2012-1320. Proposed Information Collection; Wildlife and Sport Fish Grants and Cooperative Agreements

AGENCY:

Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION:

Notice; request for comments.

SUMMARY:

We (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) will ask the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve the information collection (IC) described below. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and as part of our continuing efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, we invite the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on this IC. This IC is scheduled to expire on August 31, 2012. We may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

DATES:

To ensure that we are able to consider your comments on this IC, we must receive them by March 26, 2012.

ADDRESSES:

Send your comments on the IC to the Service Information Collection Clearance Officer, Fish and Wildlife Service, MS 2042-PDM, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203 (mail); or [e-mail] (email). Please include “1018-0109” in the subject line of your comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request additional information about this IC, contact Hope Grey at [e-mail] (email) or [phone] (telephone).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program (WSFR), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, administers the following financial assistance programs in whole or in part. We award most financial assistance as grants, but cooperative agreements are possible if the Federal Government will be substantially involved in carrying out the project. You can find a description of most programs in the Catalog of Domestic Federal Assistance (CDFA).

CDFA	Program	Authority	Implementing regulations
15.616	Clean Vessel Act	33 U.S.C. 1322, 16 U.S.C. 777c	50 CFR 85.
15.614	Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act	16 U.S.C. 3951 et seq	50 CFR 84.
15.615	Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund	16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq., with special reference to section 1535	50 CFR 81.
15.626	Enhanced Hunter Education and Safety	16 U.S.C. 669 et seq. with special reference to 669h-1	50 CFR 80.
15.664	Fish and Wildlife Coordination and Assistance Programs	16 U.S.C. 661, 16 U.S.C. 742a, 16 U.S.C. 2901-2911	None.
15.667	Highlands Conservation	Highlands Conservation Act (November 30, 2004), Public Law 108-421	None.
15.633	Landowner Incentive Program	Annual Appropriations Acts for the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies for fiscal years 2003-07. 16 U.S.C. 460 l-4—460 l-11	None.
15.628	Multistate Conservation Grants	16 U.S.C. 669-669c, 669h-2, 16 U.S.C. 777-777c, 777m	None.
15.653	National Outreach and Communications	23 U.S.C. 101, 16 U.S.C. 777g(d)	None.
15.650	Research Grants (Generic)	16 U.S.C. 661, 16 U.S.C. 742f(a)(4)	None.
15.649	Service Training and Technical Assistance (Generic Training)	16 U.S.C. 661, 16 U.S.C. 742f(a)(4)	None.
15.605	Sport Fish Restoration	16 U.S.C. 777 et seq. except 777e-1 and g-1	50 CFR 80.
15.622	Sportfishing and Boating Safety Act (Boating Infrastructure Grants)	16 U.S.C. 777c, g, and g-1	50 CFR 86.
15.634	State Wildlife Grants	Annual Appropriations Acts for the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies for fiscal years 2001-12, 16 U.S.C. 460 l-4—460 l-11, fiscal years 2002 through 2007	None.
15.638 archived	Tribal Landowner Incentive Program	Same as the Landowner Incentive Program at CDFA number 15.633	None.
15.639	Tribal Wildlife Grants	Same as the State Wildlife Grants Program at CDFA number 15.634	None.
15.625 archived	Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Program	16 U.S.C. 669 et seq. with special reference to sections 669-669c	None.
15.611	Wildlife Restoration	16 U.S.C. 669 et seq	50 CFR 80.

To apply for financial assistance funds, you must submit an application that describes in substantial detail project locations, benefits, funding, and other characteristics. Materials to assist applicants in formulating project proposals are available on Grants.gov. We use the application to determine:

• Eligibility of the grant.
• Scale of resource values or relative worth of the project.
• Effect of the project on environmental and cultural resources.
• How well the proposed project will meet the purposes of the program's establishing legislation.

Persons or entities receiving grants must submit periodic performance reports that contain information necessary for us to track costs and accomplishments.

II. Data

OMB Control Number: 1018-0109.

Title: Wildlife and Sport Fish Grants and Cooperative Agreements.

Service Form Number: None.

Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved collection.

Description of Respondents: States; the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands; the District of Columbia; the territories of Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa; federally-recognized tribal governments; institutions of higher education; and nongovernmental organizations.

Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain a benefit.

Frequency of Collection: We require applications annually for new grants. We require amendments on occasion when key elements of a project change. We require quarterly and final performance reports in the National Outreach and Communication Program and annual and final performance reports in the other programs. We may require more frequent reports under the conditions stated at 43 CFR 12.52 and 43 CFR 12.914.

Activity	Number of respondents	Number of responses	Completion time per response (hours)	Total annual burden hours
Initial Application (project narrative)	200	2,500	40	100,000
Revision of Award Terms (Amendment)	150	1,500	2	3,000
Performance Reports	200	3,500	6	21,000
Totals	550	7,500		124,000

III. Comments

We invite comments concerning this information collection on:

• Whether or not the collection of information is necessary, including whether or not the information will have practical utility;
• The accuracy of our estimate of the burden for this collection of information;
• Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and
• Ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents.

Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of public record. We will include or summarize each comment in our request to OMB to approve this IC. Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment, including your personal identifying information, may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Dated: January 18, 2012.

Tina A. Campbell,

Chief, Division of Policy and Directives Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.