Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants: New 12-month Finding for a Petition to List the Utah Wasatch Front and West Desert Populations of Spotted Frog

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

50 CFR Part 17

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants: New 12-month

Finding for a Petition to List the Utah Wasatch Front and West Desert

Populations of Spotted Frog

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of new 12-month petition finding.

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SUMMARY: The Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announces a new 12-

month finding for a petition to list the Wasatch Front population

(Utah) and West Desert population (Utah) of the spotted frog (Rana

luteiventris) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended.

After review of all available scientific and commercial information,

the Service finds that listing these two distinct vertebrate

populations of spotted frog is not warranted at this time. This finding

supersedes the previous 12-month petition finding that found the

listing of these two populations to be warranted but precluded by

higher priority listing actions. Prior and subsequent to publication of

the warranted but precluded finding, the State of Utah and other

cooperating agencies began implementing significant recovery actions to

reduce or remove species' threats. More recently the State of Utah and

other agencies developed the Spotted Frog Conservation Agreement to

ensure that additional conservation measures and recovery actions

needed for the frog's continued existence and recovery are initiated

and carried out. The Service finds that a mechanism has been put in

place that sufficiently protects the Wasatch Front and West Desert

populations of spotted frog and that ongoing actions, including those

identified in the Conservation Agreement, have substantially reduced

threats to the spotted frog populations in Utah such that they will not

become endangered within the foreseeable future and, therefore, do not

warrant listing pursuant to the Act at this time.

DATES: The finding announced in this document was made on March 27,

1998.

ADDRESSES: Data, information, comments, or questions concerning this

notice should be sent to the Field Supervisor, Utah Field Office,

Ecological Services, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 145 East 1300

South, Suite 404, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115. The complete

administrative file for this finding is available for inspection, by

appointment, during normal business hours at the above address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Janet A. Mizzi, Fish and Wildlife

Biologist, Utah Field Office (see ADDRESSES above), telephone (801)

524-5001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

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

amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), requires that the Service make a

finding on whether a petition to list, delist or reclassify a species

presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating

that the petitioned action is: (a) Not warranted; (b) warranted; or (c)

warranted but precluded from immediate proposal by other pending

listing proposals of higher priority.

On May 1, 1989, the Service received a petition from the Board of

Directors of the Utah Nature Study Society requesting the Service add

the spotted frog (then referred to as Rana pretiosa) to the List of

Threatened and Endangered Species and to specifically consider the

status of the Wasatch, Utah, population. The Service subsequently

published a notice of a 90-day finding in the Federal Register (54 FR

42529) on October 17, 1989, and a notice of the 12-month petition

finding in the Federal Register (58 FR 27260) on May 7, 1993. In the

12-month petition finding the Service found that listing of the spotted

frog as threatened in some portions of its range was warranted but

precluded by other higher priority listing actions. The Service found,

based on geographic and climatic separation and supported by genetic

separation, five distinct vertebrate populations of spotted frog.

Listing of both the populations occurring in Utah, the Wasatch Front

and West Desert populations, was found to be warranted but precluded

and both populations were designated as candidates for listing. The

Wasatch Front population was assigned a listing priority number of 3

because the magnitude of the threats were high and imminent, while the

West Desert population was assigned a listing priority of 9 because of

moderate to low threats.

The spotted frog belongs to the family of true frogs, the Ranidae.

Adult frogs have large, dark spots on their backs and pigmentation on

their abdomens ranging from yellow to red (Turner 1957). Spotted frogs

along the Wasatch Front generally possess a salmon color ventrally,

while West Desert and Sanpete County, Utah, populations

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generally have a yellow to yellow-orange color ventrally. Spotted frogs

in Utah are reported to have fewer and lighter colored spots (Colburn,

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, pers. comm. 1992) than other

populations. The spotted frog is closely associated with water (Dumas

1966, Nussbaum et al. 1983). Habitat includes the marshy edges of

ponds, lakes, slow-moving cool water streams and springs (Licht 1974;

Nussbaum et al. 1983; Morris and Tanner 1969; Hovingh 1987). The

present distribution of the spotted frog includes a main population in

southeast Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, eastern Washington,

northeastern Oregon, northern and central Idaho, and western Montana

and Wyoming. Additional disjunct populations occur in northeastern

California, southern Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and western Washington and

Oregon.

