Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 12-Month Finding for a Petition to List the Southern Rocky Mountain Population of the Boreal Toad as Endangered

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

50 CFR Part 17

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 12-Month Finding

for a Petition to List the Southern Rocky Mountain Population of the

Boreal Toad as Endangered

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of 12-month petition finding.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announces a 12-

month finding for a petition to list the southern Rocky Mountain

population of the boreal toad (Bufo boreas boreas) under the Endangered

Species Act of 1973, as amended. After review of all available

scientific and commercial information, the Service finds that listing

this species is warranted but precluded by other higher priority

actions to amend the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and

Plants.

DATES: The finding announced in this document was made on March 15,

1995. Comments, questions, or information regarding status and threats

to the boreal toad may be submitted until further notice.

ADDRESSES: Comments, questions, or information concerning this finding

may be submitted to the Assistant Field Supervisor, U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service, 764 Horizon Drive, South Annex A, Grand Junction,

Colorado 81506-3946. The petition, finding, and supporting documents

are available for public inspection, by appointment,

[[Page 15282]] during normal business hours at the above address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Terry Ireland (see ADDRESSES above) at telephone (303) 243-2778.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

Section 4(b)(3)(B) of the Endangered Species Act (Act) of 1973, as

amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), requires that, for any petition to

revise the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants that

contains substantial scientific and commercial information, the Fish

and Wildlife Service (Service) make a finding within 12 months of the

date of the receipt of the petition on 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.

Notice of such 12-month findings are to be published promptly in the

Federal Register. This notice meets the latter requirement for the

Service's 12-month administrative finding regarding the petition

discussed below. Information contained in this notice is a summary of

the information in the 12-month finding, which is the Service's

decision document.

On September 30, 1993, the Service received a petition dated

September 27, 1993, from the Biodiversity Legal Foundation located in

Boulder, Colorado, and Dr. Peter Hovingh, a professor at the University

of Utah. The petition requested that the southern Rocky Mountain

population of the ``western boreal toad'' (Bufo boreas boreas) be

listed as endangered and that critical habitat be designated. A 90-day

finding announced in the Federal Register on July 22, 1994 (59 FR

37439), indicated that the petition presented substantial information

indicating that the requested action may be warranted.

The finding also announced a public comment period extending to

September 20, 1994. Forty-three comment letters were received. Two

commenters provided scientific information on status, threats, and

genetics of the boreal toad and concluded that listing was warranted. A

third commenter provided a hypothesis for boreal toad declines. The

other 40 letters opposed Federal listing and 9 provided information on

status or regulatory protection afforded to the southern Rocky Mountain

population of the boreal toad. Several residents of the Laramie,

Wyoming, area were concerned about restriction of mosquito spraying.

The Service does not believe that mosquito spraying in Laramie

contributed to declines of the boreal toad because Laramie lies below

2,300 meters (7,500 feet) which is the lower elevational range

inhabited by the boreal toad.

Boreal toads were once common throughout much of the high

elevations in Colorado (Burger and Bragg 1946, Smith et al. 1965,

Hammerson 1989) and in the Sierra Madre, Medicine Bow, and southern

Laramie Mountains of southeast Wyoming (Baxter and Stone 1985). Boreal

toads were found at only three localities at the southern periphery of

their range in the San Juan Mountains of New Mexico: Lagunitas,

Canjilon and Trout Lakes (Campbell and Degenhardt 1971, Jones 1978, New

Mexico Department of Game and Fish 1988). Altitudinal distribution

ranges from 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) Baxter 1952) to approximately

3,700 meters (12,000 feet) (C. Pague, Colorado Natural Heritage

Program, in litt. 1994).

