Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 248 / Wednesday, December 27, 2006 / Notices 77783 

Based on the environmental 

assessment and the comments received, 

the Servcie adopted Alternative 2 as its 

preferred alternative. This alternative 

was considered to be the most effective 

for meeting the purposes of the refuge 

by conserving, restoring, and managing 

the refuge’s wetlands and moist-soil 

habitats and hydrology. Alternative 2 

best achieves national, ecosystem, and 

refuge-specific goals and objectives and 

positively addresses significant issues 

and concerns expressed by the public. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTAT: Tina 

Chouinard, Natural Resource Planner, 

Central Louisiana National Wildlife 

Refuge Complex, telephone: 318/253–

4238; fax: 318/253–7139; e-mail: 

tina_chouinard@fws.gov; or by writing 

to the Natural Resource Planner at the 

address in the ADDRESSESsection. 

AUTHORITY: This notice is published 

under the authority of the National Wildlife 

Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, 

Public Law 105–57. 

Dated: September 12, 2006. 

Cynthia K. Dohner, 

Acting Regional Director. 

Editorial Note: This document was 

received at the Office of the Federal 

Register on December 21, 2006. 

[FR Doc. 06–9871 Filed 12–26–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–55–M 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

Notice of Availability of Draft 

Comprehensive Conservation Plan and 

Environmental Assessment for Merritt 

Island National Wildlife Refuge in 

Brevard and Volusia Counties, Florida 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of Availability. 

SUMMARY: The Fish and Wildlife Service 

announces that a Draft Comprehensive 

Conservation Plan and Environmental 

Assessment for Merritt Island National 

Wildlife Refuge are available for review 

and comment. The National Wildlife 

Refuge System Administration Act of 

1966, as amended by the National 

Wildlife Refuge System Improvement 

Act of 1997, requires the Service to 

develop a comprehensive conservation 

plan for each national wildlife refuge. 

The purpose in developing a 

comprehensive conservation plan is to 

provide refuge managers with a 15-year 

strategy for achieving refuge purposes 

and contributing toward the mission of 

the National Wildlife Refuge System, 

consistent with sound principles of fish 

and wildlife management, conservation, 

legal mandates nd Service policies. In 

addition to outlining broad management 

direction on conserving wildlife and 

their habitats, plans identify wildlifedependent recreational opportunities 

available to the public, including 

opportunities for hunting, fishing, 

wildlife observation, wildlife 

photography, and environmental 

education and interpretation. 

DATES: Comments on the Draft 

Comprehensive Conservation Plan and 

Environmental Assessment for Merritt 

Island National Wildlife Refuge must be 

received no later than February 26, 

2007. 

ADDRESSES: A copy of the draft plan and 

environmental assessment is available 

on compact diskette or hard copy, and 

may be obtained by contacting the 

refuge at: Telephone: 321/861–0667; Email: MerrittIslandCCP@fws,giv; or by 

writing to: Merritt island NWR CCP, 

P.O. Box 6504, Titusville, Florida 

32782–6504. You may also access or 

download a copy of the plan and 

environmental assessment at the 

following Web site address: http:// 

southeast.fws.gov/planning/. Comments 

should be mailed to the refuge at the 

above address or e-mailed to: 

MerrittIslandCCP@fws.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The draft 

comprehensive conservation plan 

addresses several priority issues raised 

by the Service, the Florida Fish and 

Wildlife Conservation Commission, 

other governmental partners, and the 

public, including: the spread of exotic, 

invasive, and nuisance species; the 

threats to threatened, endangered, and 

other imperiled species; the threats and 

impacts of an ever-increasing human 

population and the associated demand 

for public use activities; the 

management/maintenance of 

impounded wetlands; the coordination 

between intergovernmental partners; 

and the decline in migratory birds and 

their habitats. 

To address these priority issues, four 

alternatives were developed and 

evaluated during the planning process. 

Alternative A continues current 

refuge management activities and 

programs. Under this alternative, the 

refuge would continue to maintain 550 

Florida scrub jay family groups across 

15,000 acres, 11–13 nesting pairs of bald 

eagles, and 6.3 miles of sea turtle 

nesting beaches. 