The Services' warranted but precluded finding identified that

habitat loss and modification from reservoir construction and from

urban and agricultural developments was a primary cause of the decline

in the Wasatch Front population (Dennis Shirley, pers. comm. 1992). The

petition finding further identified that, while less habitat loss has

occurred with the West Desert population of Utah than with the other

southern and western populations, habitat availability is limited.

Degradation of spring habitats and water quality from cattle grazing

and other agricultural activities in these limited habitats were

identified as potential threats to the spotted frog of the West Desert

population (Hovingh 1987; Peter Hovingh, pers. comm. 1992; Dennis

Shirley, pers. comm. 1992).

On November 28, 1997, the Service announced the availability of a

Draft Conservation Agreement for the Wasatch Front and West Desert

populations (Utah) of spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) for review and

comment (62 FR 63375). The Service received a request to extend the

comment period, and on December 24, 1997, announced that the comment

period on the Draft Conservation Agreement had been extended until

January 16, 1998 (62 FR 67398). The Service subsequently signed the

Conservation Agreement on February 13, 1998.

The goal of this agreement developed by the Utah Department of

Natural Resources in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management,

Bureau of Reclamation, Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation

Commission, Central Utah Water Conservancy District, the Confederated

Tribes of the Goshute Federation, and the Service, is to ensure the

long-term conservation of spotted frog within its historical range in

Utah. Two objectives have been identified as necessary to attain the

goal of the Agreement. These are: (1) to eliminate or significantly

reduce threats to the spotted frog and its habitat to the extent

necessary to prevent the danger that populations will become extinct

throughout all or a part of their range in Utah, or the likelihood that

these populations will become endangered within the foreseeable future

throughout all or a part of their range in Utah; and (2) to restore and

maintain a sufficient number of populations of spotted frog and the

habitat to support these populations throughout its historical range in

Utah to ensure the continued existence of the species. The Conservation

Agreement puts in place a mechanism for the recovery of spotted frog by

establishing a framework for interagency cooperation and coordination

of conservation efforts and setting recovery priorities.

In addition to the Conservation Agreement, the Utah Department of

Natural Resources has provided the Service with a letter outlining

specific actions and approximate time lines for implementation and/or

completion of conservation actions that will occur in the next 18

months. These actions include: (1) Habitat acquisition (990 acres total

to benefit spotted frog in the Wasatch Front population); (2) habitat

enhancement in the West Desert and Wasatch Front, including protective

fencing, springhead re-openings, reseeding of native plants; and (3)

range expansion, including reestablishment of spotted frog populations

within historic habitat in the Wasatch Front and surveys to assess the

distribution of spotted frog in the Bear River drainage. The Bureau of

Reclamation has provided the Service with a letter outlining their

funding commitment for fiscal year 1998 for use on a spotted frog

translocation project in the Wasatch Front. The Bureau will also

continue to monitor and maintain ponds adjacent to the Jordanelle

wetland for the spotted frog.

Actions taken to date to alleviate the threat of habitat loss to

the species have focused on both habitat enhancement and maintenance as

well as habitat protection. Since the Service's 1993 warranted but

precluded finding numerous habitat enhancement, maintenance and

protection activities have occurred. In the West Desert these include:

(1) Construction of a cattle exclosure on part of the Gandy Salt Marsh

Complex to protect occupied springs; and (2) communications with a

private landowner to install cattle exclosures at two additional spring

sites. In Wasatch Front these include: (1) Acquisition of 126.1 acres

of riverine/riparian habitat by Utah Reclamation Mitigation and

Conservation Commission along the Provo River between Jordanelle Dam

and Deer Creek Reservoir as part of the environmental mitigation of the

Central Utah Project; (2) acquisition by the Utah Reclamation

Mitigation and Conservation Commission of an additional 184 acres of

river corridor is currently in progress as part of the environmental

mitigation for the Central Utah Project; (3) acquisition of another 681

acres of riparian corridor is being pursued by the Utah Reclamation

Mitigation and Conservation Commission between Jordanelle Dam and Deer

Creek Reservoir; (4) minimum flows of 50 cubic feet per second were

maintained in the Provo River between Jordanelle Dam and Deer Creek

Reservoir from 1993 through July 1996 in an interim agreement; (5) a

minimum of 125 cfs has been maintained in the Provo River between

Jordanelle Dam and Deer Creek Reservoir since 1996; (6) a draft

cooperative agreement has been developed for the acquisition of

approximately 125 acres of spotted frog occupied wetland habitat to

protect the Mona population; and (7) year-long water has been provided

to the Jordanelle mitigation ponds to provide habitat for over-

wintering spotted frogs. Numerous additional activities and studies are

ongoing and/or are planned pursuant to the Conservation Agreement.

