[Federal Register: June 28, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 125)]
[Notices]               
[Page 43678-43680]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr28jn02-89]                         

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

 
Availability of a Draft Environmental Assessment and Receipt of 
an Application for an Incidental Take Permit by Woodlands Group L.L.C. 
in Livingston Parish, LA

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Woodlands Group L.L.C. (Applicant) seeks 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, as amended 
(Act). The proposed action would involve approval of the Applicant's 
Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), as required by Section 10(a)(2)(B) of 
the Act, to minimize and mitigate any incidental take of the Federally 
endangered red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis). The 
minimization and mitigation measures outlined in the Applicant's HCP to 
address adverse effects of the proposed action on protected species are 
described further in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION below.
    The Service also announces the availability of an environmental 
assessment (EA) and HCP for the incidental take application. Copies of 
the EA and/or HCP may be obtained by making a request to the Regional 
Office (see ADDRESSES). Requests must be in writing to be processed. 
This notice also advises the public that the Service has made a 
preliminary determination that issuing the ITP is not a major Federal 
action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment 
within the meaning of Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental 
Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended. The Finding of No Significant 
Impact (FONSI) is based on information contained in the EA and HCP. The 
final determination will be made no sooner than 60 days from the date 
of this notice. This notice is provided pursuant to Section 10 of the 
Act and NEPA regulations (40 CFR 1506.6).
    If you wish to comment, you may submit comments by any one of 
several methods. Please reference permit number TE037661-0 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). 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

[[Page 43679]]

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, EA, and HCP should 
be sent to the Service's Regional Office (see ADDRESSES) and should be 
received on or before August 27, 2002.

ADDRESSES: Persons wishing to review the application, HCP, and EA 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 Field Supervisor, U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service, Ecological Services Field Office, 646 Cajundome 
Boulevard, Suite 400, Lafayette, Louisiana 70506. Written data or 
comments concerning the application, EA, or HCP should be submitted to 
the Regional Office. Comments and requests for the documentation must 
be in writing to be processed. Please reference permit number TE037661-
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. 
Troy Mallach, Fish and Wildlife Biologist, Lafayette Ecological 
Services Field Office (see ADDRESSES above), telephone 337/291-3123.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The subject permit would authorize take of 
red-cockaded woodpeckers on approximately 99 of the 971 acres owned by 
the Applicant in Livingston Parish, Louisiana. The proposed take would 
be incidental to otherwise lawful activities, including timber harvest 
and typical forest management activities on the Applicant's property 
(Project).
    The red-cockaded woodpecker is a territorial, non-migratory 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 that 
are at least 60 years old. 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 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, short-rotation silviculture, 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 preserve genetic variability, to provide 
significant support populations within distinct physiographic regions, 
and to provide a donor source of juvenile red-cockaded woodpeckers for 
natural dispersal or translocation. Red-cockaded woodpeckers on private 
lands have generally declined owing to the reluctance of landowners to 
manage their lands as red-cockaded woodpecker habitat, given the Act's 
take restrictions on timber harvesting and development where the 
species is present. The Service considers that red-cockaded woodpeckers 
geographically isolated on private lands will eventually cease to exist 
unless private landowners are encouraged to manage their lands for the 
species.
    The Applicant, by implementing the HCP, proposes to establish 
replacement groups within the only viable red-cockaded woodpecker 
population in southeastern Louisiana, at Big Branch Marsh National 
Wildlife Refuge (Refuge). The geographic scope of the HCP is 
approximately 99 acres of the Applicant's land holdings in Livingston 
Parish, Louisiana, and approximately 750 acres on Big Branch Marsh 
National Wildlife Refuge. The biological goal of the HCP is to achieve 
no net loss of red-cockaded woodpecker groups in southeastern 
Louisiana. The Applicant will provision seven recruitment territories 
on the Refuge and translocate juvenile red-cockaded woodpeckers there 
from the Project area to replace three groups taken incidental to 
timber harvest; the Refuge will continue to protect and manage habitat 
to further increase its red-cockaded woodpecker population. The 
Applicant and the Service believe the HCP would help accelerate 
stabilization of the Refuge's red-cockaded woodpecker population, thus 
enabling it to serve as a donor source of juveniles for translocation 
elsewhere. As a direct result of the Applicant's HCP, the Service will 
establish Conservation Partnerships with the Louisiana Department of 
Wildlife and Fisheries and any qualified private landowner who is 
willing and able to accept surplus juvenile red-cockaded woodpeckers 
from the Refuge as they become available.
    The ITP would authorize take of three red-cockaded woodpecker 
groups on the Applicant's property incidental to timber management 
activities, over the proposed 4-year permit duration. Among the 
minimization and mitigation measures proposed by the Applicant are no 
take of red-cockaded woodpeckers during the breeding season; 
establishment of three replacement groups on Big Branch Marsh National 
Wildlife Refuge by provisioning recruitment territories, translocating 
juveniles fledged on the Applicant's property, and monitoring formation 
of breeding pairs; and funding an endowment for habitat management 
(prescribed burning) over 5 years for the three additional groups 
established on Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge.
    The Service evaluated the environmental consequences of three 
alternatives to the proposed action in the EA, which contains the 
Applicant's HCP as an Appendix. Alternative 1 is the Service's proposed 
action, which includes implementation of the Applicant's HCP and the 
Conservation Partnership. The no-action alternative (Alternative 2) 
would prevent the Applicant from harvesting timber on approximately 99 
acres of occupied RCW habitat. Harvesting the remaining area of mature 
pine forest would still result in the natural extirpation of the three 
groups on the Applicant's property, and three groups on the adjacent 
property, within 20 years. That natural extirpation would occur due to 
habitat fragmentation and deterioration, geographic and demographic 
isolation, small population size, and lack of intensive pro-active 
management (especially prescribed fire or other hardwood control 
actions). Alternative 3 would involve mitigation of the Applicant's 
three groups on a different, privately owned mitigation site in 
southeastern Louisiana or elsewhere. That alternative was determined 
unsuitable because other existing recipient populations in southeastern 
Louisiana are too small and isolated to serve as acceptable mitigation 
sites, and no other private ownership elsewhere in Louisiana was both 
willing and able to accept mitigation groups at this time. After 
examining all mitigation alternatives, the Service decided that the 
proposed action (Alternative 1), which would accelerate the 
stabilization of one red-cockaded woodpecker population at Big Branch 
Marsh

