Federal Register / Vol. 61, No. 116 / Friday, June 14, 1996 / Notices 30255

the River. Data obtained will assist

Federal agencies and others in planning

activities on the River in compliance

with the Endangered Species Act.

Written data or comments should be

submitted to the Regional Director, U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of

Ecological Services Operations, 1

Federal Drive, Fort Snelling, Minnesota

55111–4056, and must be received

within 30 days of the date of this

publication.

Documents and other information

submitted with this application are

available for review by any party who

submits a written requests for a copy of

such documents to the following office

within 30 days of the date of publication

of this notice: U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service, Division of Ecological Services

Operations, 1 Federal Drive, Fort

Snelling, Minnesota 55111–4056.

Telephone: (612/725–3536, x250); FAX:

(612/725–3526).

Dated: June 10, 1996.

John A. Blankenship,

Assistant Regional Director, Ecological

Services, Region 3, Fish and Wildlife Service,

Fort Snelling, Minnesota.

[FR Doc. 96–15127 Filed 6–13–96; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–55–M

Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species (CITES)

Notification; Review of the

Effectiveness of the Convention

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service,

Interior.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service (Service) announces a public

meeting to discuss an international

study of the effectiveness of the

Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and

Flora (CITES), and announces the

availability for public comment of a

questionnaire as part of this study. This

study is the result of a decision of the

Ninth Meeting of the Conference of the

Parties to CITES in Fort Lauderdale,

Florida in November 1994. This

decision gave the CITES Standing

Committee the responsibility to conduct

a review of the effectiveness of the

provisions and implementation of the

Convention, and to report its findings to

the next meeting of the Conference of

the Parties. An international contractor

in the United Kingdom has been

engaged for this study by the CITES

Standing Committee, and has produced

a questionnaire for governments to

respond to. The Service, in preparing

the U.S. government response, seeks the

comments of interested nongovernmental organizations. The

questionnaire itself is extensive and

would therefore be very expensive and

time consuming to reproduce here. The

Service prefers to make this

questionnaire available by electronic

means if possible. However, should

some member of the public not have

access to the transfer of this

questionnaire by electronic means,

alternate arrangements such as faxing or

mailing of copies will be made. Public

input from written comments received

by the Service will be considered in

formulating the United States response

to this questionnaire.

DATES: The Service will consider

comments and information received by

July 15, 1996.

ADDRESSES: The public meeting will be

held at 10:00 a.m. on July 19, 1996, in

the Auditorium of Marymount

University, 2807 N. Glebe Road,

Arlington, Virginia. Comments on the

questionnaire should be sent to Dr.

Susan Lieberman, U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service, Office of Management

Authority, 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Room

430, Arlington, VA 22203. Requests for

copies of the questionnaire should

either be sent electronically to ‘‘R9IA—

OMA.MOB@mail.fws.gov’’, via regular

mail, or via fax to (703) 358–2280.

Electronic requests for copies of the

questionnaire should have as their

subject line ‘‘SEND QUESTIONNAIRE’’.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr.

Susan S. Lieberman, U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service, Office of Management

Authority, telephone (703)358–2095, or

E-mail to

SusanlLieberman@mail.fws.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: At the

Ninth Meeting of the Conference of the

Parties to CITES in Fort Lauderdale,

Florida, November 1994 (COP9), the

Conference of the Parties decided to

assign the CITES Standing Committee

the task of conducting a review of the

effectiveness of the provisions and

implementation of the Convention, and

to report its findings to the next meeting

of the Conference of the Parties. This

decision is found in COP9 document

number Com. 9.10. The CITES Standing

Committee plans to conduct this review

in several phases, the first of which is

incorporated in the questionnaire made

available by this Notice.

The CITES Standing Committee was

directed to appoint a team to undertake

the review including an independent

consultant and two individuals chosen

by the CITES Standing Committee for

the information gathering portion of the

project. These two members would

ensure efficient access to information

about the Convention and complement

the expertise made available by the

independent consultant. On December

21, 1994, the CITES Secretariat

published Notification to the Parties No.

