[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 210 (Friday, October 30, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66931-66932]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-27730]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

U.S. Geological Survey

[GX16BD009AV0100]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Request for Comments

AGENCY: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Interior.

ACTION: Notice of a new information collection: Assessment of Effects 
of Climate on Waterfowl.

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SUMMARY: We (the U.S. Geological Survey) will ask the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) to approve the information collection (IC) 
described below. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 
1995, and as part of our continuing efforts to reduce paperwork and 
respondent burden, we invite the general public and other Federal 
agencies to take this opportunity to comment on this IC.

DATES: To ensure that your comments are considered, we must receive 
them on or before December 29, 2015.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this information collection to 
the Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Geological Survey, 
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive MS 807, Reston, VA 20192 (mail); (703) 648-
7197 (fax); or [email protected] (email). Please reference 
`Information Collection 1028--Assessment of Effects of Climate on 
Waterfowl' in all correspondence.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brad Griffith, Leader, USGS, Alaska 
Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at (907) 474-5067 or 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract

    The USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center 
coordinates the research activities of 8 Regional Climate Science 
Centers. To increase efficiency of investigations, the relevance of 
research topics and the effectiveness of research it is critical to 
identify the types of information that are most critical for the 
development of a focused and integrated multi-regional research 
program. This is particularly true for wildlife species that migrate 
(e.g., waterfowl) among regions in which the direction and strength of 
climate effects on wildlife populations and their habitats are expected 
to be quite variable. This collection seeks to identify (1) the most 
important habitat and harvest factors that affect waterfowl population 
size on breeding, migratory and winter ranges, (2) the demographic 
traits (fecundity or survival) that are affected by these factors, (3) 
the likely direction and magnitude of climate effects on the most 
important waterfowl habitat and harvest factors that affect waterfowl 
population size and (4) the highest priority research needs on 
breeding, migratory and wintering ranges. We are collecting this 
information with a questionnaire survey of a sample of professional 
waterfowl researchers and managers because scientific papers that 
present this information are not available. The information we collect 
will identify the most important research topics within and among 
Regional Climate Science Centers in regard to climate effects on 
migratory waterfowl. We will (1) summarize the results, (2) present 
them at a workshop at a national scientific meeting, (3) use this 
presentation to facilitate further discussion among professional 
waterfowl researchers and managers who attend the workshop regarding 
research priorities and (4) publish the results of the survey and the 
workshop discussion in a refereed scientific publication. The only 
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that we will collect will be 
the name and employer (State, Federal or Non-governmental Organization 
research or management) of the respondents to the survey. We will use 
these names to keep track of which questionnaire recipients have 
responded and to summarize the proportional composition of the types of 
employment of respondents. We will mail paper forms to all respondents 
and give them the option of filling out a web form if they prefer. We 
will not associate the names of recipients with summarized responses. 
All paper form responses received will be kept in a locked cabinet and 
web form responses will be encrypted. After publication of the 
summarized results we will remove the name of respondents from both the 
paper forms and web forms.

II. Data

    OMB Control Number: 1028--NEW.
    Title: Assessment of Effects of Climate on Waterfowl.
    Type of Request: New information collection.
    Affected Public: Professional waterfowl researchers and managers 
that are employed by State or Federal government agencies or Non-
governmental Organizations (NGO) such as the Migratory Bird Joint 
Ventures.
    Respondent's Obligation: None, participation is voluntary.
    Frequency of Collection: One time.
    Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 100; Public NGO 20, State 
and Local Govt. 20, Federal Govt. 60.
    Estimated Total Number of Annual Responses: 100.
    Estimated Time per Response: 60 minutes.
    Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 100.
    Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping ``Non-Hour Cost'' Burden: 
None.
    Public Disclosure Statement: The PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501, et seq.) 
provides that an agency may not conduct or sponsor and you are not 
required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid OMB control number and current expiration date.

III. Request for Comments

    We are soliciting comments as to: (a) Whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for the agency to perform its 
duties, including whether the information is useful; (b) the accuracy 
of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of 
information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, usefulness, and clarity 
of the information to be collected; and (d) how to minimize the burden 
on the respondents, including the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.
    Please note that the comments submitted in response to this notice 
are a matter of public record. Before including your personal mailing 
address, phone number, email address, or other personally identifiable 
information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire 
comment, including your personally identifiable information, may be 
made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your 
comment to withhold your personally identifiable information from 
public view, we

[[Page 66932]]

cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

John Thompson,
Deputy Chief, U.S. Geological Survey, Cooperative Research Units.
[FR Doc. 2015-27730 Filed 10-29-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4338-11-P