Federal Register, Volume 82 Issue 125 (Friday, June 30, 2017)

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 125 (Friday, June 30, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29918-29920]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-13762]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2017-0036; FXES11130200000-178-FF02ENEH00]

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Mexican Wolf Draft
Recovery Plan, First Revision

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the
availability of our Mexican Wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) Draft Recovery
Plan, First Revision (draft recovery plan). The Mexican wolf is listed
as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended
(Act), and is currently found in Arizona and New Mexico, in the United
States, and in Chihuahua, Mexico. The draft recovery plan includes
specific recovery criteria to be met to enable us to remove this
species from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. The first
Mexican wolf recovery plan was completed in 1982. We request review and
comment on the revised plan from local, State, and Federal agencies;
Tribes; and the public, in both the United States and Mexico. We will
also accept any new information on the Mexican wolf's status throughout
its range to assist in finalizing the recovery plan.

DATES: Comment submission: To ensure consideration, we must receive
written comments on or before August 29, 2017. However, we will accept
information about any species at any time.
Public meetings: We will hold information meetings to provide the
public with information on the draft recovery plan. Written comments on
the draft recovery plan may be submitted at these meetings (oral
comments will not be recorded). The dates and times of these
information meetings are as follows:
1. July 18, 2017 (6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.): Flagstaff, Arizona.
2. July 19, 2017 (6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.): Pinetop, Arizona.
3. July 20, 2017 (6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.): Truth or Consequences,
New Mexico.
4. July 22, 2017 (2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.): Albuquerque, New Mexico.

ADDRESSES: Document availability: If you wish to review the draft
recovery plan and related documents, you may obtain copies by any of
the following methods:
Electronically: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and enter FWS-R2-
ES-2017-0036.
U.S. mail: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, New Mexico Ecological
Services Field Office, 2105 Osuna Road NE., Albuquerque, NM 87113; or
Telephone: (505) 346-2525.
Comment submission: If you wish to comment on the draft recovery
plan, you may submit your comments in writing by either of the
following methods:
Electronically: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and enter FWS-R2-
ES-2017-0036.
Hard copy: Submit by U.S. mail or hand-delivery to: Public Comments
Processing, Attn: FWS-R4-ES-2017-

[[Page 29919]]

0036, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: BPHC, 5275 Leesburg Pike,
Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.
Public meetings: The locations of the information meetings
discussed above in DATES are as follows:
1. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona University, Prochnow Auditorium,
South Knowles Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86001.
2. Pinetop: Hon-Dah Resort, Casino Banquet Hall, 777 AZ-260,
Pinetop, AZ 85935.
3. Truth or Consequences: Ralph Edwards Auditorium, Civic Center,
400 West Fourth, Truth or Consequences, NM 87901.
4. Albuquerque: Crowne Plaza Albuquerque, 1901 University Boulevard
NE., Albuquerque, NM 87102.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sherry Barrett, Mexican Wolf Recovery
Coordinator, 505-346-2525.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

A primary goal of our endangered species program and the Act (16
U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) is endangered or threatened animals and plants
recovering to the point where they are again secure, self-sustaining
ecosystems members. Recovery means improving listed species' status to
the point at which listing is no longer appropriate under the criteria
set out in the Act, section 4(a)(1). The Act requires developing
recovery plans for listed species, unless such a plan would not promote
a particular species' conservation.
The Service has revised its approach to recovery planning; the
revised process is called Recovery Planning and Implementation (RPI)
(USFWS 09/21/2016). RPI is intended to reduce the time needed to
develop and implement recovery plans, increase recovery plan relevancy
over a longer timeframe, and add flexibility to recovery plans so they
can be adjusted to new information or circumstances. Under RPI, a
recovery plan will include statutorily required elements (measurable
criteria, site-specific management actions, and estimates of time and
costs), along with a concise introduction and our strategy for how we
plan to achieve species recovery. The RPI recovery plan is supported by
a separate Species Status Assessment (SSA), or in some cases, a species
Biological Report, which provides the background information and threat
assessment, which are key to recovery plan development. The essential
component to flexible implementation under RPI is producing a separate
working document called the Recovery Implementation Strategy
(implementation strategy). The implementation strategy steps down from
the more general description of actions described in the recovery plan
to detail the near-term, specific activities needed to implement the
recovery plan. The implementation strategy will be adaptable by being
able to incorporate new information without having to concurrently
revise the recovery plan, unless changes to statutory elements are
required. The Mexican wolf implementation strategy document will be
developed with partners at a later date. The Mexican Wolf Draft
Recovery Plan, First Revision, represents one of the first products
developed using RPI.
In addition to the recovery plan and implementation strategy, we
have completed a biological report describing the Mexican wolf's
current status. The biological report supports the recovery plan by
providing the background, life-history, and threat assessment
information. The biological report was independently peer-reviewed by
scientists outside of the Service and is available at https://www.regulations.gov in Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2017-0036, and also at our
Web site: https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf/. As with the
implementation strategy, we will regularly update the biological report
as new species status information becomes available, without having to
concurrently review the recovery plan.

