48238 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 160 / Monday, August 18, 2008 / Notices 

comment letters are not required to 

contain the commentator’s name, 

address, or any other identifying 

information. Such comments may be 

submitted anonymously to the Service. 

Date: May 15, 2008. 

Gary G. Mowad, 

Acting Regional Director. 

Editorial Note: This document was 

received in the Office of the Federal Register 

on August 13, 2008. 

[FR Doc. E8–19085 Filed 8–15–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

[FWS–R8–ES–2008–N0193; 1112–0000–

81440–F2] 

Receipt of an Application for an 

Incidental Take Permit for the Santa 

Cruz Gardens Low-Effect Habitat 

Conservation Plan, Santa Cruz County, 

CA 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: Porter-Livingston 

Development, Inc., a California-based 

corporation, and O’Hara-Balfour LP, a 

California Limited Partnership, 

(Applicants), have applied to the U.S. 

Fish and Wildlife Service (Service or 

‘‘we’’) for an incidental take permit 

(permit) pursuant to section 10(a)(1)(B) 

of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, 

as amended (Act). We are considering 

issuing a 10-year permit to the 

Applicants that would authorize take of 

the federally endangered Ohlone tiger 

beetle (Cicindela ohlone) incidental to 

otherwise lawful activities associated 

with the construction of nine new 

single-family residences on 2.96 acres of 

a 58.5-acre property in Aptos, Santa 

Cruz County, California. Effects from 

covered activities on, and conservation 

measures for, the federally threatened 

Santa Cruz tarplant (Holocarpha 

macradenia) and the non-listed 

Gairdner’s yampah (Perideridia 

gairdneri ssp. gairdneri) are also being 

considered. 

We are requesting comments on the 

permit application and on our 

preliminary determination that the 

proposed Habitat Conservation Plan 

(HCP) qualifies as a ‘‘low-effect’’ HCP, 

eligible for a categorical exclusion under 

the National Environmental Policy Act 

of 1969, as amended. We explain the 

basis for this possible determination in 

a draft Environmental Action Statement 

(EAS) and associated Low Effect 

Screening Form. The Applicants’ low 

effect HCP describes the mitigation and 

minimization measures they would 

implement, as required in section 

10(a)(2)(B) of the Act, to address the 

effects of the project on the Ohlone tiger 

beetle, Santa Cruz tarplant, and 

Gairdner’s yampah. These measures are 

outlined in the SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION section below. The draft 

HCP and EAS are available for public 

review. 

DATES: Written comments should be 

received on or before September 17, 

2008. 

ADDRESSES: Please address written 

comments to Diane Noda, Field 

Supervisor, Ventura Fish and Wildlife 

Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 

2493 Portola Road, Ventura, California 

93003. You may also send comments by 

facsimile to (805) 644–3958. To obtain 

copies of draft documents, see 

‘‘Availability of Documents’’ under 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Douglass Cooper, Fish and Wildlife 

Biologist, (see ADDRESSES) telephone: 

(805) 644–1766, extension 272. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Availability of Documents 

You may obtain copies of the 

application, HCP, and EAS by 

contacting the Fish and Wildlife 

Biologist (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT). Documents will also be 

available for review by appointment, 

during normal business hours, at the 

Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office (see 

ADDRESSES) or via the Internet at: 

http://www.fws.gov/ventura. 

Background 

Section 9 of the Act and Federal 

regulation prohibit the ‘‘take’’ of fish or 

wildlife species listed as endangered or 

threatened, respectively. Take of listed 

fish or wildlife is defined under the Act 

to mean to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, 

shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or 

collect, or to attempt to engage in any 

such conduct. However, the Service, 

under limited circumstances, may issue 

permits to authorize incidental take; i.e., 

take that is incidental to, and not the 

purpose of, the carrying out of an 

otherwise lawful activity. Regulations 

governing incidental take permits for 

threatened and endangered species are 

found at 50 CFR 17.32 and 17.22, 

respectively. The taking prohibitions of 

the Act do not apply to federally listed 

plants on private lands unless such take 

would violate State law. Among other 

criteria, issuance of such permits must 

not jeopardize the existence of federally 

listed fish, wildlife, or plants. 

