely to become in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future throughout all of its range.
Determination of Neuse River Waterdog Status Our review of the best available scientific and commercial information indicates that the Neuse River waterdog meets the Acts definition of a threatened species. Therefore, we are listing the Neuse River waterdog as a threatened species in accordance with sections 320 and 4a1 of the Act.
Available Conservation Measures Conservation measures provided to species listed as endangered or threatened species under the Act include recognition, recovery actions, requirements for Federal protection, and prohibitions against certain practices.
Recognition through listing results in public awareness, and conservation by Federal, State, Tribal, and local
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agencies; private organizations; and individuals. The Act encourages cooperation with the States and other countries and calls for recovery actions to be carried out for listed species. The protection required by Federal agencies and the prohibitions against certain activities are discussed, in part, below.
The primary purpose of the Act is the conservation of endangered and threatened species and the ecosystems upon which they depend. The ultimate goal of such conservation efforts is the recovery of these listed species, so that they no longer need the protective measures of the Act. Section 4f of the Act calls for the Service to develop and implement recovery plans for the conservation of endangered and threatened species. The recovery planning process involves the identification of actions that are necessary to halt or reverse the species decline by addressing the threats to its survival and recovery. The goal of this process is to restore listed species to a point where they are secure, selfsustaining, and functioning components of their ecosystems.
Recovery planning includes the development of a recovery outline shortly after a species is listed and preparation of a draft and final recovery plan. The recovery outline guides the immediate implementation of urgent recovery actions and describes the process to be used to develop a recovery plan. Revisions of the plan may be done to address continuing or new threats to the species, as new substantive information becomes available. The recovery plan identifies recovery criteria for review of when a species may be ready for reclassification from endangered to threatened downlisting or removal from protected status delisting, and methods for monitoring recovery progress. Recovery plans also establish a framework for agencies to coordinate their recovery efforts and provide estimates of the cost of implementing recovery tasks. Recovery teams composed of species experts, Federal and State agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and stakeholders are often established to develop recovery plans. When completed, the recovery outline, draft recovery plan, and the final recovery plan will be available on our website http www.fws.gov/
endangered, or from our Raleigh Ecological Services Field Office see FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Implementation of recovery actions generally requires the participation of a broad range of partners, including other Federal agencies, States, Tribes, nongovernmental organizations,
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