[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 145 (Thursday, July 29, 1999)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 41060-41061]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-19425]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
50 CFR Part 17
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 12-Month Finding
for a Petition To List the Junaluska Salamander as Endangered With
Critical Habitat
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of 12-month petition finding.
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SUMMARY: We, the Fish and Wildlife Service, announce a 12-month finding
for a petition to list the Junaluska salamander (Eurycea junaluska)
under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). After
reviewing all available scientific and commercial information, we have
determined that listing is not warranted for the Junaluska salamander
at this time.
The status of the Junaluska salamander is more secure than
indicated by the petitioners, in a large part because the number of
populations is more than twice the number previously known to exist.
Further, many of the factors the petitioners identified as those
threatening the species are merely conjecture or have been lessened by
the finding of additional populations. The species occurs in North
Carolina and Tennessee.
[[Page 41061]]
DATES: The finding announced in this document was made on July 14,
1999.
ADDRESSES: Send questions, comments, data, or information concerning
this petition to the State Supervisor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Asheville Field Office, 160 Zillicoa Street, Asheville, North Carolina
28801. The petition finding, supporting data, and comments are
available for public inspection, by appointment, during normal business
hours at the above address.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. J. Allen Ratzlaff at the above
address or telephone 828/258-3939, ext. 229.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Under section 4(b)(3)(B) of the Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), for
any petition to revise the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened
Wildlife and Plants that presents substantial scientific and commercial
information, we are required to make a finding within 12 months of the
date of receipt of the petition as to whether the petitioned action is
(a) not warranted, (b) warranted, or (c) warranted but precluded from
immediate proposal by other pending proposals of higher priority.
On March 31, 1998, we received a petition dated March 30, 1998,
from Appalachian Voices and the Biodiversity Legal Foundation. The
petition requested that we list the Junaluska salamander (Eurycea
junaluska) as an endangered species and designate critical habitat
under 16 U.S.C. 1533(a)(3)(A) of the Act. The petition identified
timber harvesting, predation by nonnative trout, exposure to acid-
bearing rock, siltation, genetic drift, the inadequacy of current laws,
and random events as immediate threats to the species' continued
existence. We made a 90-day finding that the petition presented
substantial information indicating that the requested action may be
warranted. We announced the 90-day finding and the initiation of a
status review in the Federal Register on October 28, 1998 (63 FR
57640).
The processing of this petition conforms with our final listing
priority guidance for fiscal years 1998 and 1999, published in the
Federal Register on May 8, 1998 (63 FR 25502). The guidance calls for
giving highest priority to handling emergency situations (Tier 1);
second highest priority to resolving the listing status of outstanding
proposed listings, resolving the conservation status of candidate
species, processing administrative findings on petitions, and
processing a limited number of delistings and reclassifications (Tier
2); and third priority to processing proposed and final designations of
critical habitat (Tier 3). The processing of this petition falls under
Tier 2.
We reviewed the petition, the literature cited in the petition, and
other available literature and information, and consulted with
biologists and researchers familiar with the Junaluska salamander.
Based on the best available scientific and commercial information, we
find that listing the Junaluska salamander (Eurycea junaluska) as
endangered or threatened is not warranted at the present time.
The Junaluska salamander is an aquatic to semi-aquatic lungless
(plethodontid) salamander known from a portion of the Blue Ridge
Mountains in southwestern North Carolina and southeastern Tennessee.
Bruce and Ryan (1995) described the habitat of the Junaluska salamander
at three sites in North Carolina as relatively low-elevation and wide-
basin streams, with sand-gravel substrates and numerous large rocks
that serve as refugia and brooding sites.
Prior to receiving the petition, we had some knowledge of the
status of the Junaluska salamander, principally from North Carolina.
Consequently, we had already initiated a status survey for the
Tennessee portion of the species' range. Through this survey and
surveys being conducted by the National Park Service in the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, biologists observed the Junaluska salamander
in 11 additional streams, for a total of 17 inhabited streams. Many of
these streams are on National Park Service land, where the species
receives considerable protection. The discovery of additional
populations also lessens the potential impacts that any particular
project or random event could have on the species. We do not expect any
of the other threats outlined by the petitioner to occur so quickly or
extensively as to pose substantial immediate threats to the Junaluska
salamander's continued existence. There is no direct evidence of any
population decline and no populations are known to have been lost since
the species was described, though it is likely that reservoir
impoundment negatively affected some populations. While small
populations are inherently more vulnerable to extirpation, many of the
reservoirs in the salamander's range have been in place for more than
60 years, and there is no evidence that the smaller populations are
suffering from genetic problems. Additionally, there is no evidence to
suggest that predation by nonnative trout is a significant threat to
the species. Trout feeding studies conducted in western North Carolina
show that salamanders are a rare food item for trout (Tebo and Hassler
1963).
We now consider threats to the Junaluska salamander to be low.
Listing this species as either threatened or endangered is not
appropriate at this time because it is not presently in danger of
extinction or likely to become so in the foreseeable future. However,
in the event that conditions change and the species becomes imperiled
due to the factors discussed in this finding, or other unforseen
factors, we could propose to list the species under the Act or, if
circumstances warranted, invoke the emergency listing provisions of the
Act.
References Cited
A complete list of all references cited herein, as well as others,
is available upon request from the Asheville Field Office (See
ADDRESSES section).
Author: The primary author of this document is Mr. J. Allen
Ratzlaff (see ADDRESSES section).
Authority
The authority for this action is the Endangered Species Act (16
U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).
Dated: July 14, 1999.
Marshall P. Jones,
Acting Director, Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 99-19425 Filed 7-28-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P
