11374 Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 48 / Tuesday, March 13, 2007 / Notices 

compensation. Travel costs will be 

provided for Committee members who 

are special Government employees. The 

Service will provide necessary support 

services to the Committee. Committee 

meetings will be open to the public. 

Notice of committee meetings will be 

published in the Federal Register at 

least 15 days before the date of the 

meeting. The public will have an 

opportunity to provide input at these 

meetings. 

The Committee is expected to exist for 

2 years. Its continuation is subject to 

biennial renewal. 

In accordance with FACA, we will file 

a copy of the Committee’s charter with 

the Committee Management Secretariat, 

General Services Administration; 

Committee on Environment and Public 

Works, United States Senate; Committee 

on Resources, United States House of 

Representatives; and the Library of 

Congress. 

The Certification for establishment is 

published below. 

Certification 

I hereby certify that the Wind Turbine 

Guidelines Advisory Committee is 

necessary and is in the public interest 

in connection with the performance of 

duties imposed on the Department of 

the Interior by Public Laws 16 U.S.C. 

703–712, Migratory Bird Treaty Act; 16 

U.S.C. 668–668d, Bald and Golden Eagle 

Protection Act; 16 U.S.C. 1531–1544, 

Endangered Species Act; and 42 U.S.C. 

4371 et seq., National Environmental 

Policy Act. The Committee will assist 

the Department of the Interior by 

providing advice and recommendations 

on developing effective measures to 

avoid or minimize impacts to wildlife 

and their habitats. 

Dated: February 28, 2007. 

Dirk Kempthorne, 

Secretary of the Interior. 

[FR Doc. E7–4545 Filed 3–12–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

Proposed Low-Effect Quino 

Checkerspot Butterfly Habitat 

Conservation Plan for the San Diego 

Gas and Electric Company, San Diego, 

Riverside, and Orange Counties, CA 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service (Service), have received 

an application from the San Diego Gas 

and Electric Company (Applicant) for a 

40-year incidental take permit for one 

covered species pursuant to section 

10(a)(1)(B) of the Endangered Species 

Act of 1973, as amended (Act). The 

application addresses the potential for 

‘‘take’’ of the federally endangered 

Quino checkerspot butterfly 

(Euphydryas editha quino) associated 

with the operation and maintenance of 

the existing gas and electric system, and 

construction of new facilities. A 

conservation program to mitigate for the 

project activities would be implemented 

by the Applicant as described in the 

Quino Checkerspot Butterfly Habitat 

Conservation Plan for the San Diego Gas 

and Electric Company, San Diego, 

Riverside and Orange Counties, 

California (Plan), which would be 

implemented by the Applicant. 

We are requesting comments on the 

permit application and on the 

preliminary determination that the 

proposed Plan qualifies as a ‘‘loweffect’’ Habitat Conservation Plan, 

eligible for a categorical exclusion under 

the National Environmental Policy Act 

(NEPA) of 1969, as amended. The basis 

for this determination is discussed in 

the Environmental Action Statement 

and the associated Low Effect Screening 

Form (Screening Form), which is also 

available for public review. 

DATES: Written comments should be 

received on or before April 12, 2007. 

ADDRESSES: Comments should be 

addressed to the Field Supervisor, Fish 

and Wildlife Service, Carlsbad Fish and 

Wildlife Office, 6010 Hidden Valley 

Road, Carlsbad, CA 92011. Written 

comments may be sent by facsimile to 

(760) 431–5901. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 

Chris Otahal, Fish and Wildlife 

Biologist, Carlsbad Fish and Wildlife 

Office (see ADDRESSES); telephone (760) 

431–9440. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Availability of Documents 

Individuals wishing copies of the 

application, proposed Plan, and 

Screening Form should immediately 

contact the Service by telephone at (760) 

431–9440 or by letter to the Carlsbad 

Fish and Wildlife Office. Copies of the 

proposed Plan and Screening Form also 

are available for public inspection 

during regular business hours at the 

Carlsbad Fish and Wildlife Office (see 

ADDRESSES). 

