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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 109 / Wednesday, June 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
species. Carolina madtoms have been completely extirpated from the Trent River basin, three of the five Neuse River units, and two of the five Tar River basin management units. There are currently only two occupied management units remaining in the Neuse River basin, and those populations were found to be in low and very low condition in our resiliency analysis. Having at least three resilient populations in both the Tar and Neuse River basins and at least one resilient population in the Trent River basin is essential for the conservation of the Carolina madtom because the unoccupied unit in the Neuse will contribute to redundancy and resiliency of that population, and the unoccupied Trent unit will add resiliency, redundancy, and representation where there currently are none in that population through propagation and reintroduction. Accordingly, we are designating one unoccupied unit in the Trent River basin and one in the Neuse River basin. Because there are already three populations in the Tar River basin, we do not consider an unoccupied unit in this basin to be essential for the species conservation.
We are not designating any areas outside the geographical area currently occupied by the Neuse River waterdog because we did not find any unoccupied areas that were essential for the conservation of the species. The protection of the nine currently occupied MUs across the physiographic representation of the range will sufficiently reduce the risk of extinction, and by improving the resiliency of populations in these currently occupied streams, viability may increase to the point that the protections of the Act would no longer be necessary.
Critical Habitat Maps Critical habitat for these aquatic species includes only stream channels up to bankfull height, where the stream base flow is contained within the channel. When determining critical habitat boundaries, we made every effort to avoid including developed
areas such as lands covered by buildings, pavement, and other structures because such lands lack physical or biological features necessary for the Carolina madtom and Neuse River waterdog. The scale of the maps we prepared under the parameters for publication within the Code of Federal Regulations may not reflect the exclusion of such developed lands. Any such lands inadvertently left inside critical habitat boundaries shown on the maps of this rule have been excluded by text in the rule and are not included for designation as critical habitat.
Therefore, a Federal action involving these lands would not trigger section 7
consultation under the Act with respect to critical habitat and the requirement of no adverse modification unless the specific action would affect the physical or biological features in the adjacent critical habitat.
We are designating as critical habitat lands that we have determined are occupied at the time of listing i.e., currently occupied and that contain one or more of the physical or biological features that are essential to support life-history processes of the species. For the Carolina madtom, we have determined that both occupied and unoccupied areas are necessary to ensure the conservation of the species.
Therefore, we have also identified and designated as critical habitat unoccupied areas that are essential for the conservation of the Carolina madtom.
Units are designated based on one or more of the physical or biological features being present to support Carolina madtom or Neuse River waterdog life-history processes. Some units contain all of the identified physical or biological features and support multiple life-history processes.
Some units contain only some of the physical or biological features necessary to support the Carolina madtoms or Neuse River waterdogs particular use of that habitat.
The critical habitat designation is defined by the map or maps, as modified by any accompanying regulatory text, presented at the end of
this document under Regulation Promulgation. We include more detailed information on the boundaries of the critical habitat designation in the discussion of individual units below.
We will make the coordinates or plot points or both on which each map is based available to the public at http
www.regulations.gov under Docket No.
FWSR4ES20180092, at http
www.fws.gov/southeast, and at the Raleigh Ecological Services Field Office see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, above.
Final Critical Habitat Designation Carolina Madtom We are designating approximately 257
river miles 414 river kilometers in 7
units in North Carolina as critical habitat for the Carolina madtom. The critical habitat areas we describe below constitute our current best assessment of areas that meet the definition of critical habitat for the Carolina madtom. Five of the units are currently occupied by the species and contain some or all of the physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the species. Two of the units are unoccupied but are essential to the conservation of the species. All units may require special management considerations or protection to address habitat degradation resulting from the cumulative impacts of land use change and associated watershed-level effects on water quality, water quantity, habitat connectivity, and instream habitat suitability. These stressors are primarily related to habitat changes: The buildup of fine sediments, the loss of flowing water, instream habitat fragmentation, and impairment of water quality; these are all exacerbated by climate change.
Table 5 shows the name, land ownership of the riparian areas surrounding the units, and approximate river miles of the designated units for the Carolina madtom. Since all streambeds are navigable waters, the actual critical habitat units are all owned by the State of North Carolina.

TABLE 5CRITICAL HABITAT UNITS FOR THE CAROLINA MADTOM

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Critical habitat unit Unit Unit Unit Unit Unit Unit
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

TAR1Upper Tar River
TAR2Sandy/Swift Creek
TAR3Fishing Creek Subbasin
NR1Upper Neuse River Subbasin Eno River
NR2Little River
NR3Contentnea Creek

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Occupied at the time of listing
Riparian ownership
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes

Private
Private; Easements
Private; Easements; State
Easements; State; Private
Private; Easements
Private

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Length of unit in river miles kilometers 26 42
66 106
86 138
20 32
28 45
15 24