[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 34 (Monday, February 22, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8739-8742]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-03559]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS-R1-ES-2016-N013; FXES11120100000-167-FF01E00000]


Proposed Weyerhaeuser Company Safe Harbor Agreement for the 
Northern Spotted Owl and Draft Environmental Assessment

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have 
received an application from Weyerhaeuser Company for an Endangered 
Species Act (ESA) Enhancement of Survival Permit (Permit) for the 
federally threatened northern spotted owl. The Permit application 
includes a draft safe harbor agreement (SHA) addressing access to 
Weyerhaeuser Company lands for the survey and removal of barred owls as 
part of the Service's Barred Owl Removal Experiment (Experiment) in 
Lane County, Oregon. The Service also announces the availability of a 
draft environmental assessment (EA) that has been prepared in response 
to the Permit application in accordance with requirements of the 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We are making the Permit 
application, including the draft SHA and the draft EA, available for 
public review and comment.

DATES: To ensure consideration, written comments must be received from 
interested parties by March 23, 2016.

ADDRESSES: To request further information or submit written comments, 
please use one of the following methods, and note that your information 
request or comments are in reference to the Weyerhaeuser Company draft 
SHA and draft EA.
     Internet: Documents may be viewed and downloaded on the 
Internet at http://www.fws.gov/ofwo/.
     Email: [email protected]. Include ``Weyerhaeuser SHA'' 
in the subject line of the message.
     U.S. Mail: Betsy Glenn, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office, 2600 SE. 98th Ave., Suite 100, 
Portland, OR 97266.

[[Page 8740]]

     Fax: 503-231-6195.
     In-Person Drop-off, Viewing, or Pickup: Call 503-231-6970 
to make an appointment (necessary for viewing or pickup only) during 
regular business hours at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon 
Fish and Wildlife Office, 2600 SE. 98th Ave., Suite 100, Portland, OR 
97266. Written comments can be dropped off during regular business 
hours at the above address on or before the closing date of the public 
comment period (see DATES).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Betsy Glenn, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service (see ADDRESSES), telephone 503-231-6970. If you use a 
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), please call the Federal 
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 800-877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Weyerhaeuser Company has applied to the 
Service for a Permit under section 10(a)(1)(A) of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 
1531 et seq.). The Permit application includes a draft SHA. The Service 
has drafted an EA addressing the effects of the proposed Permit action 
on the human environment.
    The SHA covers approximately 7,500 acres of forest lands owned by 
the Weyerhaeuser Company within the treatment portion of the Oregon 
Coast Ranges Study Area (Study Area) of the Experiment in Lane County, 
Oregon. The proposed term of the Permit and the SHA is 10 years. In 
return for permission to access their lands for barred owl surveys and 
removal in support of the Experiment, the Permit would authorize 
incidental take of the threatened northern spotted owl (Strix 
occidentalis caurina) as a result of forest management activities at 
currently unoccupied spotted owl sites if they become occupied during 
the term of the Permit.

Background

    Under a SHA, participating landowners voluntarily undertake 
activities on their property to benefit species listed under the ESA 
(16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). SHAs, and the subsequent Permits that are 
issued to participating landowners pursuant to section 10(a)(1)(A) of 
the ESA, encourage private and other non-Federal property owners to 
implement conservation actions for federally listed species by assuring 
the landowners that they will not be subject to increased property use 
restrictions as a result of their conservation efforts. SHAs must 
provide a net conservation benefit for the covered species.
    The assurances provided under a SHA allow the property owner to 
alter or modify the enrolled property to agreed-upon baseline 
conditions, even if such alteration or modification results in the 
incidental take of a listed species. The baseline conditions represent 
the existing levels of use of the property by species covered in the 
SHA. SHA assurances are contingent upon the property owner implementing 
covered activities in accordance with the terms of the Permit and the 
SHA. The SHA's net conservation benefits must be sufficient to 
contribute, either directly or indirectly, to the recovery of the 
covered listed species. Enrolled landowners may make lawful use of the 
enrolled property during the Permit term and may incidentally take the 
listed species named on the Permit provided that take does not modify 
the agreed-upon net conservation benefit to the species.
    Application requirements and issuance criteria for Permits for SHAs 
are found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 50 CFR 17.22(c). 
The Service's Safe Harbor Policy (64 FR 32717, June 17, 1999) and the 
Safe Harbor Regulations (68 FR 53320, September 10, 2003; and 69 FR 
24084, May 3, 2004) are available at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/laws-policies/regulations-and-policies.html.