Alternative B expands refuge 

management actions on needs of 

threatened and endangered species. The 

refuge would aggressively manage for 

Florida scrub jays, restoring and 

maintaining 19,000–20,000 acres in 

optimal condition to support 900 family 

groups. Habitat management activities 

would support the number of nesting 

pairs of bald eagles to expand to 20, 

with increased protection of nest sites, 

development of artificial nesting 

platforms, and increased cultivation of 

future nest areas and nesting trees. 

Alternative C focuses refuge 

management actions on the needs of 

migratory birds. Current management 

activities for threatened and endangered 

species would remain the same or 

would be decreased. The refuge would 

manage intensively for waterfowl, 

increasing the acres of impounded 

wetlands managed to over 16,000 acres 

and annually supporting targets of 250 

breeding pairs of mottled duck, 60,000 

lesser scaup, 25,000 dabbling ducks, 

and 38,000 diving ducks. The refuge 

would also intensively manage for 

shorebirds, increasing to over 5,000 

acres managed in impounded wetlands. 

Alternative D, the Service’s proposed 

alternative, takes a more landscape view 

of the refuge and its resources, focusing 

refuge management on wildlife and 

habitat diversity. The refuge would 

support 500–650 Florida scrub jay 

family groups with 350–500 territories 

in optimal conditions across 15,000–

16,000 acres. With active management, 

the refuge would support 11–15 nesting 

pairs of bald eagles; maintain 6.3 miles 

of sea turtle nesting beaches; and 

maintain 100 acres of habitat for the 

southeastern beach mouse, while the 

refuge population would serve as a 

source for reintroduction of the beach 

mouse to other sites. Manatee-focused 

management would be re-established on 

the refuge. The refuge would manage 

15,000–16,000 acres in impounded 

wetlands with a waterfowl focus and 

would support targets of 250 breeding 

pairs of mottled ducks, 60,000 lesser 

scaup, 25,000 dabbling ducks, and 

38,000 other diving ducks. Visitor 

services, programs, and messages would 

be focused on wildlife and habitat 

diversity, while also including 

threatened and endangered species and 

migratory birds. 

The actions outlined in the draft plan 

and in two included step-down plans 

provide direction and guidance for 

management of Merritt Island National 

Wildlife Refuge. Successful 

implementation will depend on 

coordiantion and partnerships between 

the public, the Service, and other 

governmental agencies. 

After the review and comment period 

for the draft plan and environmental 

assessment, all comments will be 

analyzed and considered by the Service. 

All comments from individuals become 

part of the official public record. 

Requests for such comments will be 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
77784 Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 248 / Wednesday, December 27, 2006 / Notices 

handled in accordance with the 

Freedom of Information Act and other 

Service and Departmental policies and 

procedures. 

Merritt Island National Wildlife 

Refuge was established in 1963, to 

protect migratory birds through an 

agreement with the National 

Aeronautics and Space Administration, 

as an overlay of John F. Kennedy Space 

Center. The over 140,000 acres of 

beaches and dunes, estuarine waters, 

forested and non-forested wetlands, 

impounded wetlands, adn upland shrub 

lands and forests of the refuge support 

over 500 wildlife species and over 1,000 

plant species, including a variety of 

waterfowl, shorebirds, and neotropical 

migratory birds. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ron 

Hight, Refuge Manager, or Cheri 

Ehrhardt, Natural Resource Planner, at 

321/861–0667. 

Authority: This notice is published under 

the authority of the National Wildlife Refuge 

System Improvement Act of 1997, Public 

Law 105–57. 

Dated: August 9, 2006. 

Cynthia K. Dohner, 

Acting Regional Director. 

Editorial Note: This document was 

received at the Office of the Federal 

Register on December 21, 2006. 

[FR Doc. 06–9870 Filed 12–26–06; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–55–M 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

Receipt of Applications for 

Endangered Species Permits 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The public is invited to 

comment on the following applications 

to conduct certain activities with 

endangered species. 