Declines in boreal toad demes (a small group or population of

organisms that interbreed) were first documented in New Mexico in 1984

(Woodward and Mitchell 1985), in Colorado in 1974 (Carey 1993), and in

southern Wyoming in 1986 (Corn et al. 1989). Boreal toads are now

extirpated from the three known historic sites in New Mexico (Stuart

and Painter 1994). Corn et al. (1989) found that boreal toads were

absent from 83 percent of locations in Colorado and Wyoming previously

known to contain toads. Recent surveys revealed several previously

unknown locations and extant historical locations of nonbreeding

individuals and several breeding sites; but survey data indicated that

boreal toads are absent from approximately 96 percent of localities

that contained known historical records of suitable habitat.

Physical and climatic conditions separate the southern Rocky

Mountain population of the boreal toad from populations in western

Wyoming and northeastern Utah. Because of this geographic isolation,

the Service believes that the southern Rocky Mountain population of the

boreal toad can be listed as a distinct vertebrate population segment

under the Act.

Summary of Factors Affecting the Species

The following information is a summary and discussion of the five

factors or listing criteria as set forth in section 4(a)(1) of the

Endangered Species Act (Act), as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), and

regulations (50 CFR part 424) promulgated to implement the listing

provisions of the Act and their applicability to the current status of

the southern Rocky Mountain population of the boreal toad.

A. The present or threatened destruction, modification, or

curtailment of its habitat or range. The southern Rocky Mountain

population of the boreal toad is found primarily on public land within

State forests, national forests, and lands administered by the Bureau

of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service.

The use of these lands ranges from recreational to intensive timber and

grazing management and watershed alteration activities. Activities that

destroy, modify, or curtail habitat are likely to contribute to the

continued decline in toad numbers; however, the Service does not

believe that recreational or habitat management activities brought

about rangewide decline of the southern Rocky Mountain population of

the boreal toad.

B. Overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or

educational purposes. The boreal toad has no commercial value and any

recreational values are low and nonconsumptive. Scientific and

educational collecting is not thought to have been widespread over the

past decade. Overutilization is not currently thought to contribute to

declines in the southern Rocky Mountain population of the boreal toad.

C. Diseases or predation. Carey (1987, 1993) indicated that the

proximate cause of the widespread decline of boreal toads in northern

New Mexico and west-central Colorado was a result of infection by

Aeromonas hydrophila bacteria (red-leg disease). However, A. hydrophila

is common in the microfauna carried by amphibians, and it does not

cause infection or death in healthy individuals. As a result, toads

likely were stressed by adverse environmental factors, such as acid

rain, pollution, or increased ultraviolet radiation, and later

succumbed to A. hydrophila infection (Carey 1987). Competition and

predation by native and nonnative species occurs but is probably a

minor impact.

D. The inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms. The boreal

toad is listed as endangered by Colorado and New Mexico and is a

nongame animal in Wyoming. The Colorado Division of Wildlife has formed

a recovery team and is in the final stages of preparing a State

recovery plan (Tom Nesler, Colorado Division of Wildlife, pers. comm.

1994). In 1993 the Colorado Division of Wildlife entered into a

cooperative agreement with the Service for research on the boreal toad

and has also initiated a conservation agreement with a private mining

company whose land contains boreal toad breeding sites. [[Page 15283]]

A conservation agreement will be developed for the southern Rocky

Mountain population of the boreal toad between the Service, Forest

Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, National

Biological Survey, Colorado Division of Wildlife, and perhaps other

agencies. The agreement will serve as a commitment by the various

agencies to work toward recovery of the southern Rocky Mountain

population of the boreal toad. A cooperatively formulated conservation

strategy that complements the Colorado Division of Wildlife's recovery

plan and that implements the conservation agreement has been

recommended by the Forest Service (Elizabeth Estill, U.S. Forest

Service, in litt. 1994).

A sensitive species policy has been developed under the National

Forest Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1600 et seq.) which directs the U.S.