Species History

The Mexican wolf was originally listed as an endangered subspecies
on April 28, 1976 (41 FR 17736), but was subsumed into the listing for
the gray wolf in the coterminous United States and Mexico in 1978 (43
FR 9607, March 9, 1978). The Mexican wolf is currently listed as an
endangered subspecies throughout its range without critical habitat (80
FR 2488, January 16, 2015). The Mexican wolf is also listed as
endangered by the Secretar[iacute]a de Medio Ambiente y Recursos
Naturales, or Federal Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resource
(SEMARNAT 2010) in Mexico. Mexican wolves in Arizona and New Mexico are
protected under State wildlife statutes as the gray wolf. In Arizona,
the gray wolf is on the Arizona Game and Fish Department's list of
``Species of Greatest Conservation Need.'' In New Mexico, the gray wolf
is listed as endangered.
In the United States, current Mexican wolf range includes portions
of Arizona and New Mexico in an area designated as the Mexican Wolf
Experimental Population Area (MWEPA) under the Act, section 10(j) (U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service 2016). The Service began releasing Mexican
wolves from captivity into the MWEPA in 1998, marking the first Mexican
wolf reintroduction since their extirpation in the late 1970s. As of
2016, there is a single population of at least 113 Mexican wolves in
the MWEPA (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2017). In Mexico, the current
Mexican wolf range includes the northern portion of the Sierra Madre
Occidental in the state of Chihuahua (L[oacute]pez Gonz[aacute]lez
2017, pers. comm.). After Mexican wolves were extirpated from Mexico in
the late 1970s to early 1980s, Mexico began reintroducing the
subspecies from captivity back into the wild in 2011. In Mexico, as of
April 2017, approximately 28 wolves inhabit the northern portion of the
Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains in the state of Chihuahua (Garcia
Chavez et al. 2017).
In addition to the wild populations, a Mexican wolf captive
population is managed under the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan
(SSP), administered by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The SSP
is a binational captive-breeding program with the primary purpose of
producing Mexican wolves for reintroduction in the United States and
Mexico and conducting public education and research. The captive
population is the sole source of Mexican wolves available to
reestablish the species in the wild and is, therefore, an essential
component of the Mexican wolf recovery effort.
The Mexican wolf is at risk of extinction in the wild primarily
because of gunshot-related mortality, inbreeding, loss of
heterozygosity, loss of adaptive potential, small population size, and
the cumulative effects of the aforementioned threats (80 FR 2488,
January 16, 2015). As a result of predator control and eradication
efforts in the 20th century, the number of Mexican wolves declined
rapidly (Mech and Boitani 2003), but with the capture of the last
remaining Mexican wolves in the wild in Mexico, and subsequent addition
of several wolves already in captivity, the United States and Mexico
established a binational captive-breeding program with seven unrelated
``founders.'' As a result of this small number of founders, Mexican
wolves face the aforementioned genetic challenges (U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service 2014).

Recovery Plan Strategy

The overall strategy for recovering the Mexican wolf focuses on
improving the two populations' resilience (i.e., population size) and
genetic representation, one in the MWEPA in

[[Page 29920]]

the United States, and one in the northern portion of the Sierra Madre
Occidental in Mexico, across an adequate ecological and geographic
range of representation within each population. The strategy involves
carefully managing the captive-breeding program, releasing Mexican
wolves from the captive-breeding program into the wild, and
translocating Mexican wolves from the MWEPA to Mexico, to ensure two
genetically and demographically viable populations are extant in the
wild for redundancy. In order to achieve the genetic criteria for
downlisting and delisting the Mexican wolf in this Plan, the states of
New Mexico and Arizona, and the Mexican government, will determine the
timing, location and circumstances of releases of wolves into the wild
within their respective states, and Mexico, from the captive
population, with the Service providing collaborative logistical support
and facilitation of those recovery actions.
Under this strategy, Mexican wolves will be managed to achieve an
average population size, with an upper population size management
boundary applied to the MWEPA that would allow all forms of management
to ensure that population growth does not continue unchecked. The
population in Mexico will not be managed with an upper boundary.
Another key component of the strategy includes working with Federal,
State, Tribal, and local partners, and the public, to improve Mexican
wolf tolerance on the landscape.

Request for Public Comments

The Act, section 4(f), requires us to provide public notice and an
opportunity for public review and comment during recovery plan
development. Our policy is to also request peer review of recovery
plans (59 FR 34270, July 1, 1994). We will summarize and respond to the
issues the public and peer reviewers raise and make our responses
available to the public. 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. Pursuant to a court order, this recovery
plan must be finalized by November 30, 2017.
We invite written comments on the draft recovery plan. In
particular, we are interested in comments on the recovery strategy,
recovery criteria, recovery actions, and the cost estimates associated
with implementing the recommended recovery actions.
We make reference throughout the draft recovery plan to locations
where more detailed information can be found. Information on the
Mexican wolf's life-history needs, threats, current status and future
projections, survey guidelines, and conservation efforts to date are
detailed in a variety of separate documents, including the biological
report the Service developed. These documents can be found at https://www.regulations.gov in Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2017-0036 and also at our
Web site: https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf/.
Before we approve our final recovery plan, we will consider all
comments we receive by the date specified in DATES. You may submit your
comments and materials concerning the draft recovery plan by one of the
methods listed in ADDRESSES. We request that you send comments only by
the methods described in ADDRESSES.

Public Availability of Comments

If you submit information via http://www.regulations.gov, your
entire submission--including any personal identifying information--will
be posted on the Web site. If your submission is made via a hardcopy
that includes personal identifying information, you may request at the
top of your document that we withhold this information from public
review. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. We
will post all hardcopy submissions on http://www.regulations.gov.
Comments and materials we receive will be available, by
appointment, for public inspection during normal business hours at our
office (see ADDRESSES).

References Cited

A complete list of all references cited herein is available at
https://www.regulations.gov in Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2017-0036, on our
Web site (https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf/), or upon
request from the New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office (see FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT).

Authority

We developed our draft recovery plan under the authority of the
Act, section 4(f), 16 U.S.C. 1533(f). We publish this notice under
section 4(f) Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531
et seq.).

Dated: June 20, 2017.
Benjamin N. Tuggle,
Regional Director, Southwest Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 2017-13762 Filed 6-29-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4333-15-P