Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Proposed Rule To List the Carson Wandering Skipper as Endangered

Zusammenfassung

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), propose to make permanent the provisions of the emergency rule listing the Carson wandering skipper (Pseudocopaeodes eunus obscurus) in California and Nevada as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). The emergency rule listing the population is published concurrently in this issue of the Federal Register. The Carson wandering skipper is currently known from only two populations, one in Washoe County, Nevada, and the other in Lassen County, California. This subspecies is threatened by a variety of factors including habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation due to agricultural practices (such as excessive livestock grazing and wetland habitat modification), urban development, and non-native plant invasion. Other threats include impacts from collecting, livestock trampling, approved and proposed water exportation projects, road construction, recreation, pesticide drift, and inadequate regulatory mechanisms. Extinction could also occur by naturally occurring events due to the small, isolated nature of the remaining populations. We find these threats constitute immediate and significan