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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 136 / Tuesday, July 20, 2021 / Proposed Rules watersheds, regulating stream flow, and contributing to the economic stability of local communities and industries, and providing recreational facilities. The counties where O&C lands are located participate in a revenue-sharing program with the Federal Government based on commercial receipts e.g., income from commercial timber harvest generated on these Federal lands.
Since the mid-1970s, scientists and land managers have recognized the importance of forests located on O&C
lands to the conservation of the northern spotted owl and have attempted to reconcile this conservation need with other land uses Thomas et al.
1990, entire. Starting in 1977, BLM
worked closely with scientists and other State and Federal agencies to implement northern spotted owl conservation measures on O&C lands. Over the ensuing decades, the northern spotted owl was listed as a threatened species under the Act, critical habitat was designated 57 FR 1796, January 15, 1992 and revised two times 73 FR
47326, August 13, 2008; 77 FR 71876, December 4, 2012 on portions of the O&C lands, and a recovery plan for the northern spotted owl was completed 73
FR 29471, May 21, 2008; p. 29472 and revised 76 FR 38575, July 1, 2011.
These and other scientific reviews consistently recognized the need for large portions of the O&C forest to be managed for northern spotted owl conservation while also allowing for other uses of these lands, including timber harvest.
BLM Harvest Land BaseBased on new information available since the publication of the December 4, 2012, revised critical habitat designation 77
FR 71876, we are proposing to exclude from critical habitat 184,618 acres 74,650 hectares of BLM lands where programmed timber harvest is planned to occur under the revised RMPs BLM
2016a, b, i.e., the Harvest Land Base that we describe in detail further below.
Approximately 172,430 acres 69,779
hectares of this Harvest Land Base is O&C lands.
In 2011, the Service revised the recovery plan for the northern spotted owl see 76 FR 38575, July 1, 2011, and the revised plan recommended continued application of the reserve network of the NWFP until the 2008
designated spotted owl critical habitat is revised and/or the land management agencies amend their land management plans taking into account the guidance in this Revised Recovery Plan USFWS
2011, p. II3. On December 4, 2012, the Service published a final rule revising the northern spotted owl critical habitat
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designation 77 FR 71876, and in 2016, BLM revised its RMPs for western Oregon, resulting in two separate plans BLM 2016a, b. BLMs 2016 revision of its RMPs fully considered the 2011
recovery plan recommendation. These two BLM plans, the Northwestern Oregon and Coastal Oregon Record of Decision and Resource Management Plan BLM 2016a and the Southwestern Oregon Record of Decision and Resource Management Plan BLM
2016b, address all or part of six BLM
districts across western Oregon.
The RMPs provide direction for the management of approximately 2.5
million acres 1 million hectares of BLM-administered lands, for the purposes of producing a sustained yield of timber, contributing to the recovery of endangered and threatened species, providing clean water, restoring fireadapted ecosystems, and providing for recreation opportunities BLM 2016a, p.
20. The management direction provided in the RMPs is used to develop and implement specific projects and actions during the life of the plans.
The RMP revisions assigned land use allocations LUAs across BLM-managed lands in western Oregon; the LUAs define areas where specific activities are allowed, restricted, or excluded. The BLM LUAs include Late Successional Reserves LSR, Congressionally Reserved lands, District Designated Reserves, and Riparian Reserves collectively considered reserve LUAs and Eastside Management Area and Harvest Land Base BLM 2016a, pp.
5574.
Reserve LUAs comprise 74.6 percent 1,847,830 acres 747,790 hectares of the acres of BLM land within LUAs FWS 2016, p. 9. These lands are managed for various purposes, including preserving wilderness areas, natural areas, and structurally complex forest; recreation management;
maintaining facilities and infrastructure;
some timber harvest and fuels management; and conserving lands along streams and waterways. Of these lands, 51 percent 948,466 acres 383,830 hectares are designated as LSR, 64 percent of which 603,090 acres 244,061 hectares are located within the critical habitat designation for the northern spotted owl FWS 2016, p. 9.
The management objectives on LSRs are designed to promote older, structurally complex forest and to promote or maintain habitat for the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet Brachyramphus marmoratus, although some timber harvest of varying intensity is allowed. The recovery plan for the northern spotted owl relies on the LSR
network as the foundation for northern
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spotted owl recovery on Federal lands FWS 2011, p. III41. The Service found that the anticipated level of timber harvest in LSRs under these RMPs was not likely to jeopardize the species or destroy or adversely modify critical habitat FWS 2016, pp. 700
703.
The Harvest Land Base allocation comprises 19 percent 469,215 acres 189,884 hectares of the overall LUAs and is where the majority of programmed timber harvest will occur FWS 2016, p. 9; BLM 2016a, pp. 59
63. Of these acres, 39 percent 184,618
acres 74,650 hectares are located within the critical habitat designation for the northern spotted owl. Over 90
percent of these acres 172,430 acres 69,779 hectares are located on O&C
lands. Under the management direction for the Harvest Land Base, timber harvest intensity varies based on the sub-allocation moderate intensity timber area, light intensity timber area, or uneven-aged timber area within the Harvest Land Base BLM 2016a, pp. 59
63.
The management direction specific to the northern spotted owl BLM 2016a, p.
100 applies to all LUAs designated in the RMPs. This direction provides for the management of habitat to facilitate movement and survival between and through large blocks of northern spotted owl nesting and roosting habitat.
We completed a programmatic section 7 consultation on the RMPs in 2016, under the assumption that BLM will implement actions consistent with the RMPs over an analytical timeframe of 50
years FWS 2016, p. 2. This approach allowed for the broad-scale evaluation of BLMs program to ensure that the management direction and objectives of the program are consistent with the conservation of listed species, while also providing a reliable mechanism for site-specific consultation at the steppeddown, project-level scale. The adequacy of this approach for the conservation of listed species is further sustained by the requirement for the action agency to reinitiate consultation under certain circumstances.
Reinitiation of the programmatic section 7 consultation may occur at any time during the course of program implementation if: 1 The amount or extent of incidental take is exceeded; 2
new information reveals that the effects of the action may affect listed species or critical habitat in a manner or to an extent not previously considered; 3 the identified action is subsequently modified in a manner that causes an effect to the listed species or critical habitat that was not considered in the biological opinion; or 4 a new species
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