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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 14, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3241-3243]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-00566]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS-R2-ES-2024-0185; FXES 11140200000-256-FF02ENEH00]

Notice of Availability; Draft Amendments to the Oil and Gas and 
Renewable (Wind and Solar) Energy, Power Line, and Communication Tower 
Habitat Conservation Plans for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken; Colorado, 
Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have 
received applications from LPC Conservation LLC (applicant) for amended 
incidental take permits (permits) supported by proposed amendments to 
the ``Oil and Gas and Renewable (Wind and Solar) Energy, Power Line, 
and Communication Tower Habitat Conservation Plans for the Lesser 
Prairie-chicken; Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas'' 
(HCPs). With this notice, we announce the availability for public 
comment of the permit applications, the proposed HCP amendments, and 
the draft environmental assessments (EAs). Currently, we are only 
accepting comments on the amended portions of the HCPs and EAs. We 
invite comments from the public and Federal, Tribal, State, and local 
governments.

DATES: We must receive your written comments on or before February 13, 
2025.

ADDRESSES: 
    Obtaining Documents: The documents this notice announces, as well 
as any comments and materials that we receive, will be available for 
public

[[Page 3242]]

inspection online in Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2024-0185 at https://www.regulations.gov.
    Submitting Comments: If you wish to submit comments on any of the 
documents, you may do so in writing by one of the following methods:
     Online: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments on Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2024-0185.
     U.S. mail: Public Comments Processing; Attn: Docket No. 
FWS-R2-ES-2024-0185; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; MS: PRB/3W; 5275 
Leesburg Pike; Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Clay Nichols, Lesser Prairie-Chicken 
Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ecological Services, 
Southwest Regional Office; telephone 817-471-6372. Individuals in the 
United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a 
speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access 
telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United 
States should use the relay services offered within their country to 
make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
(Service), make available for public comment applications submitted by 
LPC Conservation LLC (applicant) for amended incidental take permits 
(permits) under section 10(a)(1)(B) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA; 
16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) supported by proposed amendments to the ``Oil 
and Gas and Renewable (Wind and Solar) Energy, Power Line, and 
Communication Tower Habitat Conservation Plan for the Lesser Prairie-
chicken; Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas'' (HCPs) and 
the associated draft environmental assessments (EAs). If approved, the 
requested amendments would expand the plan areas of the HCPs to the 
north to reflect updates to the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus 
pallidicinctus; LEPC) estimated occupied range (EOR) made in 2022 by 
the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Interstate Working Group. By expanding the 
HCP plan areas, the HCPs would have the ability to provide LEPC 
conservation, as well as incidental take permit coverage for covered 
activities, throughout the entire 2022 EOR boundary.

Background

    Section 9 of the ESA and our implementing regulations at 50 CFR 
part 17 prohibit the ``take'' of fish or wildlife species listed as 
endangered or threatened. Take is defined under the ESA 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(19)). However, under section 10(a) of the ESA, we may issue 
permits to authorize incidental take of listed species. ``Incidental 
take'' is defined by the ESA as take that is incidental to, and not the 
purpose of, carrying out an otherwise lawful activity. Regulations 
governing such take of endangered and threatened species are found at 
50 CFR 17.21 and 17.22 and 50 CFR 17.31 and 17.32, respectively.

Proposed Action

    The proposed action is the issuance of amended incidental take 
permits (permits) under section 10(a)(1)(B) of the ESA supported by 
proposed amendments to the ``Oil and Gas and Renewable (Wind and Solar) 
Energy, Power Line, and Communication Tower Habitat Conservation Plan 
for the Lesser Prairie-chicken; Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma 
and Texas'' (HCPs) to be consistent with changes in the HCP plan areas, 
as well as other administrative changes.
    The HCPs were approved and permitted by the Service on December 1, 
2021 (Renewables HCP), and May 27, 2022 (Oil and Gas HCP). At the time 
of approval and permit issuance, the plan area for the HCPs was the 
2013 LEPC EOR boundary plus a 10-mile buffer. In 2022, after the 
Service's approval of the HCPs and issuance of the permits, the Lesser 
Prairie-Chicken Interstate Working Group revised the EOR of the LEPC to 
expand the range boundaries north and east to include LEPC occurrence 
documented in Colorado and to connect to the Kansas Shortgrass/
Conservation Reserve Program Mosaic. The proposed amendments update the 
HCPs and permit to incorporate the revised EOR boundary and expand the 
plan area boundaries in the HCPs accordingly.
    The proposed amendments include updated text, figures, and captions 
resulting from the update to the EOR and plan area. In addition, the 
amendments include updates to terminology used in figure legends; 
miscellaneous formatting, spelling, or grammatical corrections; and 
updates to the certificate of inclusion (CI) application found in 
Appendix B of each HCP. No changes are proposed to the duration of the 
HCPs and associated permits, covered activities, or original incidental 
take estimates.

Alternatives

    We are considering one alternative to the proposed action as part 
of this process, the no action alternative. Under the no action 
alternative, the Service would not approve the proposed amendments and 
would not issue the amended permits. In this case, the plan areas for 
the HCPs would remain as defined in the approved HCPs and permits.

Next Steps

    We will evaluate the permit applications, proposed amendments, 
draft EAs, and comments we receive to determine whether the 
applications meet the requirements of the ESA, National Environmental 
Policy Act (NEPA), and implementing regulations. If we determine that 
all requirements are met, we will approve the amendments and issue the 
amended permits under section 10(a)(1)(B) of the ESA to the applicant, 
in accordance with the terms of the HCPs and specific terms and 
conditions of the authorizing permits. We will not make our final 
decision until after the 30-day comment period ends and we have fully 
considered all comments received during the public comment period.

Public Availability of Comments

    All comments we receive become part of the public record associated 
with this action. If you submit a comment at https://www.regulations.gov, your entire comment, including any personal 
identifying information, will be posted on the website. If you submit a 
hardcopy comment that includes personal identifying information, such 
as your address, phone number, or email address, 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 hardcopy document to withhold your personal identifying 
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be 
able to do so. Moreover, all submissions from organizations or 
businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as 
representatives or officials of organizations or businesses, will be 
made available for public disclosure in their entirety.

Authority

    We provide this notice under the authority of section 10(c) of the 
ESA and its implementing regulations (50 CFR 17.22 and 17.32) and NEPA 
(42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and its implementing

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regulations (40 CFR 1500 through 1508 and 43 CFR part 46).

Amy Lueders,
Regional Director, Southwest Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 2025-00566 Filed 1-13-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4333-15-P
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