[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 189 (Monday, October 2, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67792-67795]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-21665]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[Docket No. FWS-HQ-NWRS-2023-0126; FXRS126109HD000-234-FF09R23000; OMB 
Control Number 1018-New]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Programmatic Clearance 
for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Social Science Research

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 a new 
information collection.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
December 1, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Send your comments on the information collection request 
(ICR) by

[[Page 67793]]

one of the following methods (reference Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) Control Number 1018--Programmatic in the subject line of your 
comment):
     Internet (preferred): https://www.regulations.gov. Follow 
the instructions for submitting comments on Docket No. FWS-HQ-NWRS-
2023-0126.
     U.S. mail: Service Information Collection Clearance 
Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: PRB 
(JAO/3W), Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.
    We will not accept email or faxes. Comments and materials we 
receive, as well as supporting documentation, will be available for 
public inspection on https://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request additional information 
about this ICR, 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 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 (PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) and its implementing regulations at 5 
CFR 1320.8(d)(1), all information collections require approval under 
the PRA. We may not conduct or sponsor and you are not required to 
respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently 
valid OMB control number.
    As part of our continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent 
burdens, we invite the public and other Federal agencies 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.
    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. We will include or summarize each comment in our request 
to OMB to approve this ICR. 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 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: Monitoring and evaluating U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
(Service) activities, including the activities National Wildlife Refuge 
System (Refuge System), is an essential component of strategic and 
adaptive management. The collection of information is necessary to 
enable the Service to garner customer and stakeholder feedback in an 
efficient, timely manner, in accordance with our commitment to improved 
service delivery and customer experience. In particular, collection of 
information and rigorous social science inquiries are necessary to 
fulfil the goals of the President's Executive Order 14008--Tackling the 
Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, the principles of the Service's 
community-focused Urban Wildlife Conservation Program, a commitment to 
serving a broader and more diverse public, and allowing the Service to 
better understand the needs and perspectives of Tribal Nations and 
Native communities.
    The proposed programmatic clearance would cover social science 
surveys, interviews, and focus groups designed to provide information 
to Service managers and practitioners to improve quality and utility of 
agency programs, services, and planning efforts. To ensure continuous 
improvement, Service activities and projects require ongoing systematic 
assessment of their design, implementation, and outcomes. Data from 
collections undertaken through the proposed programmatic clearance 
would provide information for planning, monitoring, and evaluating 
Refuge System efforts, as well as efforts of other Service programs. 
The scope of this programmatic clearance includes individual surveys, 
focus groups, and interviews of refuge visitors, potential visitors, 
and residents of communities near Service-managed units, and 
stakeholders and partners, including Tribal interests.
    The President's Executive Order 14008 sets the goal of conserving 
``at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030'' through the 
Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful campaign. A 
collaborative approach is needed to achieve the principles for locally 
led efforts and better understand the patterns and trends occurring 
across public lands and waters. The Service's national visitor survey 
is one approach to collecting information from the public related to 
visitation across the Refuge System. The national visitor survey seeks 
to understand the recreation trends and experiences of visitors at 
refuges to better manage for future visitation that aligns with 
national conservation goals. One of the recommendations for early focus 
and progress in the America the Beautiful campaign specifically 
recommends increasing access for outdoor recreation, a management 
objective the monitoring data from the visitor survey can help to 
inform.
    The Service's Urban Wildlife Conservation program (Urban program) 
was established as a means to engage with urban communities more 
meaningfully in fish and wildlife conservation. It enumerates 
designation criteria for urban wildlife refuges (urban refuges), 
partnerships, and bird treaty cities, and describes how the standards 
of excellence apply to urban refuges and other urban activities. The 
Urban program aligns particularly well with the Department of the 
Interior's focus on equity and environmental justice, work that helps 
to achieve one of the President's Four Pillars (Racial Equity). Another 
recommendation outlined in the Conserving and Restoring America the 
Beautiful campaign includes creating safe outdoor opportunities in 
nature-deprived communities, a goal of which the Urban program is 
helping to achieve.
    The Service is required to ``evaluate and adapt'' the practices of 
the Urban program through internal review of the urban entities by the 
Division of Visitor Services and Communications every 5 years, 
including an expanded visitor services review for the Urban Refuges as 
per Policy 110 FW 1. The Division

