Thursday, June 8, 2000 Part II Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service 50 CFR Part 17 Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Proposed Designation of Critical Habitat for the Arroyo Southwestern Toad; Proposed Rule VerDate 11<MAY>2000 13:48 Jun 07, 2000 Jkt 190000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4717 Sfmt 4717 E:\FR\FM\08JNP2.SGM pfrm03 PsN: 08JNP2 36512 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 111 / Thursday, June 8, 2000 / Proposed Rules DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR [email protected]. Please submit these millimeters (mm) (2.2 to 3.2 inches comments as an ASCII file and avoid the (in.)), dark-spotted toad of the family Fish and Wildlife Service use of special characters and any form Bufonidae, with females larger than of encryption. Please also include ``Attn: males. Adult arroyo toads have a light- 50 CFR Part 17 [RIN number]'' and your name and olive green or gray to tan dorsum (back) RIN 1018ÐAG15 return address in your e-mail message. with dark spots and warty skin. The If you do not receive a confirmation venter (underside) is white or buff and Endangered and Threatened Wildlife from the system that we have received without dark blotches or spots. A light- and Plants; Proposed Designation of your e-mail message, contact us directly colored, V-shaped stripe crosses the Critical Habitat for the Arroyo by calling our Ventura Office at phone head and eyelids, and the anterior Southwestern Toad number 805/644±1766. portion of the oval parotoid glands (just 2. Public hearings: Two public behind the eyes) are pale. There is AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, hearings are scheduled. Both public usually a light area on each side of the Interior. hearings will be held from 1:00 p.m. to sacral (pelvic) hump and in the middle ACTION: Proposed rule. 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. of the back. The arroyo toad generally does not have a middorsal stripe, but if SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Public hearing dates and locations are: one is present, it extends only partway Wildlife Service (Service), propose a. Tuesday, June 27, 2000, at the Hyatt along the back. designation of critical habitat for the Valencia, 24500 Town Center Drive, Valencia, California. The arroyo toad is found in coastal arroyo southwestern toad (Bufo and desert drainages from Monterey microscaphus californicus) pursuant to b. Thursday, June 29, 2000, at the Temecula Embassy Suites, 29345 County, California, south into the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as northwestern Baja California, Mexico. amended (Act). A total of approximately Rancho California Road, Temecula, California. These systems are inherently quite 193,600 hectares (478,400 acres) fall dynamic, with marked seasonal and within the boundaries of the proposed 3. Review of data: Comments and materials received, as well as supporting annual fluctuations in climatic regimes, critical habitat designation. Proposed particularly rainfall. Natural climatic critical habitat is located in Monterey, documentation used in the preparation of this proposed rule, will be available variations as well as other random San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, events, such as fires and floods, coupled Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, for public inspection, by appointment, during normal business hours at the with the species' specialized habitat Riverside, Orange, and San Diego requirements, lead to annual Counties, California. If this proposed Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office, 2394 Portola Road, Suite B, Ventura, fluctuations in arroyo toad populations. rule is made final, section 7 of the Act Human alterations of habitat can have would prohibit destruction or adverse California, or at the Carlsbad Fish and Wildlife Office, 2730 Loker Avenue unpredictable effects on arroyo toad modification of critical habitat by any populations. As a result of agriculture activity funded, authorized, or carried West, Carlsbad, California (telephone 760/431±9440). and urbanization, and the construction, out by any Federal agency. operation, and maintenance of water FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Section 4 of the Act requires us to storage reservoirs, flood control consider economic and other relevant Field Supervisor, Ventura Fish and structures, roads, and recreational impacts of specifying any particular area Wildlife Office, at the above address facilities such as campgrounds and off- as critical habitat. We solicit data and (telephone 805/644±1766; facsimile highway vehicle parks, many arroyo comments from the public on all aspects 805/644±3958). For information about toad populations have been reduced in of this proposal, including data on the Los Angeles and San Bernardino size or extirpated (eliminated) due to economic and other impacts of Counties, and Riverside, Orange, and extensive habitat loss from the 1920s designation and our approaches for San Diego Counties, contact the Field into the 1990s. The loss of habitat, handling habitat conservation plans Supervisor, Carlsbad Fish and Wildlife coupled with habitat modifications due (HCPs). We may revise this proposal to Office, 2730 Loker Avenue West, to the manipulation of water levels in incorporate or address new information Carlsbad, California 92008 (telephone many central and southern California received during the comment period. 