[Federal Register: October 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 206)]
[Notices]
[Page 62432-62433]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr26oc04-24]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
[Docket No. 04-105-1]
Melaleuca; Availability of an Environmental Assessment
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of availability and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service has prepared an environmental assessment relative to
an application for a permit for the environmental release of the
nonindigenous fly Fergusonina turneri and its obligate nematode,
Fergusobia quinquenerviae, potential biological control agents for
Melaleuca quinquenervia. The environmental assessment documents our
review and analysis of environmental impacts associated with, and
alternatives to, issuing a permit for the environmental release of the
fly and nematode in the continental United States. We are making this
environmental assessment available to the public for review and
comment.
DATES: We will consider all comments that we receive on or before
November 26, 2004.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Please send four copies
of your comment (an original and three copies) to Docket No. 04-105-1,
Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3C71, 4700
River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state that your
comment refers to Docket No. 04-105-1.
E-mail: Address your comment to
regulations@aphis.usda.gov. Your comment must be contained in the body
of your message; do not send attached files. Please include your name
and address in your message and ``Docket No. 04-105-1'' on the subject
line.
Agency Web Site: Go to http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/cominst.html
for a form you can use to submit an e-mail comment through
the APHIS Web site.
Reading Room: You may read any comments that we receive on the
environmental assessment in our reading room. The reading room is
located in room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 14th Street and
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading room hours are
8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. To be sure
someone is there to help you, please call (202) 690-2817 before coming.
Other Information: You may view APHIS documents published in the
Federal Register and related information, including the names of groups
and individuals who have commented on APHIS dockets, on the Internet at
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Wayne Wehling, Biological and
Technical Services, Pest Permit Evaluations, PPQ, APHIS, 4700 River
Road Unit 133, Riverdale, MD 20737-1236; (301) 734-8757.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Australian broad-leaved paperbark tree, Melaleuca
quinquenervia, commonly called melaleuca, has become a successful
invasive weed in southern Florida because of its ability to produce
large quantities of seed. Individual trees bear up to 100 million
seeds. Massive, simultaneous seed release occurs after fire or when
some other event causes drying of the seed capsules, but a steady seed
rain occurs even without such an event. Densities of seedlings may be
as high as 10 million seedlings/hectare (ha), and growth and
development of the trees, along with simultaneous self-thinning
produces mature stands of 10-15,000 trees/ha. Individual trees can grow
into localized stands. These stands merge with other stands to form
expansive monocultures often covering hundreds of acres. Melaleuca has
invaded more than a half-million acres in southern Florida and over $25
million has been spent over the past decade to manage it, yet it
continues to spread.
Melaleuca was first imported to southern Florida as an ornamental
tree
[[Page 62433]]
around 1900. Later, it was widely planted in wetlands as an inexpensive
production method for the nursery trade in an attempt to produce a
harvestable commodity. By the late 1970's, melaleuca became recognized
as an invasive weed due to its ability to produce large quantities of
seed. It was added to the Florida Prohibited Plant List in 1990, and to
the Federal Noxious Weed List in 1992.
Melaleuca has been difficult to control. Herbicide treatments or
controlled burns cause the release of billions of seeds and result in
thickets of saplings where only a few trees existed prior to treatment.
These infestations are often in sensitive habitats that are difficult
to access and hazardous in which to work. Moreover, multiple followup
visits are necessary to hand remove seedlings that continue to reappear
from the remaining seed bank. Although melaleuca trees can be killed
using traditional methods, the inability to control reinvasion or to
limit continued spread remains a problem. Biological control has also
been pursued as an option, with the Australian weevil Oxyops vitiosa
and the melaleuca psyllid Boreioglycaspis melaleucae having been
released to control melaleuca in 1997 and 2002, respectively. More
recently, the nonindigenous fly Fergusonina turneri Taylor (Diptera:
Fergusoninidae) and its obligate nematode, Fergusobia quinquenerviae
Davies and Giblin-Davis (Tylenchida: Sphaerulariidae), have been
identified as potential biological control agents of melaleuca.
The fly F. turneri and the nematode F. quinquenerviae have a
mutualistic biology that causes galls on plant buds and young leaves of
melaleuca. Female flies are infected with parasitic female nematodes,
nematode eggs, and nematode juveniles that persist through the life of
the female fly. The female fly deposits multiple eggs along with the
juvenile nematodes into developing melaleuca buds. These nematodes
induce the formation of galls in the bud. Fly larvae then feed on the
gall tissue and complete development within the gall. The adult fly
will later emerge from a ``window'' in the gall wall, starting the
cycle all over again. This process hampers the ability of melaleuca to
regenerate by decreasing seed production and reducing survival of
melaleuca seedlings and saplings.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is
considering an application for a permit for the release of F. turneri
and F. quinquenerviae into the continental United States to reduce the
severity and extent of melaleuca infestation. APHIS' review and
analysis of the proposed action and its alternatives are documented in
detail in an environmental assessment (EA) entitled, ``Field Release of
the Biological Control Agent Fergusonina turneri Taylor (Diptera:
Fergusoninidae) and its Obligate Nematode, Fergusobia quinquenerviae
Davies and Giblin-Davis (Tylenchida: Sphaerulariidae) for the Control
of Melaleuca quinquenervia (Cav.) S.T. Blake (Myrtales: Myrtaceae) in
the Continental United States'' (September 2004). We are making this
environmental assessment available to the public for review and
comment. We will consider all comments that we receive on or before the
date listed under the heading DATES at the beginning of this notice.
The EA may be viewed on the Internet at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/.
In the middle of that page, click on ``Document/Forms Retrieval
System.'' At the next screen, click on the triangle beside ``Permits--
Environmental Assessments.'' A list of documents will appear; the EA
for melaleuca is document number 0039. You may request paper copies of
the EA by calling or writing to the person listed under FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT. Please refer to the title of the EA when
requesting copies. The EA is also available for review in our reading
room (information on the location and hours of the reading room is
listed under the heading ADDRESSES at the beginning of this notice).
The environmental assessment has been prepared in accordance with:
(1) The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended
(42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), (2) regulations of the Council on
Environmental Quality for implementing the procedural provisions of
NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), (3) USDA regulations implementing NEPA
(7 CFR part 1), and (4) APHIS' NEPA Implementing Procedures (7 CFR part
372).
Done in Washington, DC, this 21st day of October 2004.
Elizabeth E. Gaston,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. E4-2856 Filed 10-25-04; 8:45 am]
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