[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 171 (Thursday, September 4, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52741-52743]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-21026]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS-R1-ES-2014-N082; FXES11130100000-145-FF01E00000]


Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Revised Draft 
Recovery Plan for the Coterminous United States Population of Bull 
Trout (Salvelinus confluentus)

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 (Service), announce the

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availability of the Revised Draft Recovery Plan for the Coterminous 
United States Population of Bull Trout under the Endangered Species Act 
of 1973, as amended (Act). The revised draft recovery plan includes 
specific goals, objectives, and criteria that should be met to remove 
the species from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife 
and Plants. We request review and comment on this revised draft 
recovery plan from Federal, State and local agencies, Native American 
Tribes, and the public.

DATES: In order to be considered, comments on the revised draft 
recovery plan must be received on or before December 3, 2014.

ADDRESSES: An electronic copy of the recovery plan is available at 
http://www.fws.gov/endangered/species/recovery-plans.html and http://www.fws.gov/pacific/ecoservices/endangered/recovery/plans.html. Copies 
of the recovery plan are also available by request from the U.S. Fish 
and Wildlife Service, Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office, 1387 S. Vinnell 
Way, Room 368, Boise, ID 83709; telephone (208) 378-5345. Printed 
copies of the recovery plan will be available for distribution within 4 
to 6 weeks after publication of this notice.
    If you want to comment, you may submit written comments by one of 
the following methods:
    (1) You may submit written comments and materials to Bull Trout 
Recovery, Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office, at the above Boise address.
    (2) You may hand-deliver written comments to our Idaho Fish and 
Wildlife Office, at the above Boise address, or fax them to (208) 378-
5262.
    (3) You may send comments by email to 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Carrier, State Supervisor, 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office, at the 
above Boise address; telephone (208) 378-5243. If you use a 
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), call the Federal 
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    In November 1999, all populations of bull trout within the 
coterminous United States were listed as a threatened species pursuant 
to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 
seq.; Act) (64 FR 58910; November 1, 1999). This final listing added 
bull trout in the Coastal-Puget Sound populations (Olympic Peninsula 
and Puget Sound regions) and Saint Mary-Belly River populations (east 
of the Continental divide in Montana) to the previous listing of three 
distinct population segments of bull trout in the Columbia River, 
Klamath River, and Jarbidge River basins (63 FR 31647, June 10, 1998; 
64 FR 17110, April 8, 1999).
    Recovery of endangered and threatened animals and plants is a 
primary goal of our endangered species program. To help guide the 
recovery effort, we prepare recovery plans for most listed species. 
Recovery plans describe actions considered necessary for conservation 
of the species, establish criteria for downlisting or delisting, and 
estimate time and cost for implementing recovery measures.
    For the coterminous population of bull trout, three separate draft 
bull trout recovery plans were completed in 2002 and 2004. The 2002 
draft recovery plan (USFWS 2002) addressed bull trout populations 
within the Columbia, St. Mary-Belly, and Klamath River basins and 
included individual chapters for 24 separate recovery units. In 2004, 
draft recovery plans were developed for the Coastal-Puget Sound 
drainages in western Washington, including two recovery unit chapters 
(USFWS 2004a), and for the Jarbidge River in Nevada (USFWS 2004b). None 
of these draft recovery plans were finalized, but they have served to 
identify recovery actions across the range of the species, and provide 
the framework for implementing numerous recovery actions by our partner 
agencies, local working groups, and others with an interest in bull 
trout conservation.
    Our most recent 5-year status review for bull trout was completed 
on April 8, 2008, and concluded that listing the species as 
``threatened'' remained warranted rangewide in the coterminous United 
States. Based on this status review, in our 2010 recovery report to 
Congress we reported that bull trout were generally ``stable'' overall 
rangewide (species status neither improved nor declined during the 
reporting year), with some core area populations decreasing, some 
stable, and some increasing. Since the listing of bull trout, there has 
been very little change in the general distribution of bull trout in 
the conterminous United States, and we are not aware that any known, 
occupied bull trout core areas have been extirpated. Additionally, 
since the listing of bull trout, numerous conservation measures have 
been and continue to be implemented across its coterminous range. These 
measures are being undertaken by a wide variety of local and regional 
partnerships, including State fish and game agencies, State and Federal 
land management and water resource agencies, Tribal governments, power 
companies, watershed working groups, water users, ranchers, and 
landowners.

