Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Establishment of a Nonessential Experimental Population of Grizzly Bear in the North Cascades Ecosystem, Washington State

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR <SUBAGY>Fish and Wildlife Service</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 17</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FWS-R1-ES-2023-0074; FXES11130100000-245-FF01E00000]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1018-BG89</RIN> <SUBJECT>Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Establishment of a Nonessential Experimental Population of Grizzly Bear in the North Cascades Ecosystem, Washington State</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), establish a nonessential experimental population (NEP) of the grizzly bear ( <E T="03">Ursus arctos horribilis</E> ) within the U.S. portion of the North Cascades Ecosystem (NCE) in the State of Washington under section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act or ESA). Establishment of this NEP is intended to support reintroduction and recovery of grizzly bears within the NCE and provide the prohibitions and exceptions under the Act necessary and appropriate to conserve the species within a defined NEP area. The geographic boundary of the NEP includes most of the State of Washington except for an area in northeastern Washington that encompasses the Selkirk Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone. The best available data indicate that reintroduction of the grizzly bear to the NCE, within the NEP area, is biologically feasible and will promote the conservation of the species. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective June 3, 2024. <E T="03">Information Collection Requirements:</E> If you wish to comment on the information collection requirements in this rule, please note that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is required to make a decision concerning the collection of information contained in this rule between 30 and 60 days after the date of publication of this rule in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . Therefore, comments should be submitted to OMB by June 3, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> This final rule, public comments on our September 29, 2023, proposed rule, a final environmental impact statement, and the record of decision, are available on the internet at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> at Docket No. FWS-R1-ES-2023-0074. <E T="03">Information Collection Requirements:</E> Written comments and suggestions on the information collection requirements may be submitted at any time to the Service Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: PRB (JAO/3W), Falls Church, VA 22041-3803 (mail); or <E T="03">Info_Coll@fws.gov</E> (email). Please reference “OMB Control Number 1018-0199” in the subject line of your comments. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Brad Thompson, State Supervisor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington Fish and Wildlife Office, 1009 College Street SE, Lacey, WA 98503; telephone 360 753 9440. 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. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> The Service is establishing a nonessential experimental population (NEP) of the grizzly bear ( <E T="03">Ursus arctos horribilis</E> ) within the U.S. portion of the North Cascades Ecosystem (NCE) in the State of Washington under section 10(j) of the Act. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Previous Federal Actions</HD> In November 2022, the National Park Service (NPS) and Service jointly initiated the process for developing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)/Grizzly Bear Restoration Plan for the North Cascades Ecosystem. On September 28, 2023, the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was published (88 FR 67277). One of three alternatives assessed in the draft EIS proposed to restore grizzly bears to the NCE through reintroduction of grizzly bears and designation of an NEP under the Act. On September 30, 2023, the Service published a proposed rule pursuant to section 10(j) of the Act (hereafter, a “10(j) rule”) to reintroduce grizzly bears to a portion of the NCE in Washington State as an NEP and manage them in accordance with a proposed zoned management approach (88 FR 67193). For a description of previous Federal actions concerning this species, please refer to the proposed rule or to our Environmental Conservation Online System (ECOS) species profile for the grizzly bear at <E T="03">https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/7642.</E> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Peer Review</HD> In accordance with our joint policy on peer review published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on July 1, 1994 (59 FR 34270), and our August 22, 2016, memorandum updating and clarifying the role of peer review, we solicited independent scientific review of the proposed rule (USFWS in litt. 2016, entire). We invited six independent peer reviewers and received three responses. The peer reviews can be found at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and <E T="03">https://fws.gov/library/categories/peer-review-plans.</E> In preparing this final rule, we incorporated the results of these reviews, as appropriate, into this final rule. A summary of the peer review comments, and our responses can be found in the Summary of Comments and Recommendations below. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Summary of Changes From the Proposed Rule</HD> As a result of comments, additional data received during the comment period, and additional analysis, we made several changes to the rule we proposed on September 29, 2023 (88 FR 67193). In addition to updating information, correcting errors, clarifying descriptions, and providing additional details and context in this final rule, we: • Changed the names of Management Zones 1, 2, and 3 to Management Areas A, B, and C to avoid potential confusion with numbered management zones in other parts of the species' range. • Specified that, within the NEP boundary, Management Area C would comprise all non-Federal lands within the NCE Recovery Zone and all other lands outside of or not otherwise included in proposed Management Areas A and B. • Specified that should a grizzly bear be found in the NEP area before our initial translocation of a grizzly bear into the NEP ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> a grizzly bear moving from Canada to the United States), it would be managed under the grizzly bear section 4(d) rule (50 CFR 17.40(b)). • Added allowance in all Management Areas of the NEP for preemptive relocation of grizzly bears by authorized agencies to prevent imminent conflict or habituation. • Added a provision for individuals to lethally take grizzly bears in Management Area C if the bear is in the act of attacking livestock (including working dogs) on private lands and added definitions of “in the act of attacking” and “working dogs.” • Reduced the timeframe for authorization to individuals for lethal take of a grizzly bear in Management Areas B and C from 2 weeks to 5 days. • Added definitions for “demonstrable and ongoing threat,” “human-occupied areas,” and “threat to human safety” in relation to provisions for conflict management; added a definition of “lasting bodily injury” relative to the limits of actions to deter grizzly bears; and clarified the meaning of “humane” when lethally removing a grizzly bear. • Clarified several aspects of the rule, including the following: ○ The ‘no net loss’ of core area requirement for the incidental take exception applies to U.S. Forest Service (USFS) actions on National Forest System lands in Management Area A only. ○ We will attempt to capture 3 to 7 bears per year (rather than 5 to 7 bears) to establish the initial target population of 25 bears. ○ Authorized agencies may relocate bears to a remote area that is not specific to a certain management area. ○ Individuals are authorized to deter grizzly bears to promote human safety, prevent conflict, or protect property, including individuals such as forest managers, loggers, and others conducting otherwise lawful forest management activities. ○ Reporting requirements for take do not apply to incidental take resulting from habitat modification; such reporting may otherwise be addressed as a result of section 7(a)(2) consultation when applicable. ○ USFS-issued road use permits that include hauling on non-Federal lands are included in Federal actions that are exempt from section 7(a)(2) consultation requirements. • Provided clearer definitions or enhanced discussion of the following terms: “deterrence,” “conflict bears,” “humane lethal take,” and “authorized agency.” <HD SOURCE="HD1">Summary of Comments and Recommendations</HD> In the proposed rule published on September 29, 2023 (88 FR 67193), we requested that all interested parties submit written comments on the proposal by November 13, 2023. We also contacted appropriate Federal and State agencies, scientific experts and organizations, and other interested parties and invited them to comment on the proposal. We invited all federally recognized Tribes in the State of Washington to consult on the development of the 10(j) rule, and this invitation was also sent to Tribal governments near potential source populations of grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) and Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). An informational virtual presentation was held online on October 17, 2023, with agency staff describing the proposed rule and answering questions submitted by the public. An informational presentation was also posted online for the public to view. Four in-person public meeting ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 311k characters. 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