[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 63 (Thursday, April 2, 1998)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 16218-16220]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-8611]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

50 CFR Part 17


Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants: New 12-month 
Finding for a Petition to List the Utah Wasatch Front and West Desert 
Populations of Spotted Frog

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of new 12-month petition finding.

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SUMMARY: The Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announces a new 12-
month finding for a petition to list the Wasatch Front population 
(Utah) and West Desert population (Utah) of the spotted frog (Rana 
luteiventris) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. 
After review of all available scientific and commercial information, 
the Service finds that listing these two distinct vertebrate 
populations of spotted frog is not warranted at this time. This finding 
supersedes the previous 12-month petition finding that found the 
listing of these two populations to be warranted but precluded by 
higher priority listing actions. Prior and subsequent to publication of 
the warranted but precluded finding, the State of Utah and other 
cooperating agencies began implementing significant recovery actions to 
reduce or remove species' threats. More recently the State of Utah and 
other agencies developed the Spotted Frog Conservation Agreement to 
ensure that additional conservation measures and recovery actions 
needed for the frog's continued existence and recovery are initiated 
and carried out. The Service finds that a mechanism has been put in 
place that sufficiently protects the Wasatch Front and West Desert 
populations of spotted frog and that ongoing actions, including those 
identified in the Conservation Agreement, have substantially reduced 
threats to the spotted frog populations in Utah such that they will not 
become endangered within the foreseeable future and, therefore, do not 
warrant listing pursuant to the Act at this time.

DATES: The finding announced in this document was made on March 27, 
1998.

ADDRESSES: Data, information, comments, or questions concerning this 
notice should be sent to the Field Supervisor, Utah Field Office, 
Ecological Services, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 145 East 1300 
South, Suite 404, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115. The complete 
administrative file for this finding is available for inspection, by 
appointment, during normal business hours at the above address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Janet A. Mizzi, Fish and Wildlife 
Biologist, Utah Field Office (see ADDRESSES above), telephone (801) 
524-5001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 4(b)(3)(B) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as 
amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), requires that the Service make a 
finding on whether a petition to list, delist or reclassify a species 
presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating 
that the petitioned action is: (a) Not warranted; (b) warranted; or (c) 
warranted but precluded from immediate proposal by other pending 
listing proposals of higher priority.
    On May 1, 1989, the Service received a petition from the Board of 
Directors of the Utah Nature Study Society requesting the Service add 
the spotted frog (then referred to as Rana pretiosa) to the List of 
Threatened and Endangered Species and to specifically consider the 
status of the Wasatch, Utah, population. The Service subsequently 
published a notice of a 90-day finding in the Federal Register (54 FR 
42529) on October 17, 1989, and a notice of the 12-month petition 
finding in the Federal Register (58 FR 27260) on May 7, 1993. In the 
12-month petition finding the Service found that listing of the spotted 
frog as threatened in some portions of its range was warranted but 
precluded by other higher priority listing actions. The Service found, 
based on geographic and climatic separation and supported by genetic 
separation, five distinct vertebrate populations of spotted frog. 
Listing of both the populations occurring in Utah, the Wasatch Front 
and West Desert populations, was found to be warranted but precluded 
and both populations were designated as candidates for listing. The 
Wasatch Front population was assigned a listing priority number of 3 
because the magnitude of the threats were high and imminent, while the 
West Desert population was assigned a listing priority of 9 because of 
moderate to low threats.
    The spotted frog belongs to the family of true frogs, the Ranidae. 
Adult frogs have large, dark spots on their backs and pigmentation on 
their abdomens ranging from yellow to red (Turner 1957). Spotted frogs 
along the Wasatch Front generally possess a salmon color ventrally, 
while West Desert and Sanpete County, Utah, populations

[[Page 16219]]

generally have a yellow to yellow-orange color ventrally. Spotted frogs 
in Utah are reported to have fewer and lighter colored spots (Colburn, 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, pers. comm. 1992) than other 
populations. The spotted frog is closely associated with water (Dumas 
1966, Nussbaum et al. 1983). Habitat includes the marshy edges of 
ponds, lakes, slow-moving cool water streams and springs (Licht 1974; 
Nussbaum et al. 1983; Morris and Tanner 1969; Hovingh 1987). The 
present distribution of the spotted frog includes a main population in 
southeast Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, eastern Washington, 
northeastern Oregon, northern and central Idaho, and western Montana 
and Wyoming. Additional disjunct populations occur in northeastern 
California, southern Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and western Washington and 
Oregon.
    The Services' warranted but precluded finding identified that 
habitat loss and modification from reservoir construction and from 
urban and agricultural developments was a primary cause of the decline 
in the Wasatch Front population (Dennis Shirley, pers. comm. 1992). The 
petition finding further identified that, while less habitat loss has 
occurred with the West Desert population of Utah than with the other 
southern and western populations, habitat availability is limited. 
Degradation of spring habitats and water quality from cattle grazing 
and other agricultural activities in these limited habitats were 
identified as potential threats to the spotted frog of the West Desert 
population (Hovingh 1987; Peter Hovingh, pers. comm. 1992; Dennis 
Shirley, pers. comm. 1992).
    On November 28, 1997, the Service announced the availability of a 
Draft Conservation Agreement for the Wasatch Front and West Desert 
populations (Utah) of spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) for review and 
comment (62 FR 63375). The Service received a request to extend the 
comment period, and on December 24, 1997, announced that the comment 
period on the Draft Conservation Agreement had been extended until 
January 16, 1998 (62 FR 67398). The Service subsequently signed the 
Conservation Agreement on February 13, 1998.
    The goal of this agreement developed by the Utah Department of 
Natural Resources in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, 
Bureau of Reclamation, Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation 
Commission, Central Utah Water Conservancy District, the Confederated 
Tribes of the Goshute Federation, and the Service, is to ensure the 
long-term conservation of spotted frog within its historical range in 
Utah. Two objectives have been identified as necessary to attain the 
goal of the Agreement. These are: (1) to eliminate or significantly 
reduce threats to the spotted frog and its habitat to the extent 
necessary to prevent the danger that populations will become extinct 
throughout all or a part of their range in Utah, or the likelihood that 
these populations will become endangered within the foreseeable future 
throughout all or a part of their range in Utah; and (2) to restore and 
maintain a sufficient number of populations of spotted frog and the 
habitat to support these populations throughout its historical range in 
Utah to ensure the continued existence of the species. The Conservation 
Agreement puts in place a mechanism for the recovery of spotted frog by 
establishing a framework for interagency cooperation and coordination 
of conservation efforts and setting recovery priorities.
    In addition to the Conservation Agreement, the Utah Department of 
Natural Resources has provided the Service with a letter outlining 
specific actions and approximate time lines for implementation and/or 
completion of conservation actions that will occur in the next 18 
months. These actions include: (1) Habitat acquisition (990 acres total 
to benefit spotted frog in the Wasatch Front population); (2) habitat 
enhancement in the West Desert and Wasatch Front, including protective 
fencing, springhead re-openings, reseeding of native plants; and (3) 
range expansion, including reestablishment of spotted frog populations 
within historic habitat in the Wasatch Front and surveys to assess the 
distribution of spotted frog in the Bear River drainage. The Bureau of 
Reclamation has provided the Service with a letter outlining their 
funding commitment for fiscal year 1998 for use on a spotted frog 
translocation project in the Wasatch Front. The Bureau will also 
continue to monitor and maintain ponds adjacent to the Jordanelle 
wetland for the spotted frog.
    Actions taken to date to alleviate the threat of habitat loss to 
the species have focused on both habitat enhancement and maintenance as 
well as habitat protection. Since the Service's 1993 warranted but 
precluded finding numerous habitat enhancement, maintenance and 
protection activities have occurred. In the West Desert these include: 
(1) Construction of a cattle exclosure on part of the Gandy Salt Marsh 
Complex to protect occupied springs; and (2) communications with a 
private landowner to install cattle exclosures at two additional spring 
sites. In Wasatch Front these include: (1) Acquisition of 126.1 acres 
of riverine/riparian habitat by Utah Reclamation Mitigation and 
Conservation Commission along the Provo River between Jordanelle Dam 
and Deer Creek Reservoir as part of the environmental mitigation of the 
Central Utah Project; (2) acquisition by the Utah Reclamation 
Mitigation and Conservation Commission of an additional 184 acres of 
river corridor is currently in progress as part of the environmental 
mitigation for the Central Utah Project; (3) acquisition of another 681 
acres of riparian corridor is being pursued by the Utah Reclamation 
Mitigation and Conservation Commission between Jordanelle Dam and Deer 
Creek Reservoir; (4) minimum flows of 50 cubic feet per second were 
maintained in the Provo River between Jordanelle Dam and Deer Creek 
Reservoir from 1993 through July 1996 in an interim agreement; (5) a 
minimum of 125 cfs has been maintained in the Provo River between 
Jordanelle Dam and Deer Creek Reservoir since 1996; (6) a draft 
cooperative agreement has been developed for the acquisition of 
approximately 125 acres of spotted frog occupied wetland habitat to 
protect the Mona population; and (7) year-long water has been provided 
to the Jordanelle mitigation ponds to provide habitat for over-
wintering spotted frogs. Numerous additional activities and studies are 
ongoing and/or are planned pursuant to the Conservation Agreement.
    The Service believes that the status of the species in Utah has 
improved. A mechanism has been put in place that sufficiently protects 
the Wasatch Front and West Desert populations of spotted frog. 
Completed and ongoing actions, including those identified in the 
Conservation Agreement, have substantially reduced threats to the 
spotted frog populations in Utah through control of nonnative species, 
increased regulatory control, and habitat acquisition, such that the 
species will not become endangered within the foreseeable future. 
Furthermore, the Service believes that completed and ongoing 
conservation actions have resulted in increased habitat enhancement and 
maintenance, and an increase in the known occupied range, distribution 
and population size of the species, in both the West Desert and Wasatch 
Front populations.
    The regulatory and management agencies with oversight for the 
conservation of spotted frog in Utah have worked closely to conserve 
the species and obtain the goals and objectives outlined in the 
Conservation