DATES: We must receive written data or 

comments on these applications at the 

address given below, by January 26, 

2007. 

ADDRESSES: Documents and other 

information submitted with these 

applications are available for review, 

subject to the requirements of the 

Privacy Act and Freedom of Information 

Act, by any party who submits a written 

request for a copy of such documents to 

the following office within 30 days of 

the date of publication of this notice: 

Fish and Wildlife Service, 1875 Century 

Boulevard, Suite 200, Atlanta, Georgia 

30345 (Attn: Victoria Davis, Permit 

Biologist). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Victoria Davis, telephone 404/679–4176; 

facsimile 404/679–7081. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

public is invited to comment on the 

following applications for permits to 

conduct certain activities with 

endangered and threatened species. 

This notice is provided under section 

10(c) of the Endangered Species Act of 

1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 

seq.). If you wish to comment, you may 

submit comments by any one of the 

following methods. You may mail 

comments to the Fish and Wildlife 

Service’s Regional Office (see 

ADDRESSES section) or via electronic 

mail (e-mail) to victoria_davis@fws.gov. 

Please include your name and return 

address in your e-mail message. If you 

do not receive a confirmation from the 

Fish and Wildlife Service that we have 

received your e-mail message, contact 

us directly at the telephone number 

listed above (see FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section). Finally, 

you may hand deliver comments to the 

Fish and Wildlife Service office listed 

above (see ADDRESSES section). 

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. However, we will not 

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. 

Applicant: Joanne M. Potts, 

University of Saint Andrews, Saint 

Andrews, Fife, Scotland, TE139405–0. 

The applicant requests authorization 

to take (capture, radio tag/collar, 

examine, measure, release, recapture) 

the Key Largo woodrat (Neotoma 

floridana smalli) and Key Largo cotton 

mouse (Peromyscus gossypinus 

allapaticola) while developing efficient 

and reliable methods for long-term 

monitoring of the Key Largo woodrat’s 

population size. Although the Key Largo 

cotton mouse is not the target species, 

it may be incidentally captured. The 

proposed activities would occur on the 

Crocodile Lakes National Wildlife 

Refuge (Monroe County, Florida) and 

the Key Largo Hammocks Botanical 

Reserve (Dade County, Florida). 

Applicant: FTN Associates, Ltd., 

Dennis E. Ford, Little Rock, Arkansas, 

TE139474–0. 

The applicant requests authorization 

to take (capture, identify, release) the 

American burying beetle (Nicrophorus 

americanus) while conducting long-term 

monitoring of the population at the Fort 

Chaffee Maneuver Training Center in 

Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian 

Counties, Arkansas. 

Applicant: Steven Bradford Cook, 

Cookeville, Tennessee, TE140151–0. 

The applicant requests authorization 

to take (capture, temporarily hold, 

release) the Nashville crayfish 

(Orconectes shoupi) while developing a 

macro and micro habitat model. The 

proposed activities would occur in the 

Mill Creek Watershed, Davidson and 

Williamson Counties, Tennessee. 

Dated: December 1, 2006. 

Cynthia Dohner, 

Acting Regional Director. 

[FR Doc. E6–22135 Filed 12–26–06; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

Receipt of an Application for an 

Incidental Take Permit for 

Construction of a Single-Family Home 

in Charlotte County, FL 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: Carmen and John Wilson 

(Applicants) request an incidental take 

permit (ITP) for a duration of one year, 

pursuant to section 10(a)(1)(B) of the 

Endangered Species Act of 1973, as 

amended (Act). The Applicants 

anticipate removal of about 0.23 acre of 

Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma 

coerulescens) (scrub-jay) foraging, 

sheltering, and possibly nesting habitat, 

incidental to lot preparation for the 

construction of a single-family home 

and supporting infrastructure in 

Charlotte County, Florida (Project). The 

Applicants’ Habitat Conservation Plan 

(HCP) describes the mitigation and 

minimization measures proposed to 

address the effects of the Project to the 

scrub-jay. These measures are outlined 

in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

section below. 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES