[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 219 (Monday, November 14, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 79515-79516]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-27272]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS-R4-ES-2016-N124; FXES1130400000C2-167-FF04E00000]


Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Final Recovery 
Plan for the Laurel Dace

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the 
availability of the final recovery plan for the endangered laurel dace, 
a small fish native to the Tennessee River Basin in Tennessee. The 
recovery plan includes specific recovery objectives and criteria that 
must be met in order for us to downlist the fish to threatened status 
or delist it under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended.

ADDRESSES: You may obtain a copy of the recovery plan from our Web site 
at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/species/recovery-plans.html or the 
Tennessee Field Office Web site at http://www.fws.gov/cookeville. You 
may also request a copy of the recovery plan by contacting Geoff Call, 
by U.S. mail at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tennessee Field Office, 
446 Neal Street, Cookeville, TN 38501 (telephone 931-525-4983).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Geoff Call (see ADDRESSES).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

Recovery Plans Under the Endangered Species Act

    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 
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (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 needed under any criteria 
specified in section 4(a)(1) of the Act. 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. The Act requires the 
development of recovery plans for listed species, unless such a plan 
would not promote the conservation of a particular species.

About the Species

    We listed the laurel dace (Chrosomus saylori) as an endangered 
species under the Act on August 9, 2011 (76 FR 48722), and designated 
critical habitat for the species on October 16, 2012 (77 FR 63604). The 
laurel dace is a small fish native to the Tennessee River Basin in 
Tennessee. This fish, from the family Cyprinidae, is found or collected 
from pools or slow runs from undercut banks or under slab boulders in 
headwater tributaries. The vegetation surrounding the first or second 
order streams where laurel dace occur includes mountain laurel, 
rhododendron, and hemlocks.
    Historically, laurel dace is known from seven streams, and it 
currently occupies six of these, in three creek systems on the Walden 
Ridge of the Cumberland Plateau. Only a few individuals have been 
collected from headwaters of the two creek systems in the southern part 
of their range, Soddy and Sale Creeks, although laurel dace are more 
abundant in headwaters of the Piney River system in their northern 
range. Threats to the laurel dace include land use activities that 
affect silt levels, temperature, or hydrologic processes of these small 
tributaries; invasive species, including sunfishes, basses, and hemlock 
woolly adelgid; the species' naturally small population size and 
geographic range; and climate change.

Recovery Plan Development

    Section 4(f) of the Act requires us to provide public notice and an 
opportunity for public review and comment prior to final approval of 
recovery plans. We and other Federal agencies will take these public 
comments into account in the course of implementing approved recovery 
plans.
    The Technical/Agency Draft Recovery Plan for the Laurel Dace was 
developed by the Tennessee Field Office. This draft plan was published 
on January 14, 2015, and made available for public comment through 
March 16, 2015 (79 FR 1933). We received no comments from the general 
public on the draft plan.
    The Service also asked four peer reviewers to review and provide 
comments on the draft plan. We received comments from all four peer 
reviewers: Dr. J. Brian Alford of University of Tennessee, Dr. Hayden 
T. Mattingly of Tennessee Tech University, Dr. Christopher E. Skelton 
of Georgia College and State University, and Mr. Mark Thurman of the 
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. All of the peer reviewers offered 
general support and praise for the draft plan. For a summary of our 
responses to peer review comments, see Appendix A in

[[Page 79516]]

the final recovery plan. We considered the information we received from 
peer reviewers in our preparation and approval of this final recovery 
plan. Specifically, we made a slight modification to recovery criteria 
(see below) by adding the clarification of 500 individuals in the 
definition of a viable population. We also adjusted budgets of recovery 
actions in the implementation schedule.

Recovery Plan Components

Objectives for Reclassification to Threatened and Delisting

    The goal of this recovery plan is to conserve populations of laurel 
dace and enable the species to recover to the point that listing under 
the Act is no longer necessary. Because recovery and delisting will 
take a long time to achieve, and may be unachievable, an intermediate 
goal of this recovery plan is to reduce threats to the point that the 
species could be reclassified from endangered to threatened.
Reclassification to Threatened
    Reclassification of the laurel dace to threatened status will be 
possible when habitat conditions in occupied streams are suitable for 
the conservation of the species, and viable populations are present 
throughout suitable habitat in five of the six currently occupied 
streams.
Delisting
    In order for the laurel dace to recover to the point that listing 
under the Act is no longer necessary, it will be necessary to conserve 
all existing populations by maintaining, and in some cases restoring, 
suitable habitat conditions in all streams where the species currently 
occurs. It will also be necessary to discover or establish one 
additional population.

Criteria for Reclassification From Endangered to Threatened or 
Delisting

    The following criteria will be used to determine whether the 
objectives for reclassification and delisting described above have been 
met. The criteria will be achieved by reducing or removing threats to 
the species' habitat and conserving or establishing viable populations 
throughout the species' range, as determined by monitoring of 
demographic and genetic parameters.
Criteria for Reclassification From Endangered to Threatened
    Criterion 1: Suitable instream habitat, flows, and water quality 
for laurel dace, as defined by Recovery Tasks in the recovery plan, 
exist in occupied streams.
    Criterion 2: Viable populations * are present throughout suitable 
habitat in Bumbee, Moccasin, and Youngs Creeks, and at least two of the 
following streams: Soddy Creek, Cupp Creek or Horn Branch.
Criteria for Delisting
    Criterion 1: Suitable instream habitat, flows, and water quality 
for laurel dace exist in all occupied streams, and mechanisms exist to 
ensure that land use activities (including road maintenance) in 
catchments of streams inhabited by laurel dace will be compatible with 
the species' conservation for the foreseeable future. Such mechanisms 
could include, but are not necessarily limited to, conservation 
agreements, conservation easements, land acquisition, and habitat 
conservation plans.
    Criterion 2: Viable populations * are present throughout suitable 
habitat in Bumbee, Moccasin, Youngs, Soddy, and Cupp Creeks and Horn 
Branch, and one additional viable population, created either through 
reintroduction into Laurel Branch or by discovery of an additional wild 
population.
    * Populations will be considered viable when the following 
demographic and genetic conditions exist:
     Demographics--Monitoring data demonstrate that (a) 
populations are stable or increasing, (b) average census size is at 
least 500 individuals and two or more age-classes are consistently 
present over a period of time encompassing five generations (i.e., 15 
years), and (c) evidence of recruitment is not absent in more than 3 
years or during consecutive years at any point within that period of 
time.
     Genetics--Populations will be considered to have 
sufficient genetic variation to be viable if measurements of observed 
number of alleles and estimates of heterozygosity and effective 
population size have remained stable or increased during the five 
generations used to establish demographic viability.

Authority

    The authority for this action is section 4(f) of the Endangered 
Species Act, 16 U.S.C. 1533(f).

    Dated: August 22, 2016.
Mike Oetker,
Acting Regional Director, Southeast Region.
[FR Doc. 2016-27272 Filed 11-10-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4333-15-P