[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 203 (Friday, October 19, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53078-53080]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-22755]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2018-0079; FXES11140400000-178-FF04EF2000]


Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC, Multi-Species Habitat 
Conservation Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Collier 
County, Florida

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, announce the 
availability of our draft environmental impact statement (EIS) and a 
habitat conservation plan (HCP) associated with the incidental take 
permit (ITP) applications of eleven Collier County landowners under the 
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. Each

[[Page 53079]]

of the eleven landowners, collectively known as the Eastern Collier 
Property Owners, LLC, requests a 50-year ITP authorizing take of the 
Florida panther and 18 other Federal or State-listed species incidental 
to residential and commercial development, earth mining, and low-
intensity rural-land activities in a defined portion of Collier County, 
Florida.

DATES: Comments: We will accept comments received or postmarked on or 
before December 3, 2018. Comments submitted electronically at http://www.regulations.gov must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on the 
closing date. Any comments we receive after the closing date may not be 
considered in the final decision on these actions.

ADDRESSES: 
    Obtain Documents: You may obtain copies of the EIS and HCP by the 
following methods:
    Internet: http://www.regulations.gov (search for Docket No. FWS-R4-
ES-2018-0079).
    Field Office: https://www.fws.gov/verobeach/.
    Submit Comments: You may submit written comments by one of the 
following methods:
    Internet: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for 
submitting comments on Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2018-0079.
    Hard Copy: Via U.S. mail or hand-delivery to Public Comments 
Processing, Attn: FWS-R4-ES-2018-0079; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
Headquarters, MS: BPHC; 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-
3803.
    Review Public Comments: Submitted comments may be viewed at http://www.regulations.gov in Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2018-0079.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. David Dell, Regional HCP 
Coordinator, by mail at Attn: ECPO; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; 
1875 Century Boulevard, Atlanta, GA 30345 or by telephone at 404-679-
7313, or Dr. Constance Cassler, Supervisory Fish and Wildlife 
Biologist, by mail at the South Florida Ecological Services Office, 
Attn: ECPO; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1339 20th Street, Vero 
Beach, FL 32960 or by telephone at 772-469-4356.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
(Service), have received applications for ITPs under the Endangered 
Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).

Applicants

    The Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC (ECPO/Applicants) was 
formed as a collaborative effort to address long-term land-use planning 
and conservation issues related to the Florida panther in the east 
Collier County area (see also http://www.floridapantherprotection.com). 
The Applicants' collaboration culminated in the HCP, which supports 
their collective application for the issuance of 50-year ITPs for take 
of the Florida panther and 18 other covered species. Table 1, below, 
individually lists the ECPO members and their Service-assigned 
application numbers. Table 2 depicts the species covered by the HCP.

   Table 1--Members of Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC, and Their
               Incidental Take Permit Application Numbers
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                Applicants                    Permit  application  Nos.
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Alico Land Development, Inc...............  TE05647D-0
Barron Collier Investment, Ltd............  TE04440D-0
Collier Enterprises Management, Inc.......  TE04443D-0
Consolidated Citrus Limited Partnership...  TE04471D-0
English Brothers Partnership..............  TE04152D-0
Half Circle L Ranch, LLP..................  TE05238D-0
Heller Bros. Packing Corp.................  TE05668D-0
JB Ranch I, LLC...........................  TE04473D-0
Owl Hammock Immokalee, LLC................  TE06114D-0
Pacific Land, Ltd.........................  TE05665D-0
Sunniland Family Limited Partnership......  TE04472D-0
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                                            Table 2--HCP-Covered Wildlife Species and Their Protected Status
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                Status                                        Common name                                            Scientific name
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Listed as endangered under the ESA....  Florida panther........................................  Puma concolor coryi.
                                        Florida bonneted bat...................................  Eumops floridanus.
                                        Red-cockaded woodpecker................................  Picoides borealis.
                                        Everglade snail kite...................................  Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbeus.
Listed as threatened under the ESA....  Wood stork.............................................  Mycteria americana.
                                        Northern crested caracara..............................  Caracara cheriway.
                                        Florida scrub jay......................................  Aphelocoma coerulescens.
                                        Eastern indigo snake...................................  Drymarchon corais couperi.
Candidate Species or Species under      Gopher tortoise........................................  Gopherus polyphemus.
 review for Federal listing.
                                        Eastern diamondback rattlesnake........................  Crotalus adamanteus.
                                        Gopher frog............................................  Lithobates capito.
State-listed species..................  Big Cypress fox squirrel...............................  Sciurus niger avicennia.
                                        Everglades mink........................................  Neovison vison evergladensis.
                                        Burrowing owl..........................................  Athene cunicularia.
                                        Florida sandhill crane.................................  Antigone canadensis pratensis.
                                        Little blue heron......................................  Egretta caerulea.
                                        Roseate spoonbill......................................  Platalea ajaja.
                                        Southeastern American kestrel..........................  Falco sparverius Paulus.
                                        Tricolored heron.......................................  Egretta tricolor.
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Background

