[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 30 (Tuesday, February 13, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5568-5569]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-3145]



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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service


Availability of a Draft Environmental Assessment and Receipt of 
an Application for an Incidental Take Permit of the Atlantic Coast 
Piping Plover in Massachusetts

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife has 
applied to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) for an 
incidental take permit pursuant to Section 10(a) of the Endangered 
Species Act (Act). The requested permit, which is for a period of two 
years, would authorize the incidental take of the threatened piping 
plover (Charadrius melodus) in Massachusetts. The proposed take would 
occur as a result of specific actions relating to the management of 
recreational use of beaches where breeding piping plovers are found.
    The Service has prepared a draft environmental assessment (EA) for 
the incidental take application. This notice is provided pursuant to 
Section 10(c) of the Act and National Environmental Policy Act 
regulations (40 CFR 1506.6).

DATES: Written comments on the application and EA should be received on 
or before March 14, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Written comments regarding the application and requests for 
copies of the draft EA and the conservation plan should be addressed to 
Field Supervisor, New England Field Office, 22 Bridge St., Unit 1, 
Concord, New Hampshire 03301-4986, telephone (603) 225-1411. Comments 
regarding the conservation plan will be forwarded to the Massachusetts 
Division of Fisheries and Wildlife for review and response.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Susanna L. von Oettingen at the above address.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Atlantic Coast piping plover was listed 
as a threatened species on January 10, 1986. Because of its listing as 
threatened, the piping plover is protected by the Act's prohibitions 
against ``take''. However, the Service may issue permits to carry out 
otherwise prohibited activities involving endangered and threatened 
wildlife 

[[Page 5569]]
under certain circumstances. Regulations governing permits are at 50 
CFR 17.22, 17.23 and 17.32. For threatened species, such permits are 
available for scientific purposes, incidental take, or special purposes 
consistent with the purposes of the Act.
    The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (Division) has 
applied to the Service for an incidental take permit pursuant to 
Section 10(a) of the Act. This permit would authorize the incidental 
take of piping plovers through otherwise lawful activities occurring on 
plover breeding beaches. 0.Included in the application is a 
conservation plan prepared by the Division detailing the activities 
that would result in incidental take and describing measures that 
mitigate, minimize and monitor the amount of take.
    The draft revised recovery plan for the Atlantic Coast piping 
plover (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1995. Piping Plover (Charadrius 
melodus), Atlantic Coast Population, Revised Recovery Plan. Technical/
Agency Draft. Hadley, MA. 238pp) identified New England (which includes 
Massachusetts) as a recovery unit. Guidelines in the draft recovery 
plan state that permits for incidental take that will reduce the 
productivity of breeding piping plovers should only be allowed in 
recovery units where the subpopulation has achieved at least 70% of its 
portion of the recovery goal. As of 1995, the piping plover population 
in the New England recovery unit had reached 89% of the recovery goal 
(555 pairs) specified in the draft recovery plan. Furthermore, under an 
intensive management program, the Massachusetts piping plover 
population has increased more than three-fold over the last eight 
years, from 126 pairs in 1987 to 445 pairs in 1995.
    The purpose of the proposed incidental take permit is to provide 
increased flexibility in managing Massachusetts beaches for use by 
recreationists and homeowners, while assuring continued progress toward 
the recovery of the Massachusetts and Atlantic Coast populations of the 
piping plover. The additional flexibility in managing beaches will 
prevent a disproportionate expenditure of resources directed at the 
protection of a few nests or broods in areas where they may 
significantly disrupt beach access by large numbers of people and be 
highly vulnerable to disturbance and/or mortality. Management 
flexibility also will create incentives for the continued participation 
by beach management agencies and organizations involved in protecting 
piping plovers.
    The proposed action establishes strict eligibility criteria for 
landowners seeking to participate in permitted activities, and requires 
that these landowners make additional plover protection commitments, 
including the use of predator exclosures, prohibition of dogs, and 
plover monitoring and reporting. The proposed permit would be effective 
during the 1996 and 1997 plover breeding seasons. Authorized take would 
only affect piping plovers; take of other federally-listed species is 
specifically excluded from the proposed action.
    Incidental take likely to occur on eligible sites may result from 
several management options outlined in the conservation plan. 
Landowners that choose to undertake such actions may apply to be 
included under the Division's proposed permit that will authorize the 
incidental take. Proposed authorized activities are (1) reduction of 
symbolically-fenced buffer areas around plover nests, applicable to one 
plover nest per site per year; (2) limited use of escorted off-road 
vehicle caravans or beach taxis for recreational access during periods 
when unfledged chicks are present on the beach; (3) use of essential 
vehicles during daylight hours without shorebird monitor escorts; (4) 
limited use of vehicles for homeowner access after dark through areas 
with unfledged chicks; and (5) moving eggs from heavily-used pedestrian 
or vehicle access points.
    Take of piping plovers primarily will occur either through direct 
mortality of chicks, harassment of chicks or adults, or mortality of 
eggs that occurs as the result of nest abandonment or inadequate 
incubation or nest defense. As a result of these takings, overall 
reproductive success will be reduced at individual sites, and adverse 
effects may occur to immediate habitats of individual pairs or broods. 
However, the level of incidental take likely to occur will not reduce 
productivity enough to substantially slow progress toward recovery. 
Take that occurs as a result of a permit issued to the Division will 
not include mortality of adults, nor will actions undertaken within the 
scope of such a permit permanently degrade otherwise suitable habitat.
    The Division has proposed to minimize and monitor the level of 
incidental take through a number of measures. Continued population 
growth over the duration of the permit should be ensured by 
conditioning the authorization of incidental take on maintaining 
average productivity of 1.5 chicks fledged per pair for the entire 
state, individual Management Units and individual sites. The 
conservation plan encompasses a sufficiently large geographic area that 
should some sites experience adverse effects from environmental or 
demographic stochasticity, unsuccessful management, or larger 
incidental take than predicted, those set-backs may be balanced by more 
favorable conditions or results of management elsewhere in the planning 
unit. Finally, the proposed permit duration of 2 years will allow for a 
relatively rapid evaluation of the conservation plan in light of 
management results and changes in the overall status of the 
Massachusetts and New England plover populations that may occur in 1996 
and 1997.
    Alternatives presented by the Division in the conservation plan are 
limited to the proposed action and the no-action alternative 
(continuation of current management recommendations without increased 
flexibility for limited take). In the draft EA, the Service considers 
four additional alternatives limitation of authorized take to 
pedestrian activities, limitation of authorized take to motorized 
activities, issuance of the permit for a duration of one year, and 
issuance of the permit for a duration of five years.

(Notice: Availability of a draft environmental assessment and 
receipt of an application for an incidental take permit of the 
Atlantic Coast piping plover in Massachusetts)

    Dated: February 2, 1996.
Cathy Short,
Acting Regional Director, Region 5.
[FR Doc. 96-3145 Filed 2-12-96; 8:45 am]
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