[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 18 (Friday, January 27, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5372-5373]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-01696]



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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[Docket No. FWS-R3-ES-2022-0147; FXES11140300000-234]


Draft Environmental Assessment and Proposed Habitat Conservation 
Plan; Receipt of an Application for an Incidental Take Permit, Crescent 
Wind Project; Hillsdale County, Michigan

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comment and information.

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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have received an 
application from Consumers Energy Company for an incidental take permit 
under the Endangered Species Act, for its Crescent Wind Project 
(project). If approved, the permit would authorize the incidental take 
of two endangered species, the Indiana bat and the northern long-eared 
bat. The applicant has prepared a habitat conservation plan in support 
of their application. We also announce the availability of a draft 
environmental assessment, which has been prepared in response to the 
permit application in accordance with the requirements of the National 
Environmental Policy Act. We invite comments from the public and 
Federal, Tribal, State, and local governments.

DATES: We will accept comments received or postmarked on or before 
February 27, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Document availability: Electronic copies of the documents 
this notice announces, along with public comments received, will be 
available online in Docket No. FWS-R3-ES-2022-0147 at https://www.regulations.gov.
    Comment submission: Please specify whether your comment addresses 
the proposed habitat conservation plan, draft Environmental Assessment, 
any combination of the aforementioned documents, or other documents. 
You may submit written comments by one of the following methods:
     Online: https://www.regulations.gov. Search for and submit 
comments on Docket No. FWS-R3-ES-2022-0147.
     By hard copy: Submit comments by U.S. mail to Public 
Comments Processing, Attn: Docket No. FWS-R3-ES-2022-0147; U.S. Fish 
and Wildlife Service; 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: PRB/3W; Falls Church, VA 
22041-3803.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Scott Hicks, Field Supervisor, 
Michigan Ecological Services Field Office, by email at 
[email protected], or telephone at 517-351-6274; or Andrew Horton, 
Regional HCP Coordinator, Midwest Region, by email at 
[email protected], or telephone at 612-713-5337. Individuals in the 
United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a 
speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access 
telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United 
States should use the relay services offered within their country to 
make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have 
received an application from Consumers Energy Company for an incidental 
take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 
et seq.), for its Crescent Wind Project (project). If approved, the ITP 
would be for a 30-year period and would authorize the incidental take 
of two endangered species, the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), and 
northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis). The applicant has 
prepared a habitat conservation plan (HCP) that describes the actions 
and measures that the applicant would implement to avoid, minimize, and 
mitigate incidental take of the Indiana bat and northern long-eared 
bat. We also announce the availability of a draft environmental 
assessment (EA), which has been prepared in response to the permit 
application in accordance with the requirements of the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).

Background

    Section 9 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (16 
U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), and its implementing regulations prohibit the 
``take'' of animal species listed as endangered or threatened. ``Take'' 
is defined under the ESA as to ``harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, 
wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect [listed animal species], or to 
attempt to engage in such conduct'' (16 U.S.C. 1538). However, under 
section 10(a) of the ESA, we may issue permits to authorize incidental 
take of listed species. ``Incidental take'' is defined by the ESA as 
take that is incidental to, and not the purpose of, carrying out an 
otherwise lawful activity. Regulations governing incidental take 
permits (ITP) for endangered and threatened species, respectively, are 
found in the Code of Federal Regulations at 50 CFR 17.22 and 50 CFR 
17.32.

Applicant's Proposed Project

    The applicant requests a 30-year ITP to take the federally 
endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) and northern long-eared bat 
(Myotis septentrionalis). The applicant determined that take is 
reasonably certain to occur incidental to operation of 60 wind turbines 
that have a total generating capacity of 166 megawatts and cover 
approximately 38,320 acres of private land. The proposed conservation 
strategy in the applicant's proposed HCP is designed to avoid, 
minimize, and mitigate the impacts of the covered activity on the 
covered species. The biological goals and objectives are to minimize 
potential take of Indiana bats and northern long-eared bats through on-
site minimization measures, and to provide habitat conservation 
measures for Indiana bats and northern long-eared bats to offset any 
impacts from operations of the project. The HCP provides on-site 
avoidance and minimization measures, which include turbine operational 
adjustments and acoustic-activated curtailment technology that adjusts 
turbine operations when bats are detected acoustically near turbine 
blades. The authorized level of take from the project is 96 Indiana 
bats and 49 northern long-eared bats over the 30-year project duration. 
To offset the impacts of taking Indiana bats and northern long-eared 
bats, the applicant proposes to protect summer maternity habitat in 
Hillsdale County, Michigan, as well as known swarming/staging habitat 
for both species at an approved mitigation site in southern Indiana. 
The summer mitigation site is connected to habitat where both covered 
species were captured during preconstruction surveys for the Crescent 
Wind Project, and the swarming/staging site is located within a mile of 
Ray's Cave, a Priority 1 hibernaculum for Indiana bats, where bats from 
two southern Michigan maternity colonies have been observed during 
hibernation.

National Environmental Policy Act

    Issuance of an ITP is a Federal action that triggers the need for 
compliance with NEPA. We prepared a draft EA that analyzes the 
environmental impacts on the human environment resulting from three 
alternatives: A no-action alternative, the proposed action, and a more 
restrictive alternative consisting of feathering below higher wind 
speeds that results in lower impacts to bats.

Next Steps

    The Service will evaluate the permit application and the comments 
received to determine whether the application

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meets the requirements of section 10(a) of the ESA. We will also 
conduct an intra-Service consultation pursuant to section 7 of the ESA 
to evaluate the effects of the proposed take. After considering the 
above findings, we will determine whether the permit issuance criteria 
of section 10(a)(l)(B) of the ESA have been met. If met, the Service 
will issue the requested ITP to the applicant.

Request for Public Comments

    The Service invites comments and suggestions from all interested 
parties during a 30-day public comment period (see DATES). Information 
and comments regarding the following topics are requested:
    1. The environmental effects that implementation of any alternative 
could have on the human environment;
    2. Whether or not the significance of the impact on various aspects 
of the human environment has been adequately analyzed;
    3. Any threats to the Indiana bat and the northern long-eared bat 
that may influence their populations over the life of the ITP that are 
not addressed in the proposed HCP or Environmental Assessment; and
    4. Any other information pertinent to evaluating the effects of the 
proposed action on the human environment.

Availability of Public Comments

    You may submit comments by one of the methods shown under 
ADDRESSES. We will post on https://www.regulations.gov all public 
comments and information received electronically or via hardcopy. All 
comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of 
the administrative record associated with this action. Before including 
your address, phone number, email address, or other personal 
identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your 
entire comment--including your personal identifying information--may be 
made publicly available at any time. While you can request in your 
comment that we withhold your personal identifying 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.

Authority

    We provide this notice under section 10(c) of the Endangered 
Species Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) and its implementing regulations 
(50 CFR 17.22) and the National Environmental Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 
4371 et seq.) and its implementing regulations (40 CFR 1506.6; 43 CFR 
part 46).

Lori Nordstrom,
Assistant Regional Director, Ecological Services.
[FR Doc. 2023-01696 Filed 1-26-23; 8:45 am]
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