[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 134 (Friday, July 14, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45243-45245]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-14943]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS-HQ-ES-2023-N057; FF09E41000-234-FXES111609C0000; OMB Control 
Number 1018-0177]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget; Policy Regarding Voluntary Prelisting 
Conservation Actions

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we, 
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are proposing to renew, 
without change, an information collection.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
August 14, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be submitted within 30 days of 
publication of this notice at https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular information collection by selecting 
``Currently under Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the 
search function. Please provide a copy of your comments to the Service 
Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service, MS: PRB (JAO/3W), 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-
3803 (mail); or by email to [email protected]. Please reference ``1018-
0177'' in the subject line of your comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Madonna L. Baucum, Service Information 
Collection Clearance Officer, by email at [email protected], or by 
telephone at (703) 358-2503. 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

[[Page 45244]]

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: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 and 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1), we provide the general public and 
other Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on new, proposed, 
revised, and continuing collections of information. This helps us 
assess the impact of our information collection requirements and 
minimize the public's reporting burden. It also helps the public 
understand our information collection requirements and provide the 
requested data in the desired format.
    On April 3, 2023, we published in the Federal Register (88 FR 
19663) a notice of our intent to request that OMB approve this 
information collection. In that notice, we solicited comments for 60 
days, ending on June 2, 2023. In an effort to increase public awareness 
of, and participation in, our public commenting processes associated 
with information collection requests, the Service also published the 
Federal Register notice on Regulations.gov (Docket No. FWS-HQ-ES-2023-
0050) to provide the public with an additional method to submit 
comments (in addition to the typical [email protected] email and U.S. 
mail submission methods). We received the following comments in 
response to that notice:
    Comment 1: Email comment from B. Ker received April 3, 2023. The 
commenter did not address the information collection requirements.
    Agency Response to Comment 1: No response is required.
    Comment 2: Electronic comment received via Regulations.gov (FWS-HQ-
ES-2023-0050-0002) from Richard Spotts on June 2, 2023. The commenter 
stated that voluntary conservation efforts were important but should 
not supersede or weaken FWS statutory and regulatory requirements. The 
commenter also stated that bolder conservation actions are urgently 
needed but did not address the information collection requirements.
    Agency Response to Comment 2: While we agree that voluntary 
conservation actions should not weaken our statutory and regulatory 
requirements, the comment does not directly respond to the need for the 
information collection or our estimate of burden hours. Therefore, we 
took no action in response to this comment.
    As part of our continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent 
burdens, we are again soliciting comments from the public and other 
Federal agencies on the proposed ICR that is described below. We are 
especially interested in public comment addressing the following:
    (1) Whether or not the collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether or not the information will have practical utility;
    (2) The accuracy of our estimate of the burden for this collection 
of information, including the validity of the methodology and 
assumptions used;
    (3) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
    (4) How might the agency minimize the burden of the collection of 
information on those who are to respond, including through the use of 
appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., 
permitting electronic submission of response.
    Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of 
public record. Before including your address, phone number, email 
address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you 
should be aware that your that your entire comment--including your 
personal identifying information--may be publicly available at any 
time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal 
identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we 
will be able to do so.
    Abstract: The Service is charged with implementing the Endangered 
Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). The goal 
of the Act is to provide a means to conserve the ecosystems upon which 
listed species depend and a program for listed species conservation. 
Through our Candidate Conservation program, we encourage the public to 
take conservation actions for species prior to them being listed under 
the Act. Doing so may result in precluding the need to list a species, 
may result in listing a species as threatened instead of endangered, 
or, if a species becomes listed, may provide the basis for its recovery 
and eventual removal from the protections of the Act.
    This policy provides incentives to landowners, government agencies, 
and others to carry out voluntary conservation actions for unlisted 
species. It allows the use of any benefits to the species from 
voluntary conservation actions undertaken prior to listing under the 
Act--by the person who undertook such actions or by third parties--to 
mitigate or offset the detrimental effects of other actions undertaken 
after listing. The policy requires participating States to track the 
voluntary conservation actions and provide this information to us on an 
annual basis. We require this information in order to provide the 
entities that have taken the conservation actions with proper credit 
that can later be used to mitigate for any detrimental actions they 
take after the species is listed.
    We plan to collect the following information:
     Description of the prelisting conservation action being 
taken.
     Location of the action (does not include a specific 
address).
     Name of the entity taking the action and their contact 
information (email address only).
     Frequency of the action (ongoing for X years, or one-time 
implementation) and an indication if the action is included in a State 
Wildlife Action Plan.
     Any transfer to a third party of the mitigation or 
compensatory measure rights.
    Each State that chooses to participate will collect this 
information from landowners, businesses and organizations, and Tribal, 
Federal, and local governments that wish to receive credit for 
voluntary prelisting conservation actions. States may collect this 
information via an Access database, Excel spreadsheet, or other 
database of their choosing and submit the information to the Fish and 
Wildlife Service (via email) annually. States will use this information 
to calculate the number of credits that the entity taking the 
conservation action will receive and will keep track of the credits and 
notify the entity of how much credit they have earned. The States will 
report the number of credits to the Service, and we will determine how 
many credits are needed by the entity to mitigate or offset the 
detrimental effects of other actions they take after the species is 
listed (assuming it is listed).
    Additionally, on February 9, 2023, the Service published a proposed 
rule (RIN 1018-BF99; 88 FR 8380) to clarify the appropriate use of 
enhancement of survival permits and incidental take permits; clarify 
our authority to issue these permits for non-listed species without 
also including a listed species; simplify the requirements for 
enhancement of survival permits by combining safe harbor agreements and 
candidate conservation agreements with assurances into one agreement 
type, and include portions of our five-point policies for safe harbor 
agreements,

