51366 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 176 / Wednesday, September 15, 2021 / Notices 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

[Docket No. FWS–R6–ES–2021–0056; 

FF06E21000 212 FXES11140600000] 

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife 

and Plants; Enhancement of Survival 

Permit Application; Programmatic Safe 

Harbor Agreement and Candidate 

Conservation Agreement With 

Assurances for 14 Aquatic Species 

and Associated Categorical Exclusion; 

State of Kansas 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of availability; request 

for comments. 

SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service (Service), are 

announcing the availability of 

documents related to an application for 

an enhancement of survival permit 

(permit) under the Endangered Species 

Act. The Kansas Department of Wildlife 

and Parks has applied for a permit 

associated with the implementation of a 

programmatic safe harbor agreement 

(SHA) and candidate conservation 

agreement with assurances (CCAA) for 

14 aquatic species in Kansas. The 

documents available for review and 

comment are the applicant’s 

programmatic SHA/CCAA, which is 

part of the permit application, and our 

draft environmental action statement 

and low-effect screening form, which 

support a categorical exclusion under 

the National Environmental Policy Act. 

We invite comments from the public 

and Federal, Tribal, State, and local 

governments. 

DATES: We will accept comments 

received or postmarked on or before 

October 15, 2021. Comments submitted 

online at Regulations.gov (see 

ADDRESSES) must be received by 11:59 

p.m. Eastern Time on October 15, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: Obtaining Documents: The 

documents this notice announces, as 

well as any comments and other 

materials that we receive, will be 

available for public inspection online in 

Docket No. FWS–R6–ES–2021–0056 at 

http://www.regulations.gov. 

Submitting Comments: To submit 

written comments, please use one of the 

following methods, and note that your 

information requests or comments are in 

reference to the Kansas Aquatic SHA/ 

CCAA. 

• Online: http://www.regulations.gov. 

Follow the instructions for submitting 

comments to Docket Number FWS–R6– 

ES–2021–0056. 

• U.S. Mail: Public Comments 

Processing, Attn: Docket No. FWS–R6– 

ES–2021–0056; U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service Headquarters, MS: PRB/3W; 

5275 Leesburg Pike; Falls Church, VA 

22041–3803. 

We request that you send comments 

by only one of the methods described 

above. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Gibran Suleiman, by phone at 785–539– 

3474, extension 114, by email at gibran_

suleiman@fws.gov, or via the Federal 

Relay Service at 800–877–8339. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), 

have received an application from 

Kansas Department of Wildlife and 

Parks (KDWP, applicant). The applicant 

has applied for a 50-year enhancement 

of survival permit (permit) under the 

Endangered Species Act of 1973, as 

amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). 

The application addresses the potential 

take of five aquatic species associated 

with the implementation of a 

programmatic safe harbor agreement 

(SHA) and nine aquatic species 

associated with the implementation of a 

programmatic candidate conservation 

agreement with assurances (CCAA) on 

non-Federal lands in the State of 

Kansas. The documents available for 

review and comment are the applicant’s 

programmatic SHA/CCAA, which is 

part of the permit application, and our 

draft environmental action statement 

and low-effect screening form, which 

support a categorical exclusion under 

the National Environmental Policy Act. 

We invite comments on all of the 

documents from the public and Federal, 

Tribal, State, and local governments. 

Safe Harbor Agreements and Candidate 

Conservation Agreements With 

Assurances 

A SHA is an agreement between the 

Service, partners, and landowners, for 

voluntary management of non-Federal 

lands to contribute towards recovery of 

an ESA-listed species in a manner that 

is consistent with the Service’s policy 

on SHAs (64 FR 32717, June 17, 1999) 

and applicable regulations. A CCAA is 

an agreement between the Service, 

partners, and landowners for voluntary 

management of non-Federal lands to 

remove or reduce key threats to species 

that may become listed under the ESA, 

in a manner that is consistent with the 

Service’s policy on CCAAs (81 FR 

95164, December 27, 2016) and 

applicable regulations. In return for 

implementing conservation measures in 

a SHA/CCAA, the Service gives 

participants assurances that the Service 

will not impose land, water, or resource 

use restrictions or conservation 

requirements on ESA-listed species, or 

those that may become listed, beyond 

those agreed to in the SHA/CCAA. 