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``must analyze the people they are reaching and conduct approved 
visitor use surveys to monitor the changes and track audience 
engagement.'' In addition, the Service is committed to evaluating 
progress and measuring success of the Urban Program's standards of 
excellence, such as ``know and relate to the community; connect urban 
residents with nature through the steppingstones of engagement; and 
ensure visitors feel safe and welcome.''
    The Service's Human Dimensions (HD) Branch, programmatically 
aligned within the National Wildlife Refuge System, will serve as the 
office of control for the programmatic clearance. The role of the HD 
Branch is to build conservation social science understanding, capacity 
and integration within the Service. A suite of questions will serve as 
the basis for all information collections under this programmatic 
clearance. The suite of questions will be used to develop surveys to 
respond to the above-named Presidential Priorities as well as 
adaptively ensure improved customer experience and satisfaction. As the 
office of control, the HD branch ICR Coordinator will conduct the 
necessary quality control, including assuring that each survey 
instrument comports with the guidelines of the programmatic clearance.
    We developed the following topic areas within the suite of 
questions to streamline the ICR process:
    (1) Respondent Characteristics (e.g., demographics, land and 
property characteristics, and visits to other public lands). This topic 
area allows us to understand customer demographic profiles and track 
visitation trends more holistically over time.
    (2) Communication (e.g., languages spoken, sources of information 
used, and use of social media and other web-based outlets). This topic 
area allows us to understand customer preferences for finding 
information.
    (3) Trip Planning and Logistics (e.g., purpose of trip, information 
on wayfinding used, and various trip characteristics). This topic area 
allows us to understand the logistics and information involved with a 
customer's trip planning experience and make strategic transportation 
decisions.
    (4) Recreation Activities, Experiences, and Preferences (e.g., 
recreation activity preferences, experience, and satisfaction). This 
topic area allows us to better why customers visit, understand 
preferences for wildlife-dependent recreation, and provide a quality 
customer experiences at specific sites.
    (5) Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs (e.g., understanding and 
opinions around nature, the outdoors, climate change, and the agency). 
This topic area allows us to improve future programming and 
communications with customers.
    (6) Resource Management Perceptions and Preferences (e.g., 
attitudes around resource protection, transportation needs, and other 
management decisions). This topic area allows us to understand current 
customer perceptions and anticipate as how customers would most likely 
react to future management actions.
    (7) Visitor Expenditures and Economic Inputs (e.g., trip expenses, 
information on local businesses, and landowner contributions). This 
topic area allows us to gather economic data related to conservation 
goals of the agency.
    (8) Public, Stakeholder, and Partner Engagement (e.g., 
participation in programs, partnerships, and various conservation 
actions). This topic area allows us to understand if and how the 
customer dedicates their time to conservation-related actions.
    (9) Program Evaluation (e.g., learning outcomes, program experience 
rating, and satisfaction). This topic area allows to better assess 
overall program outcomes and performance to improve future programming.
    To qualify for the generic programmatic review process, each 
individual collection under this programmatic clearance must be well-
defined in terms of its sample or respondent pool and research 
methodology; it should clearly fit within the overall plan and scope of 
the approved ICR; and the survey questions must show a clear tie to 
Service management needs. Individual collections may not raise any 
controversial policy issues, include topics of significant public 
interest, or go beyond the methods specified and approved by OMB in 
this programmatic ICR. Any individual collection that requests non-
agency goal-related data or information on controversial topics would 
be inappropriate for expedited review under this programmatic clearance 
and must go through the full PRA clearance process to solicit public 
feedback. In instances where HD Branch staff are involved with the 
development of the individual information collection, other uninvolved 
staff in the HD Branch or a member of the ICR review team would review 
the ICR.
    We will obtain OMB approval of all individual survey submissions 
developed using the pre-approved suite of questions before the survey 
can be initiated. If, after consultation with the principal 
investigator, the ICR coordinator recommends a proposed survey for 
approval, both the Service and Departmental Information Collection 
Clearance Officers (ICCO) will review the ICR before it is formally 
transmitted to OMB for review and approval.
    A copy of the draft suite of questions is available to the public 
for viewing in the docket on the https://www.regulations.gov website, 
or by submitting an email request to the Service ICCO as provided in 
the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this notice.
    Title of Collection: Programmatic Clearance for U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service Social Science Research.
    OMB Control Number: 1018-New.
    Form Number: None.
    Type of Review: New.
    Respondents/Affected Public: Persons visiting units managed by the 
Service; potential visitors, including ``virtual visitors'' who access 
content from a Service website; local community members; educators 
taking part in programs both on and off Service lands; government 
officials representing the local area; landowners; partners; 
stakeholders; and Tribal interests.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Frequency of Collection: On occasion.
    Total Estimated Annual Nonhour Burden Cost: None.

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                                                                                 Annual estimates
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
                                                                                    Completion
                              Mode                                   Number of       time per      Burden hours
                                                                    respondents   response (avg.        **
                                                                                     minutes)
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On-site, mail, internet surveys *...............................          20,333              20           6,778
Telephone surveys...............................................             833              25             347

[[Page 67795]]

 
All non-response surveys........................................             784               5              65
Focus groups/In-person interviews...............................              59              60              59
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Annual Total................................................          22,009  ..............           7,249
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    3 Year Total................................................          66,027  ..............          21,747
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* Includes 2-minute contact time for some surveys, interviews, and focus groups, and approximately 2,500
  electronic surveys.
** All figures are 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. 2023-21665 Filed 9-29-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4333-15-P