760/431±9440; facsimile 760/431±9624). streams and rivers, as well as predation DATES: We will accept comments from SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: from introduced aquatic species, and all interested parties until August 7, Background habitat degradation from introduced 2000. Two public hearings have been plant species, caused arroyo toads to be scheduled for June 27, 2000, and June The following discussion is adapted extirpated from about 75 percent of the 29, 2000, see locations below. from the final recovery plan for the previously occupied habitat in ADDRESSES: arroyo toad (Service 1999), which California (Jennings and Hayes 1994). 1. Comments: If you wish to contains additional details and is Because relatively little was known comment, you may submit your available from the addresses above. The about this animal, and it was often comments and materials concerning this arroyo southwestern toad (Bufo confused with the California toad (Bufo proposal by any one of several methods. microscaphus californicus) is one of boreas halophilus), which is very a. You may submit written comments three members of the southwestern toad common in the same region, detailed and information to the Field Supervisor, (B. microscaphus) complex, in the studies of the natural history of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ventura family of true toads, Bufonidae. The arroyo toad were not conducted until Fish and Wildlife Office, 2394 Portola taxonomy of the complex has been the 1980s and 1990s. The arroyo toad Road, Suite B, Ventura, California examined recently by Gergus (1998). exhibits breeding habitat specialization 93003. Based on his genetic studies, the arroyo that favors shallow pools and open sand b. You may hand-deliver written toad should be considered a separate and gravel channels along low-gradient comments to our Ventura Office, at the species, Bufo microscaphus reaches of medium to large-sized address given above. californicus. streams (Service 1999). These streams c. You may send comments by The arroyo toad is a small (adults: can have either intermittent or perennial electronic mail (e-mail) to snout-urostyle (body) length 55 to 82 streamflow and typically experience VerDate 11<MAY>2000 13:48 Jun 07, 2000 Jkt 190000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4702 E:\FR\FM\08JNP2.SGM pfrm03 PsN: 08JNP2 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 111 / Thursday, June 8, 2000 / Proposed Rules 36513 periodic flooding that scours vegetation designated an order of two. In general, particularly susceptible to predation at and replenishes fine sediments. In at the higher the order number, the larger this time. Females apparently move to least some portions of its range, the the watershed, and the greater the the breeding pools in the streams for species also breeds in smaller streams channel dimensions. Such habitats only short time periods, in order to soak and canyons where low-gradient rarely have closed canopies over the in the water and to breed (Griffin et al. breeding sites are more sporadically lower banks of the stream channel due 1999; Nancy Sandburg, Santa Barbara, distributed. Populations in smaller to regular flood events. Heavily shaded California, pers. comm. 1999). drainages are likely to be much smaller pools are generally unsuitable for larval Amplexus (mating embrace of the and at greater risk of extirpation than and juvenile arroyo toads because of female by the male) and egg-laying those on larger streams and in larger lower water and soil temperatures and generally occur at the site where the habitat patches (Service 1999). poor algal mat development. Episodic male was calling. Female arroyo toads Arroyo toads also require and spend (temporary) flooding is critical to keep apparently release their entire clutch of most of their adult life in upland the low stream terraces relatively 2,000 to 10,000 eggs as a single breeding habitats. Individual toads have been vegetation-free and the soils friable effort and probably are unable to observed as far as 2 kilometers (km) (1.2 enough for juvenile and adult toads to produce a second clutch during the miles (mi)) from the streams where they create burrows. Pools less than 30 mating season. If conditions are breed, but are most commonly found centimeters (cm) (12 in.) deep with clear unsuitable, females may not obtain within 0.5 km (0.3 mi) of those streams water, flow rates less than 5 cm per sufficient food for egg production and (Service 1999; Griffin et al. 1999; Dan C. second (0.2 foot (ft) per second), and will forgo breeding during that year. The Holland, Camp Pendleton Amphibian bottoms composed of sand or well- eggs are laid on substrates of sand, and Reptile Survey, Fallbrook, sorted fine gravel are favored by adults gravel, cobble, or mud generally located California, unpublished data).