The Applicant owns 58.5 acres of 

property (Santa Cruz Gardens) that 

includes coastal terrace prairie, mixed 

grassland, non-native grassland, coastal 

scrub, coast live oak woodland, and 

riparian habitats. The project site is 

located in the Live Oak Planning Area, 

an unincorporated part of Santa Cruz 

County, north of the town of Soquel. 

Santa Cruz Gardens is situated 

approximately one-third of a mile north 

of Soquel Avenue and west of Rodeo 

Gulch Road. The property is bounded 

(approximately) by the terminus of 

Benson Avenue, Tiffany Court, and 

residential areas to the south; Thurber 

Lane to the west; Winkle Avenue and 

undeveloped lands to the north; and 

Rodeo Gulch Road to the east. 

Currently, the project site is 

undeveloped, but ranching, including 

grazing horses and/or livestock, 

previously occurred there. Existing 

surrounding land uses include singlefamily homes to the north and south, 

and commercial and higher-density 

multi-family housing to the south along 

Soquel Drive. Lower-density residential 

is located east of the site along Rodeo 

Gulch and across Thurber Lane to the 

west. The Applicant proposes to 

construct nine single-family residences, 

which include the footprints of the 

homes and associated access roads, 

driveways, sidewalks, and underground 

utilities on 2.96 acres of land. 

Development of this portion of the 

project site will result in the loss of 

approximately 1.24 acres of coastal 

prairie, 0.87 acre of mixed grasslandscrub mosaic, 0.65 acre of coast live oak 

woodland and eucalyptus groves, and 

0.2 acre of an existing emergency access 

road. 

The Applicant proposes to implement 

the following measures to minimize and 

mitigate take of the Ohlone tiger beetle 

and effects to the Santa Cruz tarplant 

and Gairdner’s yampah, including: 

Preserve (under a conservation 

easement), manage, and monitor a 9.3- 

acre coastal prairie/grassland 

management area for the benefit of the 

Ohlone tiger beetle, Santa Cruz tarplant, 

and Gairdner’s yampah; hire a Serviceapproved monitor and biologist; 

implement a construction worker 

education program; ensure monitoring 

of all grading, clearing, and other 

ground disturbing activities; mark 

construction area boundaries; construct 

drift fencing around the construction 

area; control trash accumulation and 

install covered trash receptacles; remove 

invasive, nonnative plant species; 

construct signs; use best management 

practices; and implement other 

minimization measures. The 


sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 160 / Monday, August 18, 2008 / Notices 48239 

conservation easement would be held 

by the Center for Natural Lands 

Management, a non-profit conservation 

organization located in Fallbrook, 

California. 

The impacts from the construction 

activities and use of the property 

associated with this residential 

construction project are considered to 

be negligible to the three species as a 

whole because: (1) The amount of 

habitat being disturbed is small relative 

to the amount of habitat available 

within the Applicant’s property, Santa 

Cruz area, and within the range of the 

species; (2) no individual Santa Cruz 

tarplants and Gairdner’s yampahs have 

been observed above ground in the 

project site since 1993; (3) most of the 

areas that will be disturbed during 

construction support few if any Ohlone 

tiger beetles; and (4) construction 

activities are expected to have negligible 

effects to the three covered species at 

the property. 

The Service’s proposed action is to 

issue an incidental take permit to the 

Applicant, who would then implement 

the HCP. Two alternatives to the taking 

of listed species under the proposed 

action are considered in the HCP. Under 

the No-Action Alternative, no permit 

would be issued, the proposed project 

would not occur, and the HCP would 

not be implemented. This would avoid 

immediate effects of construction and 

use of the property on the Ohlone tiger 

beetle, Santa Cruz tarplant, and 

Gairdner’s yampah. However, under this 

alternative, the Applicant would not be 

able to develop the property, and 

conservation measures for the Ohlone 

tiger beetle, Santa Cruz tarplant, and 

Gairdner’s yampah would not be 

implemented. A second alternative 

would result in a redesigned project 

with the reduction in the number of 

homes constructed and/or relocation of 

the development footprint to another 

portion of the parcel. However, much of 

the property is too steep to be 

developed, and relocation of the 

footprint elsewhere on the property 

would result in the removal of coastal 

terrace prairie that is known to be 

occupied by, and provides essential 

habitat for, the Ohlone tiger beetle, 

Santa Cruz tarplant, and Gairdner’s 

yampah. The Service considers the 

proposed development footprint as 

more desirable than development 

elsewhere on the property because the 

modification of habitat for the Ohlone 

tiger beetle, Santa Cruz tarplant, and 

Gairdner’s yampah would be minimal, 

and establishment of a conservation 

easement would benefit the three 

species. 