Background 

Section 9 of the Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 

et. seq.) and its implementing Federal 

regulations prohibit the take of animal 

species listed as endangered or 

threatened. Take is defined under the 

Act as to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, 

shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or 

collect listed animal species, or to 

attempt to engage in such conduct (16 

U.S.C. 1538). However, under section 

10(a) of the Act, the Service may issue 

permits to authorize incidental take of 

listed species. ‘‘Incidental take’’ is 

defined by the Act as take that is 

incidental to, and not the purpose of, 

carrying out an otherwise lawful 

activity. Regulations governing 

incidental take permits for threatened 

and endangered species, respectively, 

are found in the Code of Federal 

Regulations at 50 CFR 17.22 and 50 CFR 

17.32. 

The Applicant is seeking a permit for 

take of the Quino checkerspot butterfly 

during the life of the permit. This 

species is referred to as the ‘‘QCB’’ in 

the proposed Plan. 

The Applicant proposes to grade 

existing gas and electrical transmission 

line access roads, many of which have 

not been graded in a number of years 

and now support QCB habitat, and 

conduct other activities such as 

construction of new facilities, 

equipment repair and replacement, 

insulator washing, tree trimming, 

maintenance of fire control areas, pole 

in-setting, and pole brushing. With the 

exception of road grading and 

construction of new facilities, operation 

and maintenance activities are expected 

to result in temporary impacts to QCB 

habitat. The Applicant proposes habitat 

restoration and enhancement in areas 

temporarily impacted, where 

appropriate, as specified in the Plan. 

Additionally, the Applicant’s operation 

and maintenance activities typically 

result in minor impacts to the landscape 

(i.e., impacts are usually measured in 

square-feet) and are spread over a broad 

area, which will reduce the level of 

significance of potential impacts to QCB 

habitat. Impacts of maintenance and 

operation activities will also spread over 

a 40-year period, thus providing an 

opportunity for habitat re-establishment 

and, in some areas, minimizing 

potential take from repetitive impacts 

within the same location. Up to 33 acres 

of QCB habitat may be lost through 

implementation of the Plan over 40 

years. The Applicant estimates 15 of the 

33 acres of potential impacts to QCB 

habitat will result from road grading, 

and that other activities (e.g., new 

construction, pole brushing, and pole 

in-setting) will account for the 

remaining 18 acres of potential impact. 

These impacts would occur in 

unoccupied QCB habitat; occupied QCB 

habitat; and QCB critical habitat as 

outlined in the Plan. 


cprice-sewell on PROD1PC66 with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 48 / Tuesday, March 13, 2007 / Notices 11375 

The Applicant proposes to mitigate 

the effects to QCB by fully 

implementing the Plan. The Plan 

emphasizes protection of habitat 

through impact avoidance and use of 

operational protocols, designed to avoid 

or minimize impact to QCB. The 

Applicant will supplement these 

operational protocols, or avoidance and 

minimization measures, with habitat 

restoration and enhancement measures, 

and other mitigation. The Applicant 

proposes to implement general and 

QCB-specific operational protocols, 

designed to avoid or minimize take of 

QCB. To mitigate temporary impacts, 

QCB habitat will be enhanced or 

restored, where appropriate. To mitigate 

for permanent impacts, the Applicant 

will implement one of the following 

mitigation measures: (1) Pay into a QCB 

habitat fund; the money will be used to 

benefit QCB through the acquisition, 

restoration, or enhancement of QCB 

habitat; (2) Enhance an unallocated 

portion of the Applicant’s existing 

mitigation parcel for the benefit of QCB; 

(3) Purchase credits from a to-beestablished Quino checkerspot butterfly 

bank, should one be approved by the 

Service in the future; or (4) Acquire a 

mitigation parcel that supports or could 

support QCB. Specific details regarding 

these mitigation measures may be found 

in the Plan. 