[[Page 45245]]

candidate conservation agreements with assurances, and habitat 
conservation plans in the regulations to reduce uncertainty. We also 
propose to make technical and administrative revisions to the 
regulations.
    The goal of the rule is to reduce the time it takes for applicants 
to prepare and develop the required supporting documents, thus 
accelerating conservation implementation. The proposed regulatory 
changes are intended to reduce costs and time associated with 
negotiating and developing the required documents to support the 
applications. We anticipate that these improvements will encourage more 
individuals and companies to engage in these voluntary programs, 
thereby generating greater conservation results overall.
    When the Service finalizes this rule, anticipated in late 2023, 
candidate conservation agreements with assurances (CCAAs) and safe 
harbor agreements will no longer be in place, and will be combined into 
one agreement type--conservation benefit agreements (CBAs). We will 
update the Policy Regarding Voluntary Prelisting Conservation Actions 
to replace all references to CCAAs with references to CBAs (for non-
listed species). We do not anticipate this update to the policy to 
impact currently approved information collections.
    Title of Collection: Policy Regarding Voluntary Prelisting 
Conservation Actions.
    OMB Control Number: 1018-0177.
    Form Number: None.
    Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Respondents/Affected Public: State governments.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain a benefit.
    Frequency of Collection: On occasion for new submissions, ongoing 
for recordkeeping requirements, and annually for reporting 
requirements.
    Total Estimated Annual Nonhour Burden Cost: None.

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                                                                                      Average
                                                  Average number                    completion       Estimated
     Information collection        Annual number   of responses    Annual number     time per      annual burden
           requirement            of respondents       each        of responses      response         hours *
                                                                                      (hours)
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State-Developed Voluntary                      1               1               1             320             320
 Conservation Action Program....
Development of Conservation                    1               1               1             200             200
 Strategy.......................
Amendments to Conservation                     1               1               1              16              16
 Strategy.......................
Credit Agreement/Transfer of                   3               1               3              80             240
 Credits........................
Annual Reports..................               3               1               3              20              60
State Recordkeeping Requirements               3               1               3             240             720
State Reports--Voluntary                       3               1               3             .25               1
 Prelisting Conservation Actions
 Taken Under Program............
Site-Level Agreements...........               1               1               1             100             100
Formal Agreements...............               1               1               1               4               4
Monitoring Reports..............               3               1               3              24              72
Site-Level Reports..............               3               1               3              24              72
Management Plans................               1               1               1             120             120
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    Totals......................              24  ..............              24  ..............           1,925
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* Rounded.

    An agency may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required 
to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid OMB control number.
    The authority for this action is the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).

Madonna Baucum,
Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service.
[FR Doc. 2023-14943 Filed 7-13-23; 8:45 am]
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