Weyerhaeuser's Safe Harbor Agreement

    The Weyerhaeuser Company submitted an application for a Permit 
under the ESA to authorize incidental take of the federally threatened 
northern spotted owl. The Permit application includes a draft SHA 
between Weyerhaeuser Company and the Service. The SHA addresses access 
to support the Experiment (USFWS 2013a) in the Study Area in Lane 
County, Oregon.
    The SHA covers Weyerhaeuser Company lands within the treatment 
portion of the Study Area. The treatment area is composed of lands 
owned by many different landowners, including 58 percent Federal lands, 
13 percent State lands, and 29 percent private lands. This is the focus 
of the SHA because this is the area where the removal of barred owls 
under the Experiment may lead to re-occupancy of sites that are not 
currently occupied by spotted owls. If barred owl removal leads to the 
re-occupancy of sites by spotted owls in the absence of this Permit, 
some restrictions or limitations on forest management activities could 
occur.
    Activities covered under the SHA are forest management activities 
including but not limited to road use, road construction, road 
maintenance and the normal management activities associated with 
managing private forestland for timber production such as timber 
harvest, planting, spraying, fertilizing, monitoring, measuring, 
patrolling and fighting wildfire.
    The goal of Weyerhaeuser Company is to manage their timberlands for 
timber production providing economic, community and stewardship values 
on a long-term sustained-yield basis while meeting State and Federal 
regulatory requirements. The Weyerhaeuser Company lands within the 
Study Area are an important part the company's overall operating plans 
from both a short-term and long-term perspective. The Weyerhaeuser 
Company is anticipating significant changes and fluctuations in spotted 
owl occupancy of well-surveyed sites and areas on or near Weyerhaeuser 
Company lands in the treatment area after barred owl removal occurs, 
and potential short-term regulatory impacts to operation plans after 
barred owl removal in the treatment area occurs.
    The purpose of the Weyerhaeuser Company's participation in the 
Experiment is to demonstrate cooperation with the Service regarding 
this recovery action while being held harmless and, to the maximum 
extent allowable under the ESA, ensuring that adjacent landowners are 
held harmless, by maintaining a reasonable level of certainty regarding 
the anticipated biological response and subsequent regulatory 
requirements impacting both forest operations and management during and 
after the experiment period.
    To support the Experiment, the Weyerhaeuser Company will provide 
researchers access to Weyerhaeuser Company lands to survey for barred 
owls throughout the Study Area and to remove barred owls located on 
Weyerhaeuser Company lands within the treatment portion of the Study 
Area. In addition, the Weyerhaeuser Company will maintain habitat to 
support actively nesting spotted owls on any reoccupied sites during 
the nesting season.

The Service's Proposed Action

    The Service proposes to enter into the SHA and to issue a Permit to 
the Weyerhaeuser Company for incidental take of the northern spotted 
owl caused by covered activities, if Permit issuance criteria are met. 
The Permit would have a term of 10 years.
    Monitoring of spotted owls on Weyerhaeuser Company lands as part of 
the ongoing spotted owl surveys conducted under the Northwest Forest 
Plan Monitoring program has yielded a good dataset that may be included 
in the SHA to establish a baseline for the estimated current occupancy 
status of

[[Page 8741]]