The Service has made a preliminary 

determination that the HCP qualifies as 

a ‘‘low-effect’’ habitat conservation plan 

as defined by its Habitat Conservation 

Planning Handbook (November 1996). 

Our determination that a habitat 

conservation plan qualifies as a loweffect plan is based on the following 

three criteria: (1) Implementation of the 

plan would result in minor or negligible 

effects on federally listed, proposed, and 

candidate species and their habitats; (2) 

implementation of the plan would result 

in minor or negligible effects on other 

environmental values or resources; and 

(3) impacts of the 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. As 

more fully explained in our EAS and 

associated Low Effect Screening Form, 

the Applicant’s proposed HCP qualifies 

as a ‘‘low-effect’’ plan for the following 

reasons: 

(1) Approval of the HCP would result 

in minor or negligible effects on the 

Ohlone tiger beetle, Santa Cruz tarplant, 

and Gairdner’s yampah and their 

habitats. The Service does not anticipate 

significant direct or cumulative effects 

to the Ohlone tiger beetle, Santa Cruz 

tarplant, or Gairdner’s yampah resulting 

from development and use of the Santa 

Cruz Gardens site. 

(2) Approval of the HCP would not 

have adverse effects on unique 

geographic, historic or cultural sites, or 

involve unique or unknown 

environmental risks. 

(3) Approval of the HCP would not 

result in any cumulative or growth 

inducing impacts and, therefore, would 

not result in significant adverse effects 

on public health or safety. 

(4) The project does not require 

compliance with Executive Order 11988 

(Floodplain Management), Executive 

Order 11990 (Protection of Wetlands), or 

the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, 

nor does it threaten to violate a Federal, 

State, local, or tribal law or requirement 

imposed for the protection of the 

environment. 

(5) Approval of the HCP would not 

establish a precedent for future actions 

or represent a decision in principle 

about future actions with potentially 

significant environmental effects. 

The Service therefore has made a 

preliminary determination that approval 

of the HCP qualifies as a categorical 

exclusion under the National 

Environmental Policy Act, as provided 

by the Department of the Interior 

Manual (516 DM 2, Appendix 1 and 516 

DM 6, Appendix 1). Based upon this 

preliminary determination, we do not 

intend to prepare further National 

Environmental Policy Act 

documentation. The Service will 

consider public comments in making its 

final determination on whether to 

prepare such additional documentation. 

We will evaluate the permit 

application, the HCP, and comments 

submitted thereon to determine whether 

the application meets the requirements 

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

requirements are met, the Service will 

issue a permit to the Applicant. 

Public Review and Comment 

If you wish to comment on the permit 

application, draft Environmental Action 

Statement or the proposed HCP, you 

may submit your comments to the 

address listed in the ADDRESSES section 

of this document. Our practice is to 

make comments, including names, 

home addresses, etc., of respondents 

available for public review. Individual 

respondents may request that we 

withhold their names and/or home 

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 provide a rationale 

demonstrating and documenting that 

disclosure would constitute a clearly 

unwarranted invasion of privacy. In the 

absence of exceptional, documented 

circumstances, this information will be 

released. All submissions from 

organizations or businesses, and from 

individuals identifying themselves as 

representatives or officials of 

organizations or businesses, are 

available for public inspection in their 

entirety. 

The Service provides this notice 

pursuant to section 10(c) of the Act and 

pursuant to implementing regulations 

for NEPA (40 CFR 1506.6). 

Dated: August 11, 2008. 

Diane K. Noda, 

Field Supervisor, Ventura Fish and Wildlife 

Office, Ventura, California. 

[FR Doc. E8–19074 Filed 8–15–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Bureau of Land Management 

[F–14837–A, F–14837–E2; AK–965–1410–

KC–P] 

Alaska Native Claims Selection 

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of decision approving 

lands for conveyance. 


sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES