[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 15 (Thursday, January 23, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3941-3943]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-01008]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

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


Receipt of Incidental Take Permit Application; Eastern Collier 
Property Owners, LLC, Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan, Collier 
County, Florida; Additional Applicant

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 
receipt of an application from Gargiulo, Inc. (applicant) for an 
incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act. The 
applicant requests to join 11 other landowners, collectively known as 
``Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC,'' in requesting individual 50-
year ITPs authorizing take of the Florida panther and 18 other Federal 
or State-listed species. The take would be incidental to residential 
and commercial development, earth mining, and low-intensity rural land 
activities on properties in Collier County, Florida (project). We are 
accepting comments on Gargiulo, Inc.'s ITP application.

DATES: We will accept comments received or postmarked on or before 
February 21, 2020. 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 documents related to 
this application 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 the following 
methods:
    Internet: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for 
submitting

[[Page 3942]]

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, JAO/1N, 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: 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 
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, have 
received an application for an incidental take permit (ITP) under the 
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et 
seq.). The applicant seeks to join 11 other landowners, collectively 
known as ``Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC'' (ECPO), in obtaining 
individual 50-year ITPs. ECPO collaborated on a joint HCP 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). Table 1 lists the species covered by 
the HCP. The Service announced the availability of 11 landowners' ITP 
applications in the Federal Register on October 19, 2018 (83 FR 53078). 
The applications included a jointly prepared habitat conservation plan 
(HCP). We also sought comment on our draft environmental impact 
statement (EIS). The comment period closed on December 3, 2018. All 12 
applicants are listed below in Table 2.

Applicant

    Gargiulo, Inc. purchased approximately 5,000 acres from another 
ECPO member, Collier Enterprises Management, Inc. The purchased tracts 
are already included in the HCP area, and there have been no changes to 
the activities covered by the HCP since publication of the October 19, 
2018, notice.

   Table 1--HCP-Covered Wildlife Species and Their Protected Statuses
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             Status                   Common name       Scientific name
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Listed as endangered under the    Florida panther...  Puma concolor
 ESA.                                                  coryi.
                                  Florida bonneted    Eumops floridanus.
                                   bat.
                                  Red-cockaded        Picoides borealis.
                                   woodpecker.
                                  Everglade snail     Rostrhamus
                                   kite.               sociabilis
                                                       plumbeus.
Listed as threatened under the    Wood stork........  Mycteria
 ESA.                                                  americana.
                                  Crested caracara..  Polyborus plancus
                                                       audubonii.
                                  Florida scrub jay.  Aphelocoma
                                                       coerulescens.
                                  Eastern indigo      Drymarchon corais
                                   snake.              couperi.
Candidate species or species      Gopher tortoise...  Gopherus
 under review for Federal                              polyphemus.
 listing.
                                  Eastern             Crotalus
                                   diamondback         adamanteus.
                                   rattlesnake.
                                  Gopher frog.......  Lithobates capito.
State-listed species............  Big Cypress fox     Sciurus niger
                                   squirrel.           avicennia.
                                  Everglades mink...  Neovison vison
                                                       evergladensis.
                                  Burrowing owl.....  Athene
                                                       cunicularia.
                                  Florida sandhill    Antigone
                                   crane.              canadensis
                                                       pratensis.
                                  Little blue heron.  Egretta caerulea.
                                  Roseate spoonbill.  Platalea ajaja.
                                  Southeastern        Falco sparverius
                                   American kestrel.   paulus.
                                  Tricolored heron..  Egretta tricolor.
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   Table 2--Members of Eastern Collier Property Owners, LLC, and Their
               Incidental Take Permit Application Numbers
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                Applicants                    Permit  application  Nos.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
Gargiulo, Inc.............................  TE54442D-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
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 ESA provides exceptions 
to the prohibition by allowing the Service to issue permits authorizing 
take of listed species where such take is incidental to, and not the 
purpose of, otherwise lawful activities, provided the applicant meets 
certain statutory requirements.
    The ECPO 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 HCP area via conservation 
easements and funding for conservation activities in addition to those 
provided in the HCP. ECPO collectively owns a total of 151,779 acres 
within the approximately 174,000-acre HCP area. Up to 45,000 acres of 
the area could be developed or used for other activities under the HCP. 
Impacts to covered species from the project would be mitigated through 
habitat management measures, the placement of conservation easements on 
up to 107,000 acres of the HCP area, and contributions to a 
conservation endowment, the Marinelli Fund, to implement conservation 
measures for the covered species throughout and beyond the HCP area.

Draft Environmental Impact Statement

    We published a notice of intent to prepare an EIS for ECPO's 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 
incorporated issues identified during the 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. We 
published

[[Page 3943]]

a notice of availability of the draft EIS on October 19, 2018.
    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. 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

    Comments previously submitted on the HCP, draft EIS, or 11 ITP 
applications need not be resubmitted. We have incorporated them into 
the public record and will fully consider them in our deliberations on 
whether to issue the requested ITPs.
    If you wish to comment on Gargiulo, Inc.'s ITP application, 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 public comments to 
determine whether the 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 an ITP to the 
applicant.

Authority

    We provide this notice under section 10 of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1531 
et seq.), 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 regulation 40 CFR 1506.6.

Mike Oetker,
Deputy Regional Director.
[FR Doc. 2020-01008 Filed 1-22-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4333-15-P