each spotted owl site. Any spotted owl sites with a response from at 
least one resident spotted owl between 2013 and present are considered 
in the baseline of the SHA. Based on this approach, there are 10 
baseline spotted owl sites in the treatment portion of the Oregon Coast 
Ranges Study Area where Weyerhaeuser Company owns land or has 
operations, easements or agreements.
    The conservation benefits for the northern spotted owl under the 
SHA arise from the Weyerhaeuser Company contribution to a successful 
Experiment, specifically as it informs future recovery of the spotted 
owl. This is accomplished by Weyerhaeuser Company allowing access to 
their roads and lands for barred owl surveys and, within the treatment 
area, barred owl removal. In the Study Area landscape of multiple 
landowners, access to interspersed non-Federal roads and lands for 
barred owl surveys and, within the treatment area, barred owl removal 
is important to the efficient and effective completion of the 
Experiment.
    The impact of the increase in non-native barred owl populations as 
they expand into the range of the spotted owl has been identified as 
one of the primary threats to the continued existence of the spotted 
owl. The Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl includes Recovery 
Action 29--``Design and implement large-scale control experiments to 
assess the effects of barred owl removal on spotted owl site occupancy, 
reproduction, and survival'' (USFWS 2011, p. III-65). The Service 
developed the Experiment to implement this Recovery Action, and 
completed an EIS and ROD addressing the Experiment in 2013 (USFWS 2013a 
and b). The Experiment is being conducted on four study areas, 
including the Oregon Coast Ranges Study Area. Timely results from the 
Experiment are crucial for informing the development of a long-term 
barred owl management strategy that is essential to the conservation of 
the northern spotted owl.
    While the Study Area is focused on Federal lands, it still contains 
significant interspersed non-Federal lands. To complete the Experiment 
in the most efficient and complete manner, the Service requires access 
on non-public roads and the ability to remove barred owls on the non-
Federal lands within the treatment area. While the Experiment is 
possible without access to non-Federal lands, failure to remove barred 
owls from portions of the treatment area could reduce the power of the 
Experiment to detect any changes in spotted owl population dynamics 
resulting from the removal of barred owls and potentially extend the 
duration of the Experiment. The Service has repeatedly indicated the 
need to gather this information in a timely manner. Failure to access 
non-Federal lands could delay the results.
    Incidental take of spotted owls under this SHA would likely be in 
the form of harm from forest operation activities that result in 
habitat degradation, or harassment from forest management activities 
that cause disturbance to spotted owls. Incidental take in the form of 
harassment by disturbance is most likely to occur near former spotted 
owl nest sites if they become reoccupied. Harm and harassment could 
occur during timber operations and management that will continue during 
the Permit term. The Weyerhaeuser Company will perform routine harvest, 
road maintenance and construction activities, including rock pit 
development, spraying and fertilization that may disturb spotted owls.

Net Conservation Benefits to the Northern Spotted Owl

    The Weyerhaeuser Company owns lands in the treatment portion of the 
Oregon Coast Ranges Study Area. Access to the Weyerhaeuser Company 
lands is important to the efficient and effective completion of the 
Experiment within a reasonable timeframe. All of the currently occupied 
spotted owl sites are within the baseline and no take of these sites is 
authorized under this SHA. If barred owl removal does allow spotted 
owls to re-occupy sites that are not currently occupied (non-baseline), 
the Weyerhaeuser Company will be allowed to incidentally take these 
spotted owls. It is highly unlikely that these sites would ever be re-
occupied by spotted owls without the removal of barred owls.
    The removal of barred owls on the Study Area will end within 10 
years. The Service anticipates that, once released from the removal 
pressure, barred owl populations will rebound to pre-treatment levels 
within 3 to 5 years. This is likely to result in the loss of the newly 
re-occupied spotted owl sites. Therefore, any spotted owl occupancy of 
these sites is likely to be temporary and short- term.
    The SHA allows for the take of spotted owls on 16 non-baseline 
sites in the treatment area of the Study Area if these sites become 
reoccupied during the barred owl removal study. Take of non-baseline 
owl sites that may be reoccupied can result from disturbance from 
forest management activities or habitat loss. For 7 of the 16 sites, 
take is anticipated primarily from disturbance. Take resulting from 
disturbance is temporary, short-term, and only likely to occur if 
activities occur very close to nesting spotted owls. None of the 48 
historic spotted owl site centers in the treatment area occur on 
Weyerhaeuser Company lands, and only 3 site centers are close enough 
that forest management activities on Weyerhaeuser Company lands could 
result in some disturbance of the sites if these site centers were 
reoccupied.
    For the remaining 9 sites, take of spotted owls may occur as a 
result of disturbance or habitat removal if these sites become re-
occupied by spotted owls during the Experiment. Loss of habitat has 
longer term effects, and the degree to which it may affect the study 
depends on the amount of potential habitat loss compared to the 
condition of the spotted owl site. The Weyerhaeuser Company is a minor 
owner on seven of these sites with less than 10 percent of the land 
ownership and less than 5 percent of the remaining suitable habitat on 
these seven sites. Federal lands contain the majority of the remaining 
suitable spotted owl habitat on these seven sites. Thus, even if all 
non-baseline spotted owl sites are re-occupied by spotted owls, and the 
Weyerhaeuser Company removed all spotted owl habitat remaining on their 
lands within these sites under their Permit, many of these sites are 
likely to remain viable at some level as a result of habitat remaining 
on adjacent ownerships.
    The primary conservation value of the Barred Owl Removal Experiment 
is the information it provides on the efficacy of removal as a tool to 
manage barred owl populations for the conservation of the spotted owl. 
This information is crucial to the development of a long-term barred 
owl management strategy that is essential to the conservation of the 
northern spotted owl. In this landscape of multiple landowners that 
exists within the Study Area, access to interspersed non-Federal lands 
is important to the efficient and effective completion of the Barred 
Owl Removal Experiment within a reasonable timeframe. Under the 
Weyerhaeuser Company SHA, researchers would have access to their roads 
and lands for barred owl surveys and, within the treatment area, barred 
owl removal. This access contributes significantly to the conservation 
value of the Experiment. Thus, the take of spotted owls on the 
temporarily reoccupied sites is more than offset by the value of the 
information gained from the experiment and its potential contribution 
to the timely development of a long-term barred owl management 
strategy. For these reasons, the Service finds this

