Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Removing the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Population of Grizzly Bears From the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife

Federal Register, Volume 81 Issue 173 (Wednesday, September 7, 2016)

Federal Register Volume 81, Number 173 (Wednesday, September 7, 2016)

Proposed Rules

Pages 61658-61661

From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov

FR Doc No: 2016-21368

=======================================================================

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

50 CFR Part 17

Docket No. FWS-R6-ES-2016-0042; FXES11130900000-167-FF09E42000

RIN 1018-BA41

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Removing the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Population of Grizzly Bears From the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Proposed rule; reopening of comment period; availability of peer review and supplementary documents.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the reopening of the public comment period on our March 11, 2016, proposed rule to revise the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife, under the authority of the Endangered Species Act, by removing the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis). In our proposed rule, we emphasized that the governments of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho needed to promulgate regulations managing human-caused mortality of grizzly bears before we would proceed with a final rule. Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho recently finalized such mechanisms. We are also announcing the receipt of five independent peer reviews of the proposed rule. We are reopening the comment period for the proposed rule to allow all interested parties an additional opportunity to comment on the proposed rule in light of these documents. If you submitted comments previously, you do not need to resubmit them because we have already incorporated them into the public record and will fully consider them in preparing the final rule.

DATES: We will consider comments received or postmarked on or before October 7, 2016. Comments submitted electronically using the Federal eRulemaking Portal (see ADDRESSES, below) must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the closing date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by one of the following methods:

(1) Electronically: Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. In the search box, enter the docket number for the proposed rule, which is FWS-R6-ES-2016-0042. Then click on the Search button. On the resulting page, you may submit a comment by clicking on ``Comment Now!'' Please ensure you have found the correct document before submitting your comments. If your comments will fit in the provided comment box, please use that feature of http://www.regulations.gov, as it is most compatible with our comment review procedures. If you attach your comments as a separate document, our preferred file format is Microsoft Word. If you attach multiple comments (such as form letters or a petition), our preferred format is a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel.

(2) By hard copy: Submit by U.S. mail or hand-delivery to: Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS-R6-ES-2016-0042; Division of Policy, Performance, and Management Programs; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; MS: BPHC, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.

We request that you send comments only by the methods described above. We will post all comments on http://www.regulations.gov. This generally means that we will post any personal information you provide us (see Public Comments below in SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for more information).

Document availability: You may obtain the information and documents associated with this reopened public comment period and described below in SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION at http://www.regulations.gov under Docket No. FWS-R6-ES-2016-0042, from the Service's Mountain Prairie Region Grizzly Bear Web site https://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/es/grizzlybear.php, or from the office listed in FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Wayne Kasworm, Acting Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Grizzly Bear Recovery Office, University Hall, Room #309, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812; telephone 406-243-4903. For Tribal inquiries, contact Ivy Allen, Native American Liaison, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; telephone: 303-236-4575. Persons who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 800-877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Public Comments

We will accept written comments and information during this reopened comment period on the March 11, 2016, proposed rule (81 FR 13174) to remove the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) population of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. We specifically seek comments on the proposed rule in light of five peer reviews and recently finalized State regulatory mechanisms. The State regulations describe Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho's approach to managing human-caused mortality should we delist the grizzly bear in the GYE. The State regulatory mechanisms include Montana's Grizzly Bear Hunting Regulations, Chapter 67 of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission regulations, Idaho's Fish and Game Commission Proclamation, and the Memorandum of Agreement Regarding the Management and Allocation of Discretionary Mortality of Grizzly Bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Tri-State MOA). Copies of Grizzly Bear Montana Hunting Regulations, Chapter 67 of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission regulations, Idaho's Fish and Game Commission Proclamation, and the Tri-State MOA are available on the Internet at http://www.regulations.gov under Docket No. FWS-R6-ES-2016-0042 or at https://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/es/grizzlybear.php; or upon request from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Grizzly Bear Recovery Office (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT). We will consider information and recommendations from all interested parties.

Page 61659

You may submit your comments and materials concerning the proposed rule by one of the methods listed in ADDRESSES. We will not accept comments sent by email or fax or to an address not listed in ADDRESSES. If you submit a comment via http://www.regulations.gov, your entire comment--including your personal identifying information--will be posted on the Web site. If you submit a hardcopy comment that includes personal identifying information, you may request at the top of your document that we withhold this information from public review. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. We will post all hardcopy comments on http://www.regulations.gov.

Comments and materials we receive, as well as supporting documentation we used in preparing the proposed rule, will be available for public inspection on http://www.regulations.gov under Docket No. FWS-R6-ES-2016-0042, or by appointment, during normal business hours, at the Grizzly Bear Recovery Office (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT).

Background

On March 11, 2016, we published a proposed rule to revise the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in title 50 of the Code of Federal Regulations at 50 CFR 17.11(h), under the authority of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), by removing the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) population of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) (81 FR 13174). In the proposed rule, we explained that State regulations addressing human-caused grizzly bear mortality in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho must include five elements to maintain a recovered population of grizzly bears in the GYE:

1. Suspension of all discretionary mortality inside the Demographic Monitoring Area (DMA), except if required for human safety, if the model-averaged Chao2 population estimate falls below 600.

2. Suspension of grizzly bear hunting inside the DMA if total mortality limits for any sex/age class (as per tables 1, 2, and 3 in the proposed rule) are met at any time during the year (the mortality limits in these tables are reiterated in table 1 in this document, below).

3. Prohibition of recreational harvest of female grizzly bears with young.

4. In a given year, allowance of discretionary mortality only if nondiscretionary mortality (e.g., mortality from illegal kills, mortality from self-defense, calculated unknown/unreported mortalities, natural mortalities, and mortality from other causes such as vehicle collisions) does not meet or exceed total mortality limits for that year.

5. Provisions to ensure that any mortality that exceeds total mortality limits in any year will be subtracted from that age/sex class total mortality limit for the following year to ensure that long-term mortality levels remain within prescribed limits inside the DMA.

Table 1 \1\--Total Mortality \2\ Limits for Grizzly Bears Inside the

Demographic Monitoring Area

These mortality rates were calculated as those limits necessary to

manage toward the long-term average population size that occurred from

2002 to 2014 using the model-averaged Chao2 population estimate method

(674, 95% CI = 600-747). If the population estimate is fewer than 674,

the total mortality rate for independent females and dependent young

must be less than 7.6 percent. If population size is estimated at fewer

than 600 in any year, no discretionary mortality will occur unless

necessary for human safety.\3\

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total grizzly bear population

estimate

--------------------------------------

747

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mortality limit % for independent =2 years) (using model-

averaged Chao2 method)..........

Mortality limit % for independent 15% 20% 22%

MALES (>=2 years) (using model-

averaged Chao2 method)..........

Mortality limit % for DEPENDENT