Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Grizzly Bear Listing on the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife With a Revised Section 4(d) Rule

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR <SUBAGY>Fish and Wildlife Service</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 17</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FWS-R6-ES-2024-0186; FXES1111090FEDR-256-FF09E21000]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1018-BI14</RIN> <SUBJECT>Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Grizzly Bear Listing on the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife With a Revised Section 4(d) Rule</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service or FWS), propose to revise the listing of the grizzly bear ( <E T="03">Ursus arctos horribilis</E> ) in the lower-48 States under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act or ESA). After a review of the best scientific and commercial data available, we affirm that the currently listed grizzly bear population meets our requirements for consideration as a distinct population segment (DPS) under the Act and that the population remains likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future. However, we find that clarification of the geographic areas included within the DPS is warranted. Therefore, we propose to revise the listing by defining the boundaries of the contiguous U.S. grizzly bear DPS. The revised entity would include all geographic portions of the currently listed lower-48 entity that contain suitable habitat and where grizzly bears are currently found or are likely to be found in the future as populations recover. This area includes all of Washington and portions of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. The contiguous U.S. grizzly bear DPS would retain threatened species status. This proposed rule would promote conservation of the grizzly bear by ensuring that the listing under the Act explicitly reflects the areas where grizzly bears currently occur and are likely to occur in the future. Clarifying that the listing does not include areas outside of the grizzly bear's historical range will assist as recovery proceeds. We are also proposing to revise protective regulations for the grizzly bear issued under section 4(d) of the Act. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> <E T="03">Written comments:</E> We will accept comments received or postmarked on or before March 17, 2025. Comments submitted electronically using the Federal eRulemaking Portal (see <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> , below) must be received by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on the closing date. <E T="03">Public informational meetings and public hearings:</E> Four public hearings will be held on this proposed rule on the following dates: • On January 30, 2025, a virtual public informational meeting will run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. • On January 29, 2025, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The public informational meeting will run from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and the public hearing will run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. • On January 28, 2025, in Missoula, Montana. The public informational meeting will run from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and the public hearing will run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. • On February 10, 2025, in Cody, Wyoming. The public informational meeting will run from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and the public hearing will run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> <E T="03">Comment submission:</E> You may submit comments by one of the following methods: (1) <E T="03">Electronically:</E> Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> In the Search box, enter FWS-R6-ES-2024-0186, which is the docket number for this rulemaking. Then, click on the Search button. On the resulting page, in the panel on the left side of the screen, under the Document Type heading, check the Proposed Rule box to locate this document. You may submit a comment by clicking on “Comment.” (2) <E T="03">By hard copy:</E> Submit by U.S. mail to: Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS-R6-ES-2024-0186, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: PRB/3W, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803. We request that you send comments only by the methods described above. We will post all comments on <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> This generally means that we will post any personal information you provide us (see <E T="02">Information Requested</E> , below, for more information). <E T="03">Availability of supporting materials:</E> Supporting materials, such as the species status assessment report, are available at <E T="03">https://www.fws.gov/species/grizzly-bear-ursus-arctos-horribilis</E> or at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> at Docket No. FWS-R6-ES-2024-0186. <E T="03">Public informational meetings and public hearings:</E> The public information meetings and public hearings will be held on the dates and the times listed above in <E T="02">DATES</E> at the following locations: • Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Kootenai County Fairgrounds, 4056 N. Government Way, Building 19. • Missoula, Montana. Hilton Garden Inn, 3720 N Reserve Street. • Cody, Wyoming. Holiday Inn, 1701 Sheridan Ave. • Virtual: We will announce the details regarding how to participate on our website at <E T="03">https://www.fws.gov/grizzlyrulemaking.</E> For more information on the public informational meetings and public hearings, see <E T="03">Public Hearings,</E> below. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Hilary Cooley, Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, #356 Corbin, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812; telephone 406-243-4903. 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. Please see Docket No. FWS-R6-ES-2024-0186 on <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> for a document that summarizes this proposed rule. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Executive Summary</HD> <E T="03">Why we need to publish a rule.</E> On July 28, 1975, we published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> (40 FR 31734) a final rule to list the grizzly bear in the lower-48 States as a threatened species under the Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ). According to our “Policy Regarding the Recognition of Distinct Vertebrate Population Segments Under the Endangered Species Act” (DPS policy; 61 FR 4722, February 7, 1996), the appropriate application of the policy to pre-1996 DPS listings will be considered in our 5-year status reviews. We conducted a DPS analysis as part of our 2011 5-year status review, and concluded that the population segment of the grizzly bear in the lower-48 States is discrete from other grizzly populations and significant to the remainder of the taxon ( <E T="03">i.e., Ursus arctos horribilis</E> ) and that it meets the 1996 DPS Policy's standards for recognition as a DPS under the Act. We now reaffirm that the currently listed grizzly bear population satisfies the elements of our 1996 DPS Policy and that the population meets the Act's definition of a threatened species. However, we find that clarification of the DPS boundary is warranted, and we propose to revise the listing by defining the geographic extent of the contiguous U.S. DPS of the grizzly bear (hereafter, “grizzly bear DPS”) and to retain its threatened status. Pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, we must initiate a rulemaking to revise the listing (5 U.S.C. 551 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ). In a February 22, 2024, settlement agreement in <E T="03">Save the Yellowstone Grizzly</E> v. <E T="03">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,</E> No. 23-363 (D. Id), we committed to submit a final rule to the Office of the Federal Register on or before January 31, 2026. <E T="03">What this document does.</E> This document proposes to revise the current listing of the grizzly bear in the lower-48 States by defining the geographic extent of the grizzly bear DPS, to retain its status as a threatened species, and to revise its protective regulations under section 4(d) of the Act (a revised “4(d) rule”). As such, this action would revise the listing of the grizzly bear in title 50 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at § 17.11(h) (50 CFR 17.11(h)) and the grizzly bear's protective regulations under section 4(d) of the Act at 50 CFR 17.40(b). <E T="03">The basis for our action.</E> Under our 1996 DPS policy, in any proposed or final rule affecting the status of a possible DPS as an endangered or threatened species under the Act we analyze the following three elements: (1) discreteness of the population segment in relation to the remainder of the taxon to which it belongs; (2) the significance of the population segment to the taxon to which it belongs; and (3) the conservation status of the population segment in relation to the Act's standards for listing (61 FR 4725, February 7, 1996). Under the Act, we determine whether a species is an endangered species or a threatened species because of any of the following factors: (A) The present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range; (B) overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; (C) disease or predation; (D) the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; or (E) other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence. We have determined that the proposed grizzly bear DPS, which includes all of the grizzly bears in the currently listed entity, is a threatened species due to the following threats: habitat destruction and modification (Factor A); human-caused mortality (Factors B and C); and the isolated na ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 310k characters. 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