[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 106 (Thursday, June 2, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31973-31975]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-13637]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS-R1-ES-2011-N009; 10120-1112-0000-XX]
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Notice of
Availability of Draft Recovery Plan for Phyllostegia hispida; Addendum
to the Molokai Plant Cluster Recovery Plan
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of document availability for review and public comment.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announce the
availability of our draft recovery plan
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for Phyllostegia hispida under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as
amended (Act). This draft plan is an addendum to the recovery plan for
the Molokai Plant Cluster published in September of 1996. This plant
species is endemic to the island of Molokai, Hawaii. We request review
and comment on our plan from local, State, and Federal agencies and the
public. We will also accept any new information on the species' status
throughout its range.
DATES: We must receive written comments on or before August 1, 2011.
However, we will accept information about any species at any time.
ADDRESSES: An electronic copy of the draft recovery plan is available
at our Web site at http://endangered.fws.gov/recovery/index.html#plans.
Alternatively, copies of the recovery plan are available from the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office,
300 Ala Moana Boulevard, Room 3-122, Box 50088, Honolulu, HI 96850
(phone: 808-792-9400). If you wish to comment on the plan, you may
submit your comments in writing by any one of the following methods:
U.S. mail: Field Supervisor, at the above address;
Hand-delivery: Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office at
the above address; or
Fax: (808)-792-9580
For additional information about submitting comments, see the
``Request for Public Comments'' section below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeff Newman, Deputy Field Supervisor,
at the above Honolulu address.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Recovery of endangered or threatened animals and plants to the
point where they are again secure, self-sustaining members of their
ecosystems is a primary goal of our endangered species program and the
Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). Recovery means improvement of the status
of listed species to the point at which listing is no longer
appropriate under the criteria set out in section 4(a)(1) of the Act.
The Act requires the development of recovery plans for listed species,
unless such a plan would not promote the conservation of a particular
species.
Species History
We listed Phyllostegia hispida as an endangered species without
critical habitat under the Act on March 17, 2009 (74 FR 11319).
Phyllostegia hispida is found only on the island of Molokai.
Currently there are 20 wild, mature plants and an unknown number of
seedlings nearby, and fewer than 300 outplanted individuals. In
addition, there are four small naturally occurring populations--
containing one to six seedlings each--that are not located next to
mature, parent plants. No known population is entirely protected from
the numerous factors threatening the species' recovery, and the species
is endangered throughout its range. P. hispida is typically found in
wet Metrosideros polymorpha (ohia)--dominated forest, occurring between
1,112 and 1,280 meters (3,650 and 4,200 feet) elevation.
The greatest threats to all known populations are habitat
degradation and predation by feral pigs (Sus scrofa); competition with
invasive introduced plants; and the negative demographic and genetic
consequences of extremely small population size, as well as the
consequent vulnerability to extinction through deterministic or
stochastic (chance) events. Unidentified caterpillar species may also
be a threat to this species.
Recovery Plan Goals
The objective of a recovery plan is to provide a framework for the
recovery of a species so that protection under the Act is no longer
necessary. A recovery plan includes scientific information about the
species and provides criteria and actions necessary for us to be able
to downlist or delist the species. Recovery plans help guide our
recovery efforts by describing actions we consider necessary for the
species' conservation, and by estimating time and costs for
implementing needed recovery measures.
Needed conservation and recovery activities for Phyllostigia
hispida include protection, management, and increasing the size of all
known wild populations. Continuing survey efforts will focus on
identifying any additional populations that may exist but are currently
unknown. In order to reduce the potential for extinction due to the
catastrophic loss of the small population on a single island, recovery
actions will likely require increasing the area occupied by the
existing population where space and habitat allow, as well as
establishing new populations within the estimated historical range of
the species. Threats such as habitat degradation and predation by feral
pigs and competition with invasive introduced plants must be
sufficiently controlled to allow for this population expansion. The
effective management and reintroduction of P. hispida will require
gaining further knowledge about the life history of the species and the
functioning of the ecosystem on which it depends. Therefore, research
and monitoring are key components of the recovery strategy. The habitat
must be managed for the long-term recovery of P. hispida in
sufficiently large and self-sustaining populations.
The overall objective of this draft addendum to the Molokai
recovery plan is to ensure Phyllostegia hispida's long-term
conservation and to conduct research necessary to refine recovery
criteria so that the species can be downlisted and eventually delisted.
Current recovery criteria include: (1) A total of at least 8
populations should be documented on Molokai. Each of these populations
must be naturally reproducing, and stable or increasing in number, and
threats must be managed so that a minimum of 300 mature individuals are
maintained per population. Each population should persist at this level
for a minimum of 5 consecutive years. (2) Management plans for each
site will be evaluated on a regular basis, and updated to include
monitoring to detect demographic or new environmental threats to P.
hispida. (3) All of the populations that meet criterion 1 above shall
be fenced and protected from ungulates, with agreements from
conservation partners to maintain those protections in perpetuity. The
agreements will also include provisions for invasive introduced plant
removal, as appropriate, and adaptive management plans to address
herbivory and habitat degradation by feral pigs and caterpillars and
other unforeseeable threats. In addition, the agreements will include
provisions for maximizing native plant biodiversity in these areas.
As the species meets reclassification and recovery criteria, we
will review the species' status and consider the species for
reclassification or removal from the Federal List of Endangered and
Threatened Wildlife and Plants.
Request for Public Comments
Section 4(f) of the Act requires us to provide public notice and an
opportunity for public review and comment during recovery plan
development. It is also our policy to request peer review of recovery
plans (July 1, 1994; 59 FR 34270). In an appendix to the approved
recovery plan, we will summarize and respond to the issues raised by
the public and peer reviewers. Substantive comments may or may not
result in changes to the recovery plan; comments regarding recovery
plan implementation will be forwarded as appropriate to Federal or
other entities so that they can be taken into account during the course
of
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implementing recovery actions. Responses to individual commenters will
not be provided, but we will provide a summary of how we addressed
substantive comments in an appendix to the approved recovery plan.
Before we approve the plan, we will consider all comments we
receive by the date specified in DATES. Methods of submitting comments
are in ADDRESSES.
Public Availability of Comments
Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be
aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be
able to do so.
Comments and materials we receive will be available, by
appointment, for public inspection during normal business hours at our
office (see ADDRESSES).
Authority: We developed our draft recovery plan under the
authority of section 4(f) of the Act, 16 U.S.C. 1533(f). We publish
this notice under section 4(f) of the Endangered Species Act of
1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).
Dated: January 28, 2011.
Theresa E. Rabot,
Acting Regional Director, Pacific Region.
[FR Doc. 2011-13637 Filed 6-1-11; 8:45 am]
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