Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 87 / Thursday, May 5, 2011 / Rules and Regulations 25593 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Service’s Arizona Ecological Services or result in the destruction or adverse Office at 2321 W. Royal Palm Road, modification of designated critical Fish and Wildlife Service Suite 103, Phoenix, AZ 85021. habitat. Section 7 of the Act does not FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: affect activities undertaken on private or 50 CFR Part 17 Steve Spangle, Field Supervisor, other non-Federal land unless they are [Docket No. FWS–R2–ES–2009–0077; Arizona Ecological Services Office, 2321 authorized, funded, or carried out by a 92220–1113–0000; ABC Code: C3] W. Royal Palm Road, Suite 103, Federal agency. Phoenix, AZ 85021 (telephone 602– Under section 10(j) of the Act, the RIN 1018–AW63 242–0210, facsimile 602–242–2513). If Secretary of the Department of the Interior can reestablish populations Endangered and Threatened Wildlife you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), call the Federal outside the species’ current range and and Plants; Establishment of a designate them as ‘‘experimental.’’ With Nonessential Experimental Population Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 800–877–8339. the experimental population of Sonoran Pronghorn in designation, the relevant population is Southwestern Arizona SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: treated as threatened for purposes of AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Background section 9 of the Act, regardless of the species’ designation elsewhere in its Interior. It is our intent to discuss only those ACTION: Final rule. range. Threatened designation allows us topics directly relevant to this final rule discretion in devising management establishing a Sonoran pronghorn SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and programs and special regulations for nonessential experimental population Wildlife Service (Service), are such a population. Section 10(j) of the (NEP). For more information on the reestablishing the Sonoran pronghorn, a Act allows us to adopt whatever Sonoran pronghorn, refer to the federally listed endangered mammal, in regulations are necessary and advisable February 4, 2010, proposed rule (75 FR its historical habitat in King Valley, to provide for the conservation of a NEP. 5732) and the 1998 Revised Sonoran Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, in Yuma In these situations, the general Pronghorn Recovery Plan (Service 1998: County, and the Barry M. Goldwater regulations that extend most section 9 http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/ Range—East, Maricopa County, in prohibitions to threatened species do 981203.pdf) and its amendments southwestern Arizona. We are not apply to that species, and the 10(j) (Service 2002: http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/ reestablishing the Sonoran pronghorn rule contains the prohibitions and recovery_plan/031126.pdf). under section 10(j) of the Endangered exemptions necessary and appropriate Species Act of 1973, as amended, and Regulatory Background to conserve that species. For the purposes of section 7 of the classify that reestablished population as We listed the Sonoran pronghorn a nonessential experimental population Act, we treat an NEP as a threatened subspecies (Antilocapra americana species when the NEP is located within (NEP). The NEP is located in sonoriensis) as endangered throughout southwestern Arizona in an area north a National Wildlife Refuge or unit of the its range on March 11, 1967 (32 FR National Park Service, and section of Interstate 8 and south of Interstate 10, 4001), under the Endangered Species bounded by the Colorado River on the 7(a)(1) and the consultation Preservation Act of October 15, 1966, requirements of section 7(a)(2) of the west and Interstate 10 on the east; and without critical habitat. This subspecies an area south of Interstate 8, bounded by Act apply. Section 7(a)(1) requires all was included as an endangered species Federal agencies to use their authorities Highway 85 on the west, Interstates 10 when the Endangered Species Act was and 19 on the east, and the United to carry out programs for the signed into law in 1973 (Act; 16 U.S.C. conservation of listed species. Section States-Mexico border on the south. 1531 et seq.). The Act provides that This action is one of the recovery 7(a)(2) requires that Federal agencies, in species listed as endangered are actions that the Service, Federal and consultation with the Service, ensure afforded protection primarily through State agencies, and other partners are that any action authorized, funded, or the prohibitions of section 9 and the conducting throughout the historical carried out is not likely to jeopardize the requirements of section 7. Section 9 of range of the species. This final rule continued existence of a listed species. the Act, among other things, prohibits establishes the NEP and provides for When NEPs are located outside a the take of endangered wildlife. ‘‘Take’’ limited allowable legal taking of National Wildlife Refuge or National