[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 207 (Thursday, October 25, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65203-65204]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-26261]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS-R9-ES-2012-N245; FXES111309WLLF0D2-123-FF09E30000]


Information Collection Request Sent to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for Approval; Wolf-Livestock Demonstration Project 
Grant Program

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: We (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) have sent an Information 
Collection Request (ICR) to OMB for review and approval. We summarize 
the ICR below and describe the nature of the collection and the 
estimated burden and cost. We may not conduct or sponsor and a person 
is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it 
displays a currently valid OMB control number.

DATES: You must submit comments on or before November 26, 2012.

ADDRESSES: Send your comments and suggestions on this information 
collection to the Desk Officer for the Department of the Interior at 
OMB-OIRA at (202) 395-5806 (fax) or [email protected] 
(email). Please provide a copy of your comments to the Service 
Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service, MS 2042-PDM, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203 
(mail), or [email protected] (email). Please include ``1018-WLDPGP'' in 
the subject line of your comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request additional information 
about this ICR, contact Hope Grey at [email protected] (email) or 703-
358-2482 (telephone). You may review the ICR online at http://www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to review Department of the 
Interior collections under review by OMB.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    OMB Control Number: 1018-XXXX. This is a new collection.
    Title: Wolf-Livestock Demonstration Project Grant Program.
    Service Form Number: None.
    Type of Request: Request for a new OMB control number.
    Description of Respondents: States and Indian tribes.
    Number of Respondents: 22.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain a benefit.
    Frequency of Collection: On occasion.

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                                                                                    Completion
                            Activity                                 Number of       time per      Total annual
                                                                     responses       response      burden hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Applications....................................................              22         8 hours             176
Reports and Recordkeeping.......................................              20        14 hours             280
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Totals......................................................              42  ..............             456
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    Abstract: Subtitle C of Title VI of the Omnibus Public Land 
Management Act of 2009 (Act) (Pub. L. 111-11) authorizes the Secretary 
of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to develop a Wolf-
Livestock Demonstration Project Grant Program (WLDPGP) to:
     Assist livestock producers in undertaking proactive, 
nonlethal activities to reduce the risk of livestock loss due to 
predation by wolves; and
     Compensate livestock producers for livestock losses due to 
such predation.
    The Act directs that the program be established as a grant program 
to provide funding to States and tribes, that the Federal cost-share 
not exceed 50 percent, and that funds be expended equally between the 
two purposes. The Act included an authorization of appropriations up to 
$1 million each fiscal year for 5 years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service Endangered Species Program will allocate the funding as 
competitively awarded grants to States and tribes with a prior history 
of wolf depredation. States with delisted wolf populations are eligible 
for funding, provided that they meet the eligibility criteria contained 
in Public Law 111-11.
    The following additional criteria apply to all WLDPGP grants and 
must be satisfied for a project to receive WLDPGP funding:
     A proposal cannot include U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
full-time equivalent (FTE) costs.
     A proposal cannot seek funding for projects that serve to 
satisfy regulatory requirements of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) 
including complying with a biological opinion under section 7 or 
fulfilling commitments of a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) under 
section 10, or for projects that serve to satisfy other Federal 
regulatory requirements (e.g., mitigation for Federal permits).
     State administrative costs must be assumed by the State or 
included in the proposal in accordance with Federal requirements.
    We will publish notices of funding availability on the Grants.gov 
Web site at http://www.grants.gov as well as in the Catalog of Federal 
Domestic Assistance at http://cfda.gov. To compete for grant funds, 
eligible States and tribes must submit an application that describes in 
substantial detail project locations, project resources, future 
benefits, and other characteristics that meet the Wolf-Livestock 
Demonstration Project Grant Program purposes as listed above. In 
accordance with the Act, States and tribes that receive a grant must:
     Maintain files of all claims received under programs 
funded by the grant, including supporting documentation; and
     Submit an annual report that includes a summary of claims 
and expenditures under the program during the year and a description of 
any action taken on the claims.

Materials that describe the program and assist applicants in 
formulating project proposals will be available on our Web site at 
www.fws.gov/grants. Persons who do not have access to the Internet may 
obtain instructional materials by mail.
    Comments: On April 2, 2012, we published in the Federal Register 
(77 FR 19682) a notice of our intent to request that OMB approve this 
information collection. In that notice, we solicited comments for 60 
days, ending on June 1, 2012. We received one comment in response to 
that notice. The commenter objected to this grant program, but did not 
address the information collection requirements. We did not make any 
changes to the requirements.

[[Page 65204]]

    We again invite comments concerning this information collection on:
     Whether or not the collection of information is necessary, 
including whether or not the information will have practical utility;
     The accuracy of our estimate of the burden for this 
collection of information;
     Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
     Ways to minimize the burden of the collection of 
information on respondents.
    Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of 
public record. Before including your address, phone number, email 
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 OMB in your comment to withhold your personal 
identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that it 
will be done.

    Dated: October 18, 2012.
Tina A. Campbell,
Chief, Division of Policy and Directives Management, U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 2012-26261 Filed 10-24-12; 8:45 am]
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