30-Day notice

78385

Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 246 / Monday, December 22, 2008 / Notices
Number of
respondents
Reporting Burden ..................................................

Total Estimated Burden Hours:
53,784.
Status: Extension of a currently
approved collection.

20,774

ACTION:

Authority: Section 3507 of the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 35, as
amended.
Dated: December 16, 2008.
Lillian L. Deitzer,
Departmental Paperwork Reduction Act
Officer, Office of the Chief Information
Officer.
[FR Doc. E8–30292 Filed 12–19–08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210–67–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service

×

1

Notice; request for comments.

SUMMARY: We (Fish and Wildlife
Service) have sent an Information
Collection Request (ICR) to OMB for
review and approval. The ICR, which is
summarized below, describes the nature
of the collection and the estimated
burden and cost. This ICR is scheduled
to expire on December 31, 2008. 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. However, under OMB
regulations, we may continue to
conduct or sponsor this information
collection while it is pending at OMB.

Send your comments and
suggestions on this ICR to the Desk
Officer for the Department of the
Interior at OMB-OIRA at (202) 395-6566
(fax) or [email protected]
(e-mail). Please provide a copy of your
comments to Hope Grey, Information
Collection Clearance Officer, Fish and
Wildlife Service, MS 222-ARLSQ, 4401
North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service,
Interior.

Number of annual
respondents

Activity

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Grant Applications ...................................................................
Reports ....................................................................................
Totals ................................................................................

Abstract: The Neotropical Migratory
Bird Conservation Act establishes a
matching grants program to fund
projects that promote the conservation
of neotropical migratory birds in the
United States, Canada, Latin America,
and the Caribbean. The purposes of
NMBCA are to:
(1) Perpetuate healthy populations of
neotropical migratory birds;
(2) Assist in the conservation of these
birds by supporting conservation
initiatives in the United States, Canada,
Latin America, and the Caribbean; and
(3) Provide financial resources and
foster international cooperation for
those initiatives.
Principal conservation actions
supported by NMBCA are:
(1) Protection and management of
neotropical migratory bird populations.

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2.58

ADDRESSES:

Information Collection Sent to the
Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) for Approval; 1018-0113;
Neotropical Migratory Bird
Conservation Act (NMBCA) Grant
Programs

100
65
165

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=

Burden hours
53,784

22203 (mail) or [email protected] (email).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To
request additional information about
this ICR, contact Hope Grey by mail or
e-mail (see ADDRESSES) or by
telephone at (703) 358–2482.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
OMB Control Number: 1018-0113.
Title: Neotropical Migratory Bird
Conservation Act (NMBCA) Grant
Programs.
Service Form Number(s): None.
Type of Request: Extension of
currently approved collection.
Affected Public: Domestic or foreign
individuals; corporations, partnerships,
trusts, associations, or other private
entities; and State/local/tribal
governments.
Respondent’s Obligation: Required to
obtain or retain a benefit.
Frequency of Collection: On occasion.
This grants program has one project
proposal submission per year. Annual
reports are due 90 days after the
anniversary date of the grant agreement.
Final reports are due 90 days after the
end of the project period. The project
period is up to 2 years.

Number of annual
responses
120
75
195

(2) Maintenance, management,
protection, and restoration of
neotropical migratory bird habitat.
(3) Research and monitoring.
(4) Law enforcement.
(5) Community outreach and
education.
We publish notices of funding
availability on the Grants.gov website
(http://www.grants.gov) as well as in
the Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance (http://cfda.gov). To compete
for grant funds, partnerships submit
applications that describe in substantial
detail project locations, project
resources, future benefits, and other
characteristics that meet the standards
established by the Fish and Wildlife
Service and the requirements of
NMBCA.
Materials that describe the program
and assist applicants in formulating
project proposals for consideration are

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Hours per
response

×

DATES: You must send comments on or
before January 21, 2009.

[FWS-R9-MB-2008-N0339] [91100-3740GRNT-7C]

VerDate Aug<31>2005

Annual
responses

Completion time
per response
70 hours ..........
30 hours ..........
.....................

Annual burden
hours
8,400
2,250
10,650

available on our website at http://
www.fws.gov/birdhabitat. Persons who
do not have access to the Internet may
obtain instructional materials by mail.
We have not made any major changes in
the scope and general nature of the
instructions since the OMB first
approved the information collection in
2002.
Comments: On June 24, 2008, we
published in the Federal Register (73 FR
35704) a notice of our intent to request
that OMB renew this ICR. In that notice,
we solicited comments for 60 days,
ending on August 25, 2008. We received
one comment. The comment expressed
opposition to the NMBCA grants
program, but did not address the
information collection requirements. We
did not make any changes to our
information collection requirements as a
result of this comment.