is defined by the Act as to harass, harm, Sonoran pronghorn within the defined Park Service unit, then for the purposes pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, NEP area. An Environmental of section 7, we treat the population as capture, or collect, or attempt to engage Assessment and Finding of No proposed for listing, and only two in any such conduct. Service regulations Significant Impact have been prepared provisions of section 7 apply—section (50 CFR 17.31) generally extend the for this action (see ADDRESSES section 7(a)(1) and section 7(a)(4). prohibitions of take to threatened In these instances, NEPs provide below). wildlife. Section 7 of the Act outlines additional flexibility because Federal DATES: The effective date of this rule is the procedures for Federal interagency agencies are not required to consult June 6, 2011. cooperation to conserve federally listed with us under section 7(a)(2). Section ADDRESSES: This final rule, along with species and protect designated critical 7(a)(4) requires Federal agencies to the public comments, Environmental habitat. It mandates that all Federal confer (rather than consult) with the Assessment (EA) and Finding of No agencies use their existing authorities to Service on actions that are likely to Significant Impact (FONSI), is available further the purposes of the Act by jeopardize the continued existence of a on the Internet at http:// carrying out programs for the species proposed to be listed. The www.regulations.gov and http:// conservation of listed species. It also results of a conference are in the form www.fws.gov/southwest/es/arizona/. states that Federal agencies will, in of conservation recommendations that Supporting documentation is also consultation with the Service, ensure are optional as the agencies carry out, available for public inspection, by that any action they authorize, fund, or fund, or authorize activities. Because appointment, during normal business carry out is not likely to jeopardize the the NEP is, by definition, not essential hours, at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife continued existence of a listed species to the continued existence of the species VerDate Mar<15>2010 16:41 May 04, 2011 Jkt 223001 PO 00000 Frm 00061 Fmt 4700 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\05MYR1.SGM 05MYR1 jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with RULES 25594 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 87 / Thursday, May 5, 2011 / Rules and Regulations (see below) then the effects of proposed of Interstate 8, with the intent of planting of buffelgrass (Pennisetum actions on the NEP will generally not establishing another herd. ciliare), particularly in Sonora; gold rise to the level of jeopardizing the mining southeast of Sonoyta, Sonora; Biological Information continued existence of the species. As a dewatering and development along the result, a formal conference will likely The Sonoran pronghorn was first Gila River and Rı´o Sonoyta; and high never be required for Sonoran described by Goldman (1945, pp. 3–4) levels of undocumented immigration pronghorn established within the NEP and is small in terms of cranial and drug trafficking across the area. Nonetheless, some agencies (e.g., measurements compared to the international border, and associated law Bureau of Land Management (BLM)) measurements of other subspecies of enforcement response in the United voluntarily confer with the Service on pronghorn (Nowak and Paradiso 1971, States; actions that may affect a proposed p. 857). Historically, the Sonoran (3) wildfire, fueled by nonnative species. Section 10(j)(2)(c)(ii) precludes pronghorn ranged in the United States perennial and ephemeral plants that the designation of critical habitat for from approximately the Santa Cruz have increased fine fuels and allowed nonessential populations. Activities that River, Arizona, in the east, to the Gila fire to become a much more frequent are not carried out, funded, or Bend and Kofa Mountains, Arizona, to event in the Sonoran Desert; authorized by Federal agencies are not the north, and to Imperial Valley, (4) drought and associated limited subject to provisions or requirements in California, to the west (Service 1998, pp. food and water; and section 7. 4–6). In northwestern Sonora, Mexico, (5) small population size and random Based on the best scientific and the subspecies is thought to have changes in demographics. commercial data available, we must occurred historically as far south as Populations at low levels may determine whether the experimental Bahia Kino and east to Santa Ana and experience random variations in sex population is essential or nonessential Nogales. In Baja California, Mexico, the ratios, age distributions, and birth and to the continued existence of the subspecies occurred in the northeast death rates among individuals, which species. The regulations (50 CFR from the United States border south to can cause fluctuations in population 17.80(b)) state that an experimental the vicinity of Punta Estrella (Phelps size and possibly extinction (Service population is considered essential if its and Webb 1981, pp. 20–21; Service 2002, pp.