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Receipt of an Application for an Incidental Take Permit for Silvicultural Activities, Gates County, North Carolina
Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.
[Federal Register: January 23, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 15)]
[Notices]
[Page 3224-3225]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr23ja02-92]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
Receipt of an Application for an Incidental Take Permit for
Silvicultural Activities, Gates County, North Carolina
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: Mrs. Clarine Cooper and Mrs. Canzata Turner (Applicants) have
applied for an incidental take permit (ITP) from the Fish and Wildlife
Service (Service) pursuant to section 10(a)(1)(B) of the Endangered
Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), as amended. The proposed
permit would allow take of one group of the red-cockaded woodpecker
(Picoides borealis), a federally-listed, endangered species, incidental
to silvicultural activities on the applicants' property in Gates
County, North Carolina (Project).
The Applicants' Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) describes the
mitigation measures proposed to address the effects of the Project to
the protected species. These measures are outlined in the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section below. The Service has determined that the
Applicant's proposal, including the proposed mitigation measures, will
individually and cumulatively have a minor or negligible effect on
these species covered in the HCP. Therefore, the ITP is a ``low-
effect'' project and would qualify as a categorical exclusion under the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as provided by the Department
of Interior Manual (516 DM2, Appendix 1 and 516 DM 6, Appendix 1).
The Service announces the availability of the HCP for the
incidental take application. Copies of the HCP may be obtained by
making a request to the Regional Office (see ADDRESSES). Requests must
be in writing to be processed. This notice is provided pursuant to
Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act and NEPA regulations (40 CFR
1506.6).
The Service specifically requests information, views, and opinions
from the public via this Notice on the federal action. Further, the
Service specifically solicits information regarding the adequacy of the
HCP as measured against the Service's ITP issuance criteria found in 50
CFR parts 13 and 17.
If you wish to comment, you may submit comments by any one of
several methods. Please reference permit number TE048566-0 in such
comments. You may mail comments to the Service's Regional Office (see
ADDRESSES). You may also comment via the Internet to
david_dell@fws.gov. Please submit comments over the internet as an
ASCII file avoiding the use of special characters and any form of
encryption. Please also include your name and return address in your
internet message. If you do not receive a confirmation from the Service
that we have received your internet message, contact us directly at
either telephone number listed below (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT).
Due to Court order, the Department of Interior has temporarily lost
access to the internet and may not regain it by the time this notice is
published. Commentors are encouraged to submit comments by mail or
express courier, or to call (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT) to
confirm whether our internet capability has been restored.
Finally, you may hand deliver comments to either Service office
listed below (see ADDRESSES). Our practice is to make comments,
including names and home addresses of respondents, available for public
review during regular business hours. Individual respondents may
request that we withhold their home address from the administrative
record. We will honor such requests to the extent allowable by law.
There may also be other circumstances in which we would withhold from
the administrative record a respondent's identity, as allowable by law.
If you wish us to withhold your name and address, you must state this
prominently at the beginning of your comments. We will not; however,
consider anonymous comments. We will make all submissions from
organizations or businesses, and from individuals identifying
themselves as representatives or officials of organizations or
businesses, available for public inspection in their entirety.
DATES: Written comments on the permit application, Determination of Low
Effect and HCP should be sent to the Service's Regional Office (see
ADDRESSES) and should be received on or before February 22, 2002.
ADDRESSES: Persons wishing to review the application, HCP, and
supporting documentation may obtain a copy by writing the Service's
Southeast Regional Office, Atlanta, Georgia. Documents will also be
available for public inspection by appointment during normal business
hours at the Regional Office, 1875 Century Boulevard, Suite 200,
Atlanta, Georgia 30345 (Attn: Endangered Species Permits), or Raleigh
Field Office, Post Office Box 33726, Raleigh, North Carolina 27636-3726
(Attn: John Hammond). Written data or comments concerning the
application, HCP, or supporting documents should be submitted to the
Regional Office. Requests for the documentation must be in writing to
be processed. Please reference permit number TE048566-0 in such
comments, or in requests of the documents discussed herein.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. David Dell, Regional Permit
Coordinator, (see ADDRESSES above), telephone: 404/679-7313; or Mr.
John Hammond, Fish and Wildlife Biologist, Raleigh Field Office, (see
ADDRESSES above), telephone 919/856-4520, Ext 28.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The red-cockaded woodpecker is a
territorial, non-migratory bird species once common in the southern
Coastal Plain from east Texas to Florida and north to Maryland,
Missouri, and Kentucky. Red-cockaded woodpeckers roost and nest in
cavities excavated in large, living pine trees 60 years old or older.