Forest Service to manage for sensitive or candidate species such as the

boreal toad. In 1988, policies were developed by both the National Park

Service and the Bureau of Land Management to conserve federally listed

or rare species, thus ensuring that their actions do not impact boreal

toads. Other Federal resource laws that may provide protection for the

boreal toad are the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (16 U.S.C. 661

et seq.), Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. 1344 et seq.) and Clean Air Act

(42 U.S.C. 1857 et seq.).

E. Other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued

existence. Factors, such as acid rain, pollution, and increased

ultraviolet radiation, may be causing declines of the southern Rocky

Mountain population of the boreal toad. The extent of natural

population fluctuation remains unknown and may be working

synergistically with other environmental or anthropogenic factors to

cause declines in toad populations. Fishery management activities also

may cause decline or extirpation in localized areas.

Finding

The service has reviewed the petition, the literature cited in the

petition, other available literature and information, comments received

following the 90-day finding, and consulted with biologists and

researchers familiar with the boreal toad. On the basis of the best

scientific and commercial information available, which is discussed

above under the five listing factors, the Service finds the petitioned

action is warranted but precluded by work on other species having

higher priority for listing.

Section 4(b)(3)(B)(iii) of the Act states that the Service may make

a warranted but precluded finding if it can demonstrate that (1) an

immediate proposed rule is precluded by other pending proposals, and

that (2) expeditious progress is being made on other listing actions.

Expeditious progress in listing endangered and threatened species is

being made and is reported annually in the Federal Register.

Furthermore, on September 21, 1983 (48 FR 43098), the Service published

in the Federal Register its system for prioritizing species for

listing. The system considers magnitude of threat, immediacy of threat,

and taxonomic distinctiveness in assigning species numerical listing

priorities on a scale of 1 to 12. The southern Rocky Mountain

population of the boreal toad is assigned a listing priority of 3

because noted declines exist throughout its range (magnitude is high),

as far as can be determined the threat(s) still exists (it is

imminent), and for taxonomic purposes populations are treated as

subspecies.

Although a priority 3 is a relatively high listing priority, there

are three candidate species in Colorado that appear to be more in need

of listing, thus precluding the listing of the southern Rocky Mountain

population of the boreal toad at this time. One candidate is the

mountain plover (Charadrius montanus) for which the Service is

preparing a proposed rule. The Service regards the magnitude and

immediacy of threat to the mountain plover to be at the same level as

they are for the boreal toad; however, the mountain plover is a full

species and is being considered for listing throughout its range,

resulting in a higher listing priority of 2. The Service has been

petitioned to list the Preble's meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius

preblei). If a warranted finding is made, the listing priority for the

mouse will likely be 3, the same as the boreal toad; however, the

mouse's entire range is being considered for listing, not just a

portion, and there are fewer individual mice than boreal toads. A

plant, Phacelia submutica (DeBeque phacelia), also has a higher listing

priority (2) than the boreal toad. Consequently, listing of the boreal

toad will follow listing of the other three species unless it is

determined that listing one or more of those species is not warranted

or that listing the boreal toad is not warranted.

The petitioners requested that critical habitat be designated for

the southern Rocky Mountain population of the boreal toad. Designation

of critical habitat is not petitionable under the Act; however,

critical habitat will be proposed at the time the population is

proposed for listing unless it is not determinable or not prudent.

As required by section 4(b)(3)(C)(i) of the Act, the Service will

reassess the warranted but precluded finding after 1 year.

The Service's 12-month finding contains more detailed information

regarding the above decisions. A copy may be obtained from the Western

Colorado Office (see ADDRESSES section).

Reference Cited

A complete list of all references cited is available upon

request from the Western Colorado Office (see ADDRESSES section).

Author: The primary author of this document is Terry Ireland,

Western Colorado Office (see ADDRESSES section).

Authority: The authority for this action is the Endangered

Species Act of 1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531-1544).

Dated: March 15, 1995.

Mollie H. Beattie,

Director, Fish and Wildlife Service.

[FR Doc. 95-7203 Filed 3-22-95; 8:45 am]

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