[[Page 16220]]

Agreement. The objectives for the West Desert population (one 
population with an effective population size of 1000 individuals in 
three out of every five years in each of three subunits, with any and 
all additional populations maintained with an effective population size 
of 50 individuals each) are close to being met. In 1997, only one 
population in the West Desert had an effective population size of less 
than 50 individuals. Three to five years of monitoring will be required 
to determine if the objectives have been met. The objectives for the 
Wasatch Front population are more complex involving three separate 
management units. However, conservation activities have been completed 
in each of these management units that has resulted in improved status 
for the Wasatch Front population, particularly in the Heber Valley 
population, the largest along the Wasatch Front. Continued 
implementation of the Conservation Agreement will be monitored closely 
to ensure improvement in the status of the Wasatch Front population.
    The Service has considered the current status of the Wasatch Front 
and West Desert populations, including evaluating the five listing 
factors identified in the Act, and has taken into account those efforts 
being made to protect the species including development of the 
Conservation Agreement, the extent of implementation of the 
Conservation Agreement to date, Federal efforts to protect and conserve 
the species, and the time commitments made by the principal action 
agencies for completion of conservation actions. The Service believes 
that a mechanism has been put in place that sufficiently protects the 
Wasatch Front and West Desert populations of spotted frog and that 
ongoing actions, including those identified in the Conservation 
Agreement, have substantially reduced threats to the spotted frog 
populations in Utah such that they will not become endangered within 
the foreseeable future and, therefore, no longer warrant listing 
pursuant to the Act. Furthermore, because the definition of a candidate 
species, one for which the Service has on file sufficient information 
on biological vulnerability and threats to support issuance of a 
proposed rule, no longer applies to the West Desert and Wasatch Front 
populations of spotted frog, the Service removes these two populations 
from the candidate species list.

Endangered Species Act Oversight

    The Service will continue to monitor these populations of spotted 
frog throughout the term of the Conservation Agreement and will 
maintain oversight. Should the Service deem necessary, an emergency 
listing of the Wasatch Front and/or West Desert population of spotted 
frog would not be precluded by the sixty (60) day written notice 
required to withdraw from the Conservation Agreement. The process for 
listing the Wasatch Front and/or West Desert populations of spotted 
frog will be reinitiated if:
    1. An emergency which poses a significant threat to the spotted 
frog is identified and not immediately and adequately addressed;
    2. The biological status of the spotted frog is such that it is in 
danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its 
range; or
    3. The biological status of the spotted frog is such that it is 
likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future throughout all or 
a significant portion of its range.

References Cited

    A complete list of all references cited is available upon request 
from the Utah Field Office (see ADDRESSES above).

Authors

    The primary author of this document is Janet A. Mizzi (see 
ADDRESSES above).

Authority

    The authority for this action is the Endangered Species Act (16 
U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).

    Dated: March 27, 1998.
Jamie Rappaport Clark,
Director, Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 98-8611 Filed 3-31-98; 9:04 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P