Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 169 / Thursday, September 1, 2005 / Proposed Rules 52059 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

50 CFR Part 17 

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife 

and Plants; 12-Month Finding on a 

Petition To List the Yellowstone 

Cutthroat Trout as Threatened or 

Endangered 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Proposed rule; opening of 

public comment period on status 

review. 

SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service (Service), announce the 

opening of a public comment period for 

a status review of the Yellowstone 

cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki 

bouvieri) in the United States, which 

has been initiated pursuant to a recent 

Court order requiring us to prepare a 12- 

month finding on a petition to list the 

subspecies as threatened or endangered 

under the Endangered Species Act of 

1973, as amended (Act). This action will 

allow all interested parties an 

opportunity to provide information on 

the status of the subspecies of fish. 

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before October 31, 2005. 

ADDRESSES: If you wish to comment, 

you may submit your comments and 

materials by any one of the following 

methods: 

1. You may submit written comments 

and information by mail to Yellowstone 

Cutthroat Comments, U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service, 780 Creston Hatchery 

Road, Kalispell, Montana 59901–8239. 

2. You may hand-deliver written 

comments and information to our 

Creston Fish and Wildlife Center, at the 

above address, or fax your comments 

(406) 758–6887. 

3. You may send your comments by 

electronic mail (e-mail) to 

fw6_yellowstonecut@fws.gov. For 

directions on how to submit electronic 

filing of comments, by e-mail see the 

‘‘Public Comments Solicited’’ section. In 

the event that our internet connection is 

not functional, please submit your 

comments by the alternate methods 

mentioned above. 

All comments and materials received 

will be available for public inspection, 

by appointment, during normal business 

hours at our Kalispell Ecological 

Services Suboffice at the above address. 

Further information also is available on 

the Internet at http://mountainprairie.fws.gov/species/fish/yct/ 

index.htm. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Wade Fredenberg at the above address 

(fax: (406) 758–6887; telephone: (406) 

758–6872; e-mail: 

wade_fredenberg@fws.gov). 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

On February 23, 2001, we published 

a Federal Register notice (66 FR 11244) 

announcing our 90-day finding on an 

August 14, 1998, petition to list 

Yellowstone cutthroat trout as 

threatened or endangered under the Act. 

We determined that the petition failed 

to present substantial information 

indicating that listing this subspecies 

may be warranted. During the period 

leading up to this finding, we received 

written comments from the game and 

fish departments of the States of Idaho, 

Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada, 

as well as from Yellowstone National 

Park, several entities of the U.S. Forest 

Service, and the Shoshone-Bannock 

tribes of the Fort Hall Indian 

Reservation. In their letters and 

attachments, those entities provided 

important information relevant to the 

status of Yellowstone cutthroat trout. 

That information, as well as information 

supporting the petition, was used in the 

90-day finding. 

On January 20, 2004, the Center for 

Biological Diversity and others filed a 

complaint in the U.S. District Court for 

the District of Colorado, alleging that the 

Service had used the wrong procedures 

and standards to assess the petition as 

part of the 90-day finding process. On 

December 17, 2004, the Court ruled in 

favor of the plaintiffs and ordered the 

Service to produce a status review and 

12-month finding for Yellowstone 

cutthroat trout. On February 14, 2005, 

the Court clarified its order and attached 

a February 14, 2006, due date for the 

Service to complete the review and 

finding. 

Section 4(b)(3)(B) of the Act (16 

U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) requires that we 

make a 12-month finding whether a 

petitioned action is (a) not warranted, 

(b) warranted, or (c) warranted but the 

immediate proposal of a regulation is 

precluded by other pending proposals to 

determine whether other species are 

threatened or endangered. This finding 

is based on a status review that is 

normally initiated by a positive 90-day 

finding. In this case, the status review 

is being initiated by court order. 

We are opening a 60-day comment 

period to allow all interested parties an 

opportunity to provide information on 

the status of the Yellowstone cutthroat 

trout. The Service will base its 12- 

month finding on a review of the best 

scientific and commercial information 

available, including all information 

received during the public comment 

period. 

Public Comments Solicited 

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, which 

we will honor to the extent allowable by 

law. If you wish us to withhold your 

name or address, you must state this 

request prominently at the beginning of 

your comments. However, we will not 

consider anonymous comments. To the 

extent consistent with applicable law, 

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. 

Please submit electronic comments in 

an ASCII file and avoid the use of any 

special characters or any form of 

encryption. Also, please include ‘‘Attn: 

(Oncorhynchus clarki bouvieri)’’ and 

your name and return address in your 

e-mail message regarding the 

(Oncorhynchus clarki bouvieri) status 

review. If you do not receive a 

confirmation from the system that we 

have received your e-mail message, 

please submit your comments in writing 

using one of the alternate methods 

described above. 

Author 

The primary author of this document 

is Wade Fredenberg, Fisheries Biologist, 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Creston 

Fish and Wildlife Center, Kalispell, 

Montana. 

Authority: The authority for this action is 

the Endangered Species Act of 1973 as 

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

Dated: August 19, 2005. 

Marshall Jones, 

Acting Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service. 

[FR Doc. 05–17455 Filed 8–31–05; 8:45 am] 

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