Applicant’s Programmatic Safe Harbor 

Agreement/Candidate Conservation 

Agreement With Assurances 

The KDWP has submitted this 

programmatic SHA/CCAA to facilitate 

the reintroduction and implementation 

of conservation measures for the 

covered species on non-Federal lands in 

Kansas. The documents available for 

review and comment are the applicant’s 

programmatic SHA/CCAA, which is 

part of the permit application, and our 

draft environmental action statement 

and low-effect screening form, which 

support a categorical exclusion under 

the National Environmental Policy Act. 

To enroll in the programmatic SHA/ 

CCAA, a non-Federal landowner would 

enter into a landowner agreement with 

KDWP to enroll all or a portion of their 

property under the SHA and/or CCAA. 

Upon signature by both parties, KDWP 

would issue a certificate of inclusion to 

the non-Federal landowner, extending 

assurances and take authorization to the 

participating landowner for the 

appropriate covered species. The 

requested permit duration is for 50 years 

from permit issuance. Proposed 

conservation measures include the 

introduction, reintroduction, 

augmentation, or translocation of the 

covered species, and protection or 

enhancement of aquatic, wetland, 

riparian, or adjacent upland habitats for 

the covered species. Conservation 

measures would be site-specific and 

developed by the participating 

landowner and KDWP. Incidental take 

of covered species may occur as a result 

of the implementation of conservation 

measures or ongoing land management 

activities on the enrolled lands. 

Covered Species 

The five ESA-listed species included 

as covered species in the SHA are the 

Federally threatened Neosho madtom 

(Noturus placidus), Arkansas River 

shiner (Notropis girardi), and rabbitsfoot 

(Quadrula cylindrica cylindrica) and the 

Federally endangered Topeka shiner 

(Notropis topeka) and Neosho mucket 

(Lampsilis rafinesqueana). The covered 

species included in the CCAA are the 

alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys 

temminckii), peppered chub 

(Macrhybopsis tetranema), plains 

minnow (Hybognathus placitus), silver 

chub (Macrhybopsis storeriana), 

hornyhead chub (Nocomis biguttatus), 

butterfly mussel (Ellipsaria lineolata), 

fluted shell (Lasmigona costata), 

cylindrical papershell (Anodontoides 

ferussacianus), and flat floater 

(Anodonta suborbiculata). 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 176 / Wednesday, September 15, 2021 / Notices 51367 

Public Availability of Comments 

Written comments we receive become 

part of the administrative record 

associated with this action. Before 

including your address, phone number, 

email 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 request in your comment 

that we withhold your personal 

identifying information from public 

review, we cannot guarantee that we 

will be able to do so. 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 section 

10(c) of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) 

and its implementing regulations (50 

CFR 17.22 and 17.32) and NEPA (42 

U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and its 

implementing regulations (40 CFR 

1506.6 and 43 CFR 46). 

Stephen Small, 

Assistant Regional Director, Ecological 

Services, Mountain-Prairie Region. 

[FR Doc. 2021–19916 Filed 9–14–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4333–15–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

[FWS–R3–ES–2021–0062; 

FXES11140300000–212] 

Draft Environmental Assessment; 

Receipt of an Application for an 

Incidental Take Permit and Habitat 

Conservation Plan for Five Bat 

Species, Missouri 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of availability; request 

for comment and information. 

SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service, have received an 

application from the Missouri 

Department of Conservation (applicant) 

for an incidental take permit (ITP) under 

the Endangered Species Act. If 

approved, the permit would be for a 50- 

year period and would authorize the 

incidental take of two endangered 

species, the Indiana bat and the gray bat; 

one threatened species, the northern 

long-eared bat; and two species 

petitioned for Federal listing, the little 

brown bat and the tricolored bat. The 

applicant has prepared a habitat 

conservation plan (HCP) to cover a suite 

of activities associated with continued 

forest and habitat management within 

the State of Missouri. 