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78386

Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 246 / Monday, December 22, 2008 / Notices

We again invite comments concerning
this information collection on:
(1) Whether or not the collection of
information is necessary, including
whether or not the information will
have practical utility;
(2) The accuracy of our estimate of the
burden for this collection of
information;
(3) Ways to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarity of the information to
be collected; and
(4) 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. Before including your
address, phone number, e-mail 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 OMB in your comment to
withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we
cannot guarantee that it will be done.
Dated: November 28, 2008
Hope Grey,
Information Collection Clearance Officer,
Fish and Wildlife Service.
FR Doc. E8–30432 Filed 12–19–08; 8:45 am
BILLING CODE 4310–55–S

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS–R8–R–2008–N0282; 81640–1265–
0000–S3]

Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, San
Francisco County, CA

mstockstill on PROD1PC66 with NOTICES

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service,
Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request
for comments: draft comprehensive
conservation plan and environmental
assessment.
SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (Service), announce
that the Farallon National Wildlife
Refuge (Refuge) Draft Comprehensive
Conservation Plan and Environmental
Assessment (draft CCP/EA) is available
for review and comment. Also available
for review are the draft compatibility
determinations for research and
monitoring, media access, and
environmental education and
monitoring through a remote camera
system.
DATES: To ensure that we have adequate
time to evaluate and incorporate

VerDate Aug<31>2005

19:07 Dec 19, 2008

Jkt 217001

suggestions and other input into the
planning process, we must receive
comments on or before February 20,
2009.
For information on
obtaining documents and submitting
comments, see ‘‘Public Review and
Comment’’ under SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION.
ADDRESSES:

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Winnie Chan, Refuge Planner, (510)
792–0222.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
The National Wildlife Refuge System
Administration Act of 1966, as amended
by the Improvement Act, requires us to
develop a CCP for each National
Wildlife Refuge. The purpose in
developing a CCP is to provide refuge
managers with a 15-year strategy for
achieving refuge purposes and
contributing toward the mission of the
National Wildlife Refuge System,
consistent with sound principles of fish
and wildlife management, conservation,
legal mandates, and Service policies. In
addition to outlining broad management
direction on conserving wildlife and
their habitats, the CCP identifies
wildlife-dependent recreational
opportunities available to the public,
which can include opportunities for
hunting, fishing, wildlife observation
and photography, and environmental
education and interpretation.

Background
The Refuge is located off the coast of
San Francisco and is within San
Francisco County. The 211-acre Refuge
consists of four island groupings that
were first designated as a Refuge in 1909
‘‘as a preserve and breeding ground for
native birds’’ (Executive Order 1043,
Feb. 27, 1909). The Refuge supports the
largest seabird breeding colony in the
contiguous United States and provides
wintering and nesting habitat for
migratory seabirds and pinnipeds. In
1974, Congress enacted Pub. L. 93–550,
which designated all the islands except
for Southeast Island as the Farallon
Wilderness, totaling 141 acres.
Alternatives
The draft CCP/EA identifies and
evaluates four alternatives for managing
Farallon National Wildlife Refuge for
the next 15 years. Each alternative
describes a combination of wildlife,
habitat, and public use management
prescriptions designed to achieve
Refuge purposes. Of the alternatives
described below, we believe Alternative
C would best achieve the purposes of
the Refuge, and therefore we have
identified C as the Preferred Alternative.

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Alternative A, the no-action
alternative, assumes no change from
current management programs and is
considered the baseline with which to
compare other alternatives. Under this
alternative, the focus of the Refuge
would be to continue to protect and
maintain habitats for nesting seabirds
including restoration of native
vegetation. Wildlife research and
monitoring would continue. The Refuge
would remain closed to the public, with
the exception of requested media visits
that are closely supervised by Refuge
staff.
Alternative B calls for the
development of a vegetation
management and monitoring plan to
accelerate weed removal and restoration
of native vegetation. Non-native house
mice would be eradicated to reduce
predation of seabirds and a tiered
National Environmental Policy Act
planning document would be prepared
to evaluate the eradication methods and
protocols. Public involvement
opportunities for this tiered plan would
be provided. New research and
monitoring methods would be
implemented to improve wildlife
management. In addition, new or
expanded research studies will also be
implemented to study other wildlife on
the Refuge (e.g., arboreal salamanders,
hoary bats, and insects). Law
enforcement to reduce wildlife
disturbance would be increased through
coordination with other agencies and
outreach to boaters and pilots. The
Refuge would remain closed to public
access under this alternative, but
limited supervised access for media
personnel in order to further public
education and provide outreach
opportunities for the public would be
allowed. While land-based wildlife
observation would not be allowed,
Refuge staff will coordinate with charter
boat operators to enhance their wildlife
tours in waters surrounding the Refuge.
This alternative also includes outreach
and environmental education objectives,
including coordination with other
outreach organizations in the San
Francisco area, the development of
environmental education programs and
materials for outreach events, a remote
camera system, and expanding the
existing Farallon program in elementary
schools.
Alternative C, the preferred
alternative, would include the same
components as Alternative B. In
addition, a visitor service plan would be
developed to consider on-site visitor
opportunities such as tours and
volunteer activities. Additional areas on
Southeast Island would also be
considered for seasonal closure to

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