831, which contained a call for

proposals from prospective consultants

to conduct the study on the

effectiveness and implementation of the

Convention. The firm of Environmental

Resources Management (ERM), based in

London, United Kingdom, was

ultimately selected for the task. That

selection was made by a Monitoring

Committee of CITES Parties, including

several representatives to the CITES

Standing Committee. The Monitoring

Committee, which was selected by the

Standing Committee, is made up of

representatives of the following

governments: Argentina, Canada, Japan,

Namibia, New Zealand, and United

Kingdom. The study itself and the

report that is produced will be

monitored and reviewed by the same

Monitoring Committee and will be

presented to the December 1996 meeting

of the CITES Standing Committee. The

CITES Standing Committee selected

Jaques Berney (retired Deputy Secretary

General of CITES) and Marshall Jones

(Assistant Director for International

Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

or Dr. Susan Lieberman (Chief, CITES

Operations Branch, Office of

Management Authority, U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service), as the technical

advisors on the project.

The initial phase of this review is

designed to collate information

including but not necessarily limited to

the following: The stated and implied

objectives of the Convention and their

continued relevance to the conservation

of wild fauna and flora; the degree of

effectiveness of conservation for

representative species listed in the three

Appendices of CITES and the extent of

this degree of conservation that can be

attributed to the implementation of the

Convention; the relationship of the

Convention to other global or regional

conservation treaties or agreements and

how the objectives of the Convention

may be enhanced or hindered by the

existence and implementation of these

treaties or agreements; the ease and

effectiveness of implementation,

including enforcement, of the

Convention in Party states; and the

anticipated and actual roles of various

participants in the implementation of

the Convention, including Party states,

non-Party states, national and

international conservation

organizations, and national and

international trade and development

organizations.

ERM, the contractor on the study, has

transmitted a Questionnaire to all CITES
30256 Federal Register / Vol. 61, No. 116 / Friday, June 14, 1996 / Notices

Parties (currently 132 countries), as well

as international non-governmental

organizations. In addition, ERM is

meeting in person with several

governments, in order to obtain more

detailed responses to the questionnaire

and in order to assist ERM in preparing

its report on the effectiveness of the

Convention. Each country that is visited

has been asked by ERM to

independently decide how to consult

with neighboring countries, as well as

with non-governmental organizations;

the questionnaire sent to the Parties

recommends broad consultation. The

United States supports an exceedingly

broad, transparent, and consultative

process, with active input from all nongovernmental organizations interested

in the effectiveness of CITES and the

conservation of species subject to

international trade. ERM has stated that

it is limited in the countries it plans to

visit, based on limited time and funds.

The Monitoring Committee mentioned

above worked with ERM to plan the

country visits. ERM plans to consult

with the following CITES regions and

countries during June and July 1996;

those consultations will either involve a

personal delegation (an ERM

representative) or a consultation incountry by ERM’s regional office staff:

Europe (delegation to Brussels for

meetings with the European

Commission and European CITES

Committee), Asia (Japan and Thailand

for the delegation, China and India for

consultations); Oceania (Australia and

Papua New Guinea for consultations);

North America (delegation to the United

States); Africa (delegation to Zimbabwe,

consultations in Cameroon, Egypt,

Kenya, South Africa, and Senegal), and

Central and South America and the

Caribbean (consultations in Argentina,

Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and

possibly Trinidad and Tobago). The

United States will make every effort to

include representatives of Canada and

Mexico in the meetings and

consultations in the United States.

The United States will review

comments received from national and

international non-governmental

organizations based in the United

States, in the formulation of its response

to the questionnaire. Representatives of

the Service, as CITES Management and

Scientific Authority, along with other

federal agencies, will meet with the

ERM delegation to provide input on the

U.S. responses to the questionnaire and

the U.S. views on how to improve the

effectiveness of the Convention. The

public meeting with non-governmental

organizations that is announced in this

Notice will provide those organizations

with an opportunity to provide input

directly to ERM. ERM will use that

information in the preparation of its

report to the Standing Committee.