DATES: We will accept comments 

received or postmarked on or before 

October 15, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: Document availability: 

Electronic copies of the documents this 

notice announces, along with public 

comments received, will be available 

online in Docket No. FWS–R3–ES– 

2021–0062 at http://

www.regulations.gov. 

Comment submission: In your 

comment, please specify whether your 

comment addresses the proposed HCP, 

draft EA, or any combination of the 

aforementioned documents, or other 

supporting documents. You may submit 

written comments by one of the 

following methods: 

• Online: http://www.regulations.gov. 

Search for and submit comments on 

Docket No. FWS–R3–ES–2021–0062. 

• U.S. mail: Send comments to Public 

Comments Processing, Attn: Docket No. 

FWS–R3–ES–2021–0062; U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service; 5275 Leesburg Pike, 

MS: PRB/3W; Falls Church, VA 22041– 

3803. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John 

Weber, Deputy Field Supervisor, 

Missouri Ecological Services Field 

Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 

101 Park DeVille Drive, Suite A, 

Columbia, MO 65203; telephone: 573– 

234–2132. 

Individuals who are hearing impaired 

or speech impaired may call the Federal 

Relay Service at 1–800–877–8339 for 

TTY assistance. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We make 

available for public comment the 

applicant’s habitat conservation plan 

(HCP) and announce the availability of 

a draft environmental assessment, 

which has been prepared in response to 

the permit application in accordance 

with the requirements of the National 

Environmental Policy Act. We invite the 

public and local, State, Tribal, and 

Federal agencies to comment on these 

applications. Before issuing any of the 

requested permits, we will take into 

consideration any information that we 

receive during the public comment 

period. 

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service (Service), have received an 

application from the Missouri 

Department of Conservation (applicant) 

for an incidental take permit (ITP) under 

the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as 

amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), 

for its habitat conservation plan (HCP) 

for the for the Indiana bat, gray bat, 

northern long-eared bat, little brown bat, 

and tricolored bat (covered species). 

The applicant conducts habitat and 

forest management activities statewide 

in Missouri; the application covers 

nearly the entire State, except for lands 

owned and managed by other Federal 

and State entities, and would consist of 

approximately 42 million acres of 

covered species habitat. The applicant 

has prepared a habitat conservation plan 

that describes the continued habitat and 

forest management operations and 

measures that the applicant would 

implement to avoid, minimize, and 

mitigate incidental take of the covered 

species. The HCP proposes to restore, 

enhance, and maintain more than 1 

million acres of covered species habitat 

and has dedicated 28,000 acres of Stateowned land specifically for the 

enhanced restoration, management, and 

permanent protection of priority bat 

management zones to further offset 

impacts to the covered species. If 

approved, the ITP would be for a 50- 

year period and would authorize the 

incidental take of two endangered 

species, the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) 

and the gray bat (Myotis grisescens); one 

threatened species, the northern longeared bat (Myotis septentrionalis); and 

two species petitioned for Federal 

listing, the little brown bat (Myotis 

lucifugus) and the tricolored bat 

(Perimyostis subflavus). The applicant 

has prepared an HCP that describes the 

actions and measures that the applicant 

would implement to avoid, minimize, 

and mitigate incidental take of Indiana 

bat, gray bat, northern long-eared bat, 

little brown bat, and tricolored bat. We 

also announce the availability of a draft 

environmental assessment (EA), which 

has been prepared in response to the 

permit application in accordance with 

the requirements of the National 

Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 42 

U.S.C. 4321 et seq.). We request public 

comment on the application and 

associated documents. 

Background 

Section 9 of the ESA and its 

implementing regulations prohibit the 

‘‘take’’ of animal 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). 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 


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