[[Page 8742]]

SHA advances the recovery of the spotted owl.

National Environmental Policy Act Compliance

    The development of the draft SHA and the proposed issuance of a 
Permit is a Federal action that triggers the need for compliance with 
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 
4321 et seq.) (NEPA). We have prepared a draft EA to analyze the 
impacts of Permit issuance and implementation of the SHA on the human 
environment in comparison to the no-action alternative.

Public Comments

    You may submit your comments and materials by one of the methods 
listed in the ADDRESSES section above. We request data, new 
information, or suggestions from the public, other concerned 
governmental agencies, Tribes, the scientific community, industry, or 
any other interested party on our proposed Federal action. In 
particular, we request information and comments regarding the following 
issues:
    1. The direct, indirect, and cumulative effects that implementation 
of the SHA could have on endangered and threatened species;
    2. Other reasonable alternatives consistent with the purpose of the 
proposed SHA as described above, and their associated effects;
    3. Measures that would minimize and mitigate potentially adverse 
effects of the proposed action;
    4. Identification of any impacts on the human environment that 
should have been analyzed in the draft EA pursuant to NEPA;
    5. Other plans or projects that might be relevant to this action;
    6. The proposed term of the Permit and whether the proposed SHA 
would provide a net conservation benefit to the spotted owl; and
    7. Any other information pertinent to evaluating the effects of the 
proposed action on the human environment.

Public Availability of Comments

    All comments and materials we receive become part of the public 
record associated with this action. Before including your address, 
phone number, email address, or other personally identifiable 
information in your comments, 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 review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. All 
submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals 
identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations 
or businesses, will be made available for public disclosure in their 
entirety. Comments and materials we receive, as well as supporting 
documentation we used in preparing the draft EA, will be available for 
public inspection by appointment, during normal business hours, at our 
Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office (see ADDRESSES).

Next Steps

    We will evaluate the draft SHA, associated documents, and any 
public comments we receive to determine whether the Permit application 
and the EA meet the requirements of section 10(a)(1)(A) of the ESA and 
NEPA, respectively, and their respective implementing regulations. We 
will also evaluate whether issuance of a Permit would comply with 
section 7(a)(2) of the ESA by conducting an intra-Service section 7 
consultation on the proposed Permit action. If we determine that all 
requirements are met, we will sign the proposed SHA and issue a Permit 
under section 10(a)(1)(A) of the ESA to the applicant, the Weyerhaeuser 
Company, for incidental take of the northern spotted owl caused by 
covered activities implemented in accordance with the terms of the 
Permit and the SHA. We will not make our final decision until after the 
end of the 30-day public comment period, and we will fully consider all 
comments and information we receive during the public comment period.

Authority

    We provide this notice pursuant to section 10(c) of the ESA (16 
U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), its implementing regulations (50 CFR 17.22), and 
the NEPA (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and its implementing regulations (40 
CFR 1506.6).

    Dated: February 3, 2016.
Theresa Rabot,
Deputy Regional Director, Pacific Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service, Portland, Oregon.
[FR Doc. 2016-03559 Filed 2-19-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4333-15-P