[[Page 43680]]

National Wildlife Refuge and the reintroduction or augmentation of 
another population as restored habitat on private land becomes 
available, would result in the greatest biological benefit to the red-
cockaded woodpecker.
    As stated above, the Service has made a preliminary determination 
that the issuance of the ITP is not a major Federal action 
significantly affecting the quality of the human environment within the 
meaning of Section 102(2)(C) of NEPA. This preliminary information may 
be revised due to public comment received in response to this notice 
and is based on information contained in the EA and HCP. An appropriate 
excerpt from the FONSI reflecting the Service's finding on the 
application is provided below:
    Based on the analysis conducted by the Service, it has been 
determined that:
    1. Issuance of an ITP would not have significant effects on the 
human environment in the project area.
    2. The proposed take is incidental to an otherwise lawful activity.
    3. The Applicant has ensured that adequate funding will be provided 
to implement the measures proposed in the submitted HCP.
    4. Other than impacts to endangered and threatened species as 
outlined in the documentation of this decision, the indirect impacts 
which may result from issuance of the ITP are addressed by other 
regulations and statutes under the jurisdiction of other government 
entities. The validity of the Service's ITP is contingent upon the 
Applicant's compliance with the terms of the permit and all other laws 
and regulations under the control of State, local, and other Federal 
governmental entities.
    The Service will also evaluate whether the issuance of a Section 
10(a)(1)(B) ITP complies with Section 7 of the Act by conducting an 
intra-Service Section 7 consultation. The results of the biological 
opinion, in combination with the above findings, will be used in the 
final analysis to determine whether or not to issue the ITP.

    Dated: June 14, 2002.
Tom M. Riley,
Acting Regional Director.
[FR Doc. 02-16323 Filed 6-27-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P