    Section 9 of the ESA and its implementing regulations prohibit 
``take'' of Federally-listed ``threatened'' or ``endangered'' fish and 
wildlife species. However, section 10(a) of the Act provides exceptions 
to the prohibition by allowing us to issue permits authorizing take of 
listed species where such take is incidental to, and not the purpose 
of, otherwise lawful activities and where the applicant meets certain 
statutory requirements.
    The Applicants' HCP proposes a programmatic approach and framework 
for engaging in incidental take of the covered species while providing 
for the permanent protection of portions of the covered lands via 
conservation easements and generating funding for conservation 
activities for the covered species in addition to those provided in the 
HCP. The individual Applicants collectively own a total of 151,779 
acres within the approximately 174,000-acre HCP planning area. Under 
the HCP, up to 45,000 acres could be developed or

[[Page 53080]]

used for other activities. Impacts to covered species from the 
activities would be mitigated through habitat management measures and 
the placement of conservation easements on up to 107,000 acres of the 
covered lands. The Applicants also propose to make contributions to a 
conservation endowment, the Marinelli Fund, to implement conservation 
measures for the covered species throughout and beyond the covered 
lands.

Draft Environmental Impact Statement

    We published a notice of intent to prepare an EIS for this HCP in 
the Federal Register on March 25, 2016 (81 FR 16200). A public scoping 
meeting was held in Naples, Florida on April 12, 2016, and an online 
public participation webcast was conducted on April 19, 2016. We have 
incorporated issues identified during these scoping meetings into the 
draft EIS. A summary of the comments received during the scoping period 
is provided in the Scoping Report appended to the draft EIS.
    The draft EIS assesses the likely environmental impacts associated 
with the implementation of the activities proposed in the HCP, compared 
to the likely consequences of not issuing the requested ITPs, i.e., 
uncoordinated project-by-project and lot-by-lot planning and mitigation 
as currently occurs. The Department of the Army, through its bureau the 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, is a cooperating 
agency in the development of the draft EIS.

Public Comments

    If you wish to comment on the HCP, or draft EIS, you may submit 
comments by any one of the methods listed above in ADDRESSES. Before 
including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal 
identifying information in your comment, be aware that your entire 
comment--including your personal identifying information--may be made 
available to the public at any time. While you may request in your 
comment that we withhold your personal identifying information, we 
cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Next Steps

    We will evaluate the HCP, draft EIS, and your comments to determine 
whether the collective ITP application meets the permit issuance 
requirements of section 10(a) of the ESA. We will also conduct an 
intra-Service consultation pursuant to section 7 of the ESA. If the 
requirements for permit issuance are met, we will issue individual ITPs 
to the Applicants.

Authority

    We provide this notice under section 10 of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1531 
et seq.) and ESA regulations in title 50 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations and, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 42 U.S.C. 
4321 et seq.) and NEPA regulations (40 CFR 1506.6).

Mike Oetker,
Acting Regional Director, Southeast Region.
[FR Doc. 2018-22755 Filed 10-18-18; 8:45 am]
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