Author: This notice was prepared by Mark

Phillips and Dr. Susan S. Lieberman, Office

of Management Authority, U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service (703/358–2095; fax 703/

358–2280).

Dated: June 6, 1996.

J.L. Gerst,

Acting Director.

[FR Doc. 96–15201 Filed 6–13–96; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P

Bureau of Land Management

[CA–065–06–1990–01]

Environmental Impact Statement for

the California Desert Conservation

Area, CA

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management,

Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent to close the

public scoping period regarding the

preparation of an Environmental Impact

Statement for an open pit, heap leach

gold mine on portions of public lands in

the California Desert Conservation Area,

Kern County, CA. Comments will be

accepted until June 30, 1996.

SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 102(2)(c)

of the National Environmental Policy

Act of 1969, the Bureau of Land

Management (BLM) will be closing the

scoping comment.

ADDRESSES: Scoping comments may be

sent to: BLM Ridgecrest Resource Area

Manager, 300 S. Richmond, Ridgecrest,

CA 93555, ATTN: Ahmed Mohsen, EIS

Coordinator.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Golden

Queen is proposing to construct and

operate the Soledad Mountain Project,

an open pit precious metals (gold and

silver) mining and cyanide leaching

processing operation at the Soledad

Mountain project area located

approximately five miles southwest of

the town of Mojave in Kern County,

California.

The proposed action includes:

construction of facilities; mining and

processing of precious metals ores at the

rate of three to four million tons per

year for a period of ten to sixteen years;

stockpiling of overburden materials;

sales of overburden materials as

aggregate and construction materials;

and reclamation of the project site.

The project area is approximately

1,228 acres, of which 959 acres are

private land and 269 acres are

unpatented mining claims on public

lands administered by BLM. The

proposed surface disturbance is

approximately 782 acres on private

lands and 153 acres on public lands.

The proposed mining operation

includes twelve interconnected open pit

mining areas within the ultimate pit

boundary of the proposed open pit.

A March 28, 1996 Notice invited

comments and suggestions on the scope

of the analysis and notified the public

of upcoming meetings.

Two public meetings were held on:

Date: April 16, 1996, Tuesday

Time: 6:30 p.m.–10:00 p.m.

Place: Rosamond High School, 2925

Rosamond Blvd., Rosamond, CA

93560, Glennan Gymnasium

Date: April 17, 1996, Wednesday

Time: 6:30 p.m.–10:00 p.m.

Place: Mojave High School, 15732 ‘‘O’’

St., Mojave, CA 93501, Mustang

Gymnasium.

Comments were received from the

attendees during the public meetings

and by mail. Comments will be accepted

until June 30, 1996.

BLM has set up a WEB PAGE for

sharing information on the process and

the project. It can be accessed by

reaching http://www.ca.blm.gov/

GoldenQueen

For further information contact:

Ahmed Mohsen, BLM EIS Coordinator

at (619) 384–5421.

Dated: May 24, 1996.

Lee Delaney,

Area Manager.

[FR Doc. 96–15081 Filed 6–13–96; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–40–M

National Park Service

Final General Management Plan, SaintGaudens National Historic Site, New

Hampshire; Notice of Availability

Pursuant to Council on

Environmental Quality regulations and

National Park Service policy, the

National Park Service (NPS) announces

the release of the Saint-Gaudens

National Historic Site General

Management Plan/Final Environmental

Impact Statement, New Hampshire.

In accordance with section 102(2)(C)

of the National Environmental Policy

Act of 1969, the National Park Service

has prepared and announces the release

of the Final Saint-Gaudens National

Historic Site General Management Plan

and Environmental Impact Statement,

New Hampshire. An environmental

impact statement is required to assess

the impacts of implementing the

General Management Plan. The National