The Service believes that the status of the species in Utah has

improved. A mechanism has been put in place that sufficiently protects

the Wasatch Front and West Desert populations of spotted frog.

Completed and ongoing actions, including those identified in the

Conservation Agreement, have substantially reduced threats to the

spotted frog populations in Utah through control of nonnative species,

increased regulatory control, and habitat acquisition, such that the

species will not become endangered within the foreseeable future.

Furthermore, the Service believes that completed and ongoing

conservation actions have resulted in increased habitat enhancement and

maintenance, and an increase in the known occupied range, distribution

and population size of the species, in both the West Desert and Wasatch

Front populations.

The regulatory and management agencies with oversight for the

conservation of spotted frog in Utah have worked closely to conserve

the species and obtain the goals and objectives outlined in the

Conservation

[[Page 16220]]

Agreement. The objectives for the West Desert population (one

population with an effective population size of 1000 individuals in

three out of every five years in each of three subunits, with any and

all additional populations maintained with an effective population size

of 50 individuals each) are close to being met. In 1997, only one

population in the West Desert had an effective population size of less

than 50 individuals. Three to five years of monitoring will be required

to determine if the objectives have been met. The objectives for the

Wasatch Front population are more complex involving three separate

management units. However, conservation activities have been completed

in each of these management units that has resulted in improved status

for the Wasatch Front population, particularly in the Heber Valley

population, the largest along the Wasatch Front. Continued

implementation of the Conservation Agreement will be monitored closely

to ensure improvement in the status of the Wasatch Front population.

The Service has considered the current status of the Wasatch Front

and West Desert populations, including evaluating the five listing

factors identified in the Act, and has taken into account those efforts

being made to protect the species including development of the

Conservation Agreement, the extent of implementation of the

Conservation Agreement to date, Federal efforts to protect and conserve

the species, and the time commitments made by the principal action

agencies for completion of conservation actions. The Service believes

that a mechanism has been put in place that sufficiently protects the

Wasatch Front and West Desert populations of spotted frog and that

ongoing actions, including those identified in the Conservation

Agreement, have substantially reduced threats to the spotted frog

populations in Utah such that they will not become endangered within

the foreseeable future and, therefore, no longer warrant listing

pursuant to the Act. Furthermore, because the definition of a candidate

species, one for which the Service has on file sufficient information

on biological vulnerability and threats to support issuance of a

proposed rule, no longer applies to the West Desert and Wasatch Front

populations of spotted frog, the Service removes these two populations

from the candidate species list.

Endangered Species Act Oversight

The Service will continue to monitor these populations of spotted

frog throughout the term of the Conservation Agreement and will

maintain oversight. Should the Service deem necessary, an emergency

listing of the Wasatch Front and/or West Desert population of spotted

frog would not be precluded by the sixty (60) day written notice

required to withdraw from the Conservation Agreement. The process for

listing the Wasatch Front and/or West Desert populations of spotted

frog will be reinitiated if:

1. An emergency which poses a significant threat to the spotted

frog is identified and not immediately and adequately addressed;

2. The biological status of the spotted frog is such that it is in

danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its

range; or

3. The biological status of the spotted frog is such that it is

likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future throughout all or

a significant portion of its range.

References Cited

A complete list of all references cited is available upon request

from the Utah Field Office (see ADDRESSES above).

Authors

The primary author of this document is Janet A. Mizzi (see

ADDRESSES above).

Authority

The authority for this action is the Endangered Species Act (16

U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).

Dated: March 27, 1998.

Jamie Rappaport Clark,

Director, Fish and Wildlife Service.

[FR Doc. 98-8611 Filed 3-31-98; 9:04 am]

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