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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 146 / Tuesday, August 3, 2021 / Rules and Regulations

or email: incomingazcorr@fws.gov.
Persons who use a telecommunications device for the deaf TDD may call the Federal Relay Service at 8008778339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

FR Doc. 202115878 Filed 8221; 8:45 am BILLING CODE 656050P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

AGENCY:

Background Section 4b3Dii of the Act 16
U.S.C. 1531 et seq. states that within 12
months after receiving a petition to revise a critical habitat designation that is found to present substantial information indicating that the requested revision may be warranted, the Secretary will determine how he or she intends to proceed with the requested revision, and will promptly publish notice of such intention in the Federal Register.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Service, announce a 12-month determination on a petition to revise critical habitat for the Mount Graham red squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended Act. The petition requests that the Service expand the subspecies critical habitat designation to include currently occupied mixed conifer habitat and all historically occupied habitat outside the current critical habitat designation. Our 12-month determination is that we intend to assess revisions to the subspecies critical habitat after a species status assessment and revised recovery plan for the Mount Graham red squirrel are completed.
DATES: The determination announced in this document was made on August 3, 2021.
ADDRESSES: This determination is available on the internet at http
www.regulations.gov at Docket No.
FWSR2ES20210012. Information and supporting documentation that we received and used in preparing this finding is available for public inspection pursuant to current COVID19
restrictions. You may contact the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona Ecological Services Field Office, Tucson Sub-Office, 201 N Bonita, Suite 141, Tucson, AZ 85745 for further information about these restrictions.
Please submit any new information, materials, comments, or questions concerning this finding to the above mailing address.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona Ecological Services Field Office, Attn:
Jeff Humphrey, to the mailing address in ADDRESSES, telephone: 6022420210,
Previous Federal Actions On June 3, 1987, we published in the Federal Register 52 FR 20994 a final rule listing the Mount Graham red squirrel red squirrel as an endangered subspecies of the red squirrel, or pine squirrel T. hudsonicus species account:
Steele 1998, p. 1, pursuant to the Act.
We concluded that the Mount Graham red squirrel was endangered because its range and habitat had been reduced and its habitat was at risk due to a number of factors, including the proposed construction of an astrophysical observatory, occurrences of forest fires, proposed construction and improvement of roads, and recreational development at high elevations. The rule concluded that red squirrels might also suffer due to resource competition with the introduced Aberts, or tasseleared, squirrel Sciurus aberti.
On January 5, 1990, we published in the Federal Register 55 FR 425 a final rule designating approximately 769
hectares ha 1,900 acres ac in three separate units as critical habitat for the Mount Graham red squirrel. Critical habitat encompasses the Mount Graham Red Squirrel Refugium, which resulted from a July 1988 biological opinion and subsequent Arizona-Idaho Conservation Act of 1988 Pub. L. 100696, November 18, 1988, on Hawk and Plain View peaks about 688 ha 1,700 ac, as well as areas outside the Refugium on Heliograph and Webb Peaks about 81
ha 200 ac. The main attribute of critical habitat at that time was existing dense stands of mature about 300 years old spruce-fir forest, which has since been damaged by drought, insects, wildfire, and associated wildfiresuppression activities.
On January 11, 2006, we initiated a 5year review of the Mt. Graham red squirrel 71 FR 1765; that 5-year review was completed on January 15, 2008. On May 27, 2011, we announced the
Fish and Wildlife Service 50 CFR Part 17
Docket No. FWSR2ES20210012;
FF09E21000 FXES11110900000 212

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 12-Month Determination on a Petition To Revise Critical Habitat for the Mount Graham Red Squirrel Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: 12-Month determination.

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availability of, and requested public comments on, a draft recovery plan, first revision, for the Mount Graham red squirrel 76 FR 30957.
Petition History On December 14, 2017, we received a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, Maricopa Audubon Society, and the Mount Graham Coalition requesting that critical habitat for the Mount Graham red squirrel be revised under the Act, on an emergency basis.
The petition requests that the Service expand the subspecies critical habitat designation to include currently occupied mixed conifer habitat and all historically occupied habitat outside the current critical habitat designation. In general, the petitioners recommend expanding the current designation of critical habitat to include mixed conifer and spruce-fir forest above 7,500 feet ft 2,286 meters m, including specific areas currently occupied by the Mount Graham red squirrel at Grant Hill, Riggs Lake, Turkey Flat, and Columbine. The petition clearly identified itself as such and included the requisite identification information for the petitioners, required at 50 CFR 424.14c. Because the Act does not provide for petitions to revise critical habitat in an emergency, we considered it as a petition to revise critical habitat for the red squirrel.
We published our 90-day finding on the petition to revise critical habitat for the Mount Graham red squirrel on September 6, 2019 84 FR 46927. We determined that the petition presented substantial scientific information indicating that revising critical habitat for the Mount Graham red squirrel under the Act may be warranted, thus initiating the review that led to this 12month determination.
This 12-month determination addresses the petitions request to revise the Mount Graham red squirrels currently designated critical habitat.
Species Information Mount Graham red squirrels are found only in the high-elevation forests of the Pinaleno Mountains in the Safford Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest in southeastern Arizona. The subspecies inhabits upper elevation, mature to old-growth associations in mixed conifer and spruce-fir forests above approximately 7,500 ft 2,286 m.
Mount Graham red squirrels are highly territorial C.C. Smith 1968, pp.
3334 and create middens within their territory. The middens in each squirrels territory consist of piles of cone scales in which squirrels cache live, unopened cones as a food source for overwintering and during times of cone
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