Recovery Plan Components

    The primary recovery strategy for bull trout in the coterminous 
United States that we propose in the draft recovery plan is to: (1) 
Conserve bull trout so that they are geographically widespread across 
representative habitats and demographically stable in six Recovery 
Units; (2) effectively manage and ameliorate the primary threats in 
each of six recovery units at the core area scale such that bull trout 
are not likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future; (3) 
build upon the numerous and ongoing conservation actions implemented on 
behalf of bull trout since their listing in 1999, and improve our 
understanding of how various threat factors potentially affect the 
species; (4) use that information to work cooperatively with our 
partners to design, fund, prioritize, and implement effective 
conservation actions in those areas that offer the greatest long-term 
benefit to sustain bull trout and where recovery can be achieved; and 
(5) apply adaptive management principles to implementing the bull trout 
recovery program to account for new information.
    Bull trout population status remains strong in some core areas. 
However, in developing this revised draft recovery plan, we also 
acknowledge that despite our best conservation efforts, it is likely 
that some existing bull trout core areas will become extirpated due to 
various factors, including the effects of small populations and 
isolation (35 of 110 extant core areas comprise a single local 
population). Our current approach to developing recovery criteria and 
necessary recovery actions for bull trout is intended to ensure 
adequate conservation of genetic diversity, life-history features, and 
broad geographical representation of bull trout populations while 
acknowledging some local extirpations are likely to occur.
    We may initiate an assessment of whether recovery has been achieved 
and delisting is warranted when the recovery criteria below have been 
met in each recovery unit. Alternatively, if recovery criteria are met 
in an individual recovery unit, we may initiate an assessment of 
whether to designate that recovery unit as a distinct population 
segment and if delisting of that distinct population segment would be 
warranted.
    For the Coastal, Mid-Columbia, Upper Snake and Columbia Headwaters 
Recovery Units, the draft plan provides that primary threats must be 
effectively

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managed in at least 75 percent of all core areas, representing 75 
percent or more of bull trout local populations within each of these 
four recovery units. For the Klamath and St. Mary Recovery Units, the 
draft plan provides that all primary threats must be effectively 
managed in all existing core areas, representing all existing local 
populations. In addition, because 9 of the 17 known local populations 
in the Klamath Recovery Unit have been extirpated and others are 
significantly imperiled and require active management, we believe that 
the geographic distribution of bull trout within this recovery unit 
needs to be substantially expanded before it can be considered to have 
met recovery goals. To achieve recovery, we seek to add seven 
additional local populations distributed among the three core areas 
(two in the Upper Klamath Lake core area, three in the Sycan core area, 
and two in the Upper Sprague core area). In recovery units where shared 
foraging/migratory/overwintering (FMO) habitat outside core areas has 
been identified, connectivity and habitat in these shared FMO areas 
should be maintained in a condition sufficient for regular bull trout 
use and successful dispersal among the connecting core areas for those 
core areas to meet the criterion.
    If threats are effectively managed at these thresholds, we expect 
that bull trout populations will respond accordingly and reflect the 
biodiversity principles of resiliency, redundancy, and representation. 
Specifically, achieving the proposed recovery criteria in each recovery 
unit would result in geographically widespread and demographically 
stable local bull trout populations within the range of natural 
variation, with their essential cold water habitats connected to allow 
their diverse life history forms to persist into the foreseeable 
future; therefore, the species would be brought to the point where the 
protections of the Act are no longer necessary.
    We anticipate that the final bull trout recovery plan will describe 
the principal actions needed to advance the recovery of bull trout in 
the six recovery units within the coterminous United States; and will 
include individual Recovery Unit Implementation Plans (RUIPs) for each 
recovery unit that will provide site-specific detail at the core area 
scale. The RUIPs for each recovery unit will be developed through an 
interagency collaboration of interested and knowledgeable Federal, 
Tribal, State, private, and other parties prior to completion of the 
final recovery plan. In many parts of the range of bull trout, local 
interagency bull trout working groups have previously identified 
recovery actions necessary for local bull trout core area conservation, 
and are already implementing conservation actions. Therefore, we 
anticipate that in many areas, developing a RUIP will build upon 
existing efforts and information. RUIPs incorporated in the final 
recovery plan will also include implementation schedule that outline 
core area specific recovery actions and estimated costs for bull trout 
recovery.
    To allow public review and comment on the draft RUIPs for each 
recovery unit, including the draft Implementation Schedule and total 
estimated recovery costs, we will publish in the Federal Register a 
notice of their availability for review at least 90 days prior to 
completing the final bull trout recovery plan.

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 (59 FR 34270; July 1, 1994). In an appendix to the approved final 
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 implementing recovery actions.
    We request written comments on the revised draft recovery plan. We 
will consider all comments we receive by the date specified in DATES 
prior to final approval of the plan.

Public Availability of Comments

    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 us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying 
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be 
able to do so.

Authority

    The authority for this action is section 4(f) of the Endangered 
Species Act of 1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).

    Dated: July 23, 2014.
Robyn Thorson,
Regional Director, Pacific Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 2014-21026 Filed 9-3-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P