The Proposed Action consists of the 

issuance of an incidental take permit 

and implementation of the proposed 

Plan, which includes measures to 

mitigate impacts of the proposed 

activities on QCB. Two alternatives to 

the proposed action are considered in 

the Plan. Under the No Action 

Alternative, no permit would be issued 

and the Applicant would avoid take of 

QCB; however, avoidance of impacts 

will not be possible for some of the 

Applicant’s projects, which would 

preclude some critical projects from 

being completed or require the 

Applicant to seek individual take 

authorizations. Under this alternative, 

conservation measures would likely be 

developed on a case-by-case basis at the 

time that a project required take 

authorization. Under the Project-byProject Alternative, take of QCB would 

be addressed either through section 7 or 

10 of the Act on a project-by-project 

basis, but with a common set of 

minimization and mitigation measures 

developed in advance. The proposed 

Plan provides more comprehensive 

conservation of QCB than either of the 

two alternatives. In addition, the 

proposed Plan would be more efficient 

and would provide the Applicant with 

long-term predictability concerning the 

nature of its operations for which 

incidental takings are permitted, 

avoiding potential facilitycompromising delays. 

The Service has made a preliminary 

determination that approval of the 

proposed Plan qualifies as a categorical 

exclusion under NEPA, as provided by 

the Department of the Interior Manual 

(516 DM 2, Appendix 1 and 516 DM 6, 

Appendix 1) and as a ‘‘low-effect’’ plan 

as defined by the Habitat Conservation 

Planning Handbook (November 1996). 

Determination of Low-effect Habitat 

Conservation Plans is based on the 

following three criteria: (1) 

Implementation of the proposed Plan 

would result in minor or negligible 

effects on federally listed, proposed, and 

candidate species and their habitats; (2) 

Implementation of the proposed Plan 

would result in minor or negligible 

effects on other environmental values or 

resources; and (3) Impacts of the 

proposed Plan, considered together with 

the impacts of other past, present, and 

reasonably foreseeable similarly situated 

projects, would not result, over time, in 

cumulative effects to environmental 

values or resources that would be 

considered significant. 

Based upon this preliminary 

determination, we do not intend to 

prepare further NEPA documentation. 

We will consider public comments in 

making the final determination on 

whether to prepare such additional 

documentation. 

Public Review 

Written comments from interested 

parties are welcome to ensure that the 

issues of public concern related to the 

proposed action are identified. 

Comments and materials received will 

be available for public inspection, by 

appointment, during normal business 

hours at the office listed in the 

ADDRESSES section of this notice. All 

comments and materials received, 

including names and addresses, will 

become part of the administrative record 

and may be released to the public. 

Our practice is to make comments, 

including names, home addresses, home 

phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of 

respondents, available for public 

review. Individual respondents may 

request that we withhold their names 

and/or homes addresses, etc., but if you 

wish us to consider withholding this 

information you must state this 

prominently at the beginning of your 

comments. In addition, you must 

present a rationale for withholding this 

information. This rationale must 

demonstrate that disclosure would 

constitute a clearly unwarranted 

invasion of privacy. Unsupported 

assertions will not meet this burden. In 

the absence of exceptional, 

documentable circumstances, this 

information will be released. We will 

always make submissions from 

organization or businesses, and from 

individuals identifying themselves as 

representatives of or officials of 

organizations or businesses, available 

for public inspection in their entirety. 

This notice is provided pursuant to 

section 10(c) of the Act. We will 

evaluate the permit application, the 

proposed Plan, and comments 

submitted thereon to determine whether 

the application meets the requirements 

of section 10(a) of the Act. If the 

requirements are met, we will issue a 

permit to the Applicant for the 

incidental take of the Quino checkerspot 

butterfly associated with the operation 

and maintenance of the existing gas and 

electric system and construction of new 

facilities within San Diego, Riverside 

and Orange Counties, California. 

Dated: March 7, 2007. 

Jim A. Bartel, 

Field Supervisor, Carlsbad Fish and Wildlife 

Office, Carlsbad, California. 

[FR Doc. E7–4531 Filed 3–12–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

Receipt of Applications for Permit 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of receipt of applications 

for permit. 

SUMMARY: The public is invited to 

comment on the following applications 

to conduct certain activities with 

endangered species. 

DATES: Written data, comments or 

requests must be received by April 12, 

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 

within 30 days of the date of publication 

of this notice to: U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service, Division of Management 

Authority, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, 

Room 700, Arlington, Virginia 22203; 

fax 703/358–2281. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Division of Management Authority, 

telephone 703/358–2104. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 


cprice-sewell on PROD1PC66 with NOTICES