[Federal Register: June 5, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 107)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 31048-31049]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr05jn07-26]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
50 CFR Part 17
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 12-Month Finding
on a Petition To List the Wolverine as Threatened or Endangered
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
[[Page 31049]]
ACTION: Notice; initiation of status review and request for new
information.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the
opening of a public comment period regarding the status of the
wolverine (Gulo gulo luscus) in the contiguous United States. We are
initiating this status review pursuant to a court order requiring us to
prepare a 12-month finding on a petition to list the wolverine in the
contiguous United States as threatened or endangered under the
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). Through this action,
we encourage all interested parties to provide us information regarding
the status of, and any potential threats to, the wolverine in the
contiguous United States.
DATES: To be fully considered in the 12-month finding, comments must be
received on or before August 6, 2007. However, new information on the
wolverine will be accepted after the official comment period closes.
ADDRESSES: If you wish to provide new information, you may submit your
comments and materials by any of the following methods:
(1) You may mail or hand-deliver written comments and information
to Wolverine Status Review, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Montana
Field Office, 585 Shepard Way, Helena, MT 59601.
(2) You may e-mail your information to FW6_wolverine@fws.gov. For
directions on how to submit comments by email, see the ``Public
Comments Solicited'' section of this notice.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mark Wilson, Field Supervisor, Montana
Field Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (see ADDRESSES), or phone
406-449-5225. Additional information is available at http://www.r6.fws.gov/species/mammals/wolverine/
.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On July 14, 2000, we received a petition from the Biodiversity
Legal Foundation and other petitioners to list the wolverine within the
contiguous United States as a threatened or endangered species and to
designate critical habitat for the species. We published a 90-day
petition finding in the Federal Register on October 21, 2003 (68 FR
60112). The 90-day finding determined that the petition failed to
present substantial scientific and commercial information indicating
that listing the wolverine may be warranted.
Defenders of Wildlife and other plaintiffs filed a complaint on
June 8, 2005, alleging that we used the wrong standards to assess the
wolverine petition. On September 29, 2006, the U.S. District Court,
District of Montana, ruled that our 90-day petition finding was in
error and ordered us to make a 12-month finding on the status of the
wolverine. On April 18, 2007, the U.S. District Court granted our April
5, 2007 (unopposed), motion for a modification to extend the deadline
for the status review and 12-month finding for the wolverine by five
months, to February 28, 2008.
Section 4(b)(3)(B) of the Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) requires
that, for any petition to revise the Lists of Endangered and Threatened
Wildlife and Plants (Lists) that contains substantial scientific or
commercial information that the petitioned action may be warranted, we
make a finding within 12 months of the date of the receipt of the
petition on whether the petitioned action is (a) Not warranted, (b)
warranted, or (c) warranted, but that the immediate proposal of a
regulation implementing the petitioned action is precluded by other
pending proposals to determine whether other species are threatened or
endangered, and we are making expeditious progress to add or remove
qualified species from the Lists. This current status review process,
which will culminate in the 12-month finding on the wolverine, is
initiated by court order rather than initiated by a substantial 90-day
finding
At this time, we are soliciting new information on the status of
and potential threats to the wolverine. We will base our 12-month
finding on a review of the best scientific and commercial information
available, including all such information received as a result of this
notice. We are aware that several peer-reviewed research manuscripts on
the wolverine are currently in preparation for publication in The
Journal of Wildlife Management. If they are completed in time, we will
consider these papers, in addition to any other works constituting the
best scientific and commercial information available, in making our 12-
month finding.
Public Comments Solicited
Please submit email comments in an ASCII or Microsoft Word file and
avoid the use of any special characters or any form of encryption.
Also, please include ``Attn: wolverine status review'' in the subject
line of your e-mail message. If you do not receive a confirmation from
the system that we have received your e-mail message, please submit
your comments in writing using one of the alternate methods described
in the ADDRESSES section.
Before including your address, phone number, e-mail 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.
Author
The primary author of this document is staff of the Montana Field
Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Helena, MT.
Authority
The authority for this action is the Endangered Species Act of
1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).
Dated: May 24, 2007.
Randall B. Luthi,
Acting Director, Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. E7-10570 Filed 6-4-07; 8:45 am]
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