The red-cockaded woodpecker is a cooperative breeder that lives in
family groups of one to nine birds, with each bird nesting in a
separate cavity; the aggregate of cavity trees used by a group is
called a cluster. Red-cockaded woodpeckers
[[Page 3225]]
prefer mature longleaf pine forests, but also inhabit loblolly, pond,
slash, shortleaf, and Virginia pine stands. Without periodic fire to
control hardwoods, red-cockaded woodpeckers abandon clusters as other
cavity competitors and predators typical of hardwood habitats move in.
The decline of the red-cockaded woodpecker is due primarily to loss of
the old-growth, fire-maintained southern pine ecosystem as a result of
logging, fire suppression, and conversion to non-forest land uses.
Recovery activities for the red-cockaded woodpecker are focused on
Federal lands. Private lands are also important in the Service's
recovery strategy to supplement habitat where the Federal land base is
insufficient to support recovery, to establish and maintain
connectivity with populations on public lands, and to provide a donor
source of juvenile red-cockaded woodpeckers for translocation into
designated recovery populations. Red-cockaded woodpeckers have
generally declined on private lands because of a lack of active habitat
management, and habitat fragmentation. The Service considers that red-
cockaded woodpeckers geographically isolated on private lands, as on
the Project site, will eventually cease to exist unless private
landowners are encouraged to manage their lands for the species.
The Applicants intend to harvest 86 acres of merchantable timber
and reforest the Project site in loblolly pine. This would result in
the take of one group of red-cockaded woodpeckers (in recent surveys,
numbering 2 adults and 2 juveniles) through harm due to alteration of
their habitat. The affected group of red-cockaded woodpeckers are not
part of a larger population. The nearest known groups outside the
applicants' property are about five miles away and do not regularly
interact with the group in the project area. This demographic
isolation, in a region of fragmented, discontinuous habitat
availability, greatly limits any contribution to species' recovery by
the red-cockaded woodpeckers affected by the project. The biological
goal of the applicants' HCP is to create a new, or augment an existing,
group of red-cockaded woodpeckers, via translocation of juveniles from
a donor population, into an area of better habitat and thereby help to
consolidate a more stable red-cockaded woodpecker population within the
species' historic range. This would be accomplished by the applicants'
contribution of $13,000 into an existing National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation fund. This fund is dedicated to purposes consistent with the
mitigation goal stated above. Expenditures from this fund would be made
as potential donor and recipient populations of red-cockaded
woodpeckers are identified in the future.
The Applicants and the Service believe the biological goal of the
HCP to augment or create a new group of red-cockaded woodpeckers at an
area of better habitat which would help to consolidate a more stable
red-cockaded woodpecker population at an opportune time in the future
would offset project impacts while allowing the applicants profitable
use of their property.
Under section 9 of the Act and its implementing regulations,
``taking'' of endangered and threatened wildlife is prohibited.
However, the Service, under limited circumstances, may issue permits to
take such wildlife if the taking is incidental to and not the purpose
of otherwise lawful activities. The Service's regulations for approving
such permit requests are contained in section 10(a)(2)(B) of the Act.
As stated above, we have determined that the HCP is a low-effect
plan that is categorically excluded from further NEPA analysis, which
does not require the preparation of an EA or EIS. Low-effect HCPs are
those involving: (1) Minor or negligible effects on federally listed or
candidate species and their habitats, and (2) minor or negligible
effects on other environmental values or resources. The Applicant's HCP
qualifies for the following reasons:
1. Approval of the HCP would result in minor or negligible effects
on the red-cockaded woodpecker and its habitat. We do not anticipate
significant direct or cumulative effects on this species as a result of
this project.
2. Approval of the HCP would not have adverse effects on known
geographic, historic, or cultural sites, or involve unique or unknown
environmental risks.
3. Approval of the HCP would not result in any significant adverse
effects on public health or safety.
4. The project does not require compliance with Executive Order
11988 (Floodplain Management), Executive Order 11990 (Protection of
Wetlands), or the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, nor does it
threaten to violate a federal, state, local, or tribal law or
requirement imposed for protection of the environment.
5. Approval of the HCP would not establish a precedent for future
action or represent a decision in principle about future actions with
potentially significant environmental effects.
We will evaluate the HCP and public comments to determine whether
the application meets the requirements of section 10(a) of the Act. We
will also evaluate whether the issuance of the ITP complies with
section 7 of the Act by conducting an intra-Service Section 7
consultation to ensure the ITP will not jeopardize the continued
existence of this species. We will use the results of this
consultation, in combination with the above findings, to determine if
the requirements of the ITP are met and whether or not to issue the
ITP.
Dated: January 16, 2002.
John R. Lemon,
Acting Regional Director.
[FR Doc. 02-1599 Filed 1-22-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P