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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 114 / Wednesday, June 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations germination rates. Nevertheless, based on the discovery of many new occurrences and few recent extirpations of existing occurrences, distribution of the species appears to be currently stable.
Genetic variation among water howellia occurrences is low.
Occurrences in California and Montana are genetically similar; however, occurrences in Idaho and Washington are more distantly related Schierenbeck and Phipps 2010, p. 5. These data suggest that gene flow is occurring between occurrences separated by large geographic distances, albeit at a relatively low rate. A correlation between migratory waterfowl routes with either genetic similarity or distance indicates that waterfowl may be
transporting seed or plant material between water howellia population areas Schierenbeck and Phipps 2010, pp. 67. A more robust sampling and genetic analysis of water howellia occurrences across the species range would be necessary to support or refute this hypothesis.
Conservation Efforts A recovery plan for water howellia was drafted in 1996, but never finalized USFWS 1996, entire. Despite having not been finalized, the draft recovery plan constitutes the best available information on what objective, measurable criteria should be met in order to delist the species. Here, we provide a summary of progress made on the draft recovery criteria for water
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howellia. More detailed information related to conservation efforts can be found below under Summary of Factors Affecting the Species.
1. Recovery criterion: Management practices, in accordance with habitat management plans, have reduced and/or controlled anthropogenic threats, thereby maintaining the species and its habitat integrity throughout the currently known range on public lands in five geographic areas for 10 years after the effective date of the final recovery plan when finalized.
Monitoring will demonstrate the effectiveness of management plans.
Management plans will be in place for, at a minimum, the occurrences listed in the following table:

TABLE 2FORMALIZED MANAGEMENT PLANS PER GEOGRAPHIC AREA

Geographic area
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Current number of occurrences covered by management plans percent of total occurrences
Minimum number of occurrences identified in draft recovery plan
Montana
Spokane County, Washington
Pierce County, Washington
Clark County, Washington
Mendocino County, California

67
33
5 4
5

191 62
37 12
19 6
4 1
7 2

Totals

114

258 84

Progress: Despite the recovery plan not being finalized, management plans are in place on Federal lands for the minimum number of occurrences identified in Table 2, above.
Monitoring indicates management plans have been effective at maintaining the minimum number of occurrences by reducing or eliminating anthropogenic threats associated with land management activities e.g., timber harvest, road construction, and maintenance and other threats e.g., invasive species. Prior to formalized management plans, some conservation efforts were occurring on Federal, State, and some private land. In addition, survey efforts have documented substantially more occurrences of water howellia rangewide than were known at the time of listing Mincemoyer 2005, pp. 45; Frymire 2017, pers. comm.;
Gilbert 2017, pers. comm.; Johnson 2017, pers. comm.; Lichthardt and Pekas 2017, p. 1; ORBIC 2017, unpaginated;
Rule 2017, pers. comm..
2. Recovery criterion: Foster or promote the conservation of occurrences on lands not addressed by agency management plans. Specifically, this
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recovery criterion recommends longterm conservation measures for the occurrence in Latah County, Idaho.
Progress: Long-term conservation measures for water howellia have been established through land transfers, conservation easements, and management plans on some private lands. In Montanas Swan Valley, largescale land transfers 67,000 acres ac 27,000 hectares ha for the benefit of many species have occurred, and land supporting known water howellia occurrences has been transferred from private to Federal ownership. These occurrences are now protected under Federal agency management plans and conservation strategies. One occurrence located on private land in Latah County, Idaho, is protected under a conservation agreement, held in perpetuity by the Palouse Land Trust. In the 5-year review USFWS 2013, p. 6, it was noted that, in addition to the conservation agreement, a management plan for this occurrence was being developed Trujillo 2017, pers. comm.. However, recent communications with Palouse Land Trust indicate that a management plan still needs to be developed for this
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Years management plans in place
22
12
16
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occurrence Englund 2020, pers.
comm.. Two other occurrences of water howellia on the Coeur dAlene Reservation in Idaho are being actively managed under the direction of a tribal water howellia management plan Green 2018, pp. 39. The Coeur dAlene tribe is planning to use active stream/wetland and floodplain restoration, riparian buffering, and outplanting to conserve existing water howellia occurrences and expand the distribution of the species into nearby potentially suitable habitat Green 2018, entire. The Service is unaware of any information regarding additional efforts to protect water howellia occurrences on private land in other parts of the species range.
3. Recovery criterion: A post-delisting strategy for monitoring the species population dynamics is in place.
Progress: We have developed a postdelisting monitoring plan in cooperation with State, Federal, Tribal, and nongovernmental conservation partners.
The final post-delisting monitoring plan is available for public review on http
www.regulations.gov under Docket No.
FWSR6ES20180045.

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