Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Reinstatement of Listing Protections for the Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse

Résumé

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are issuing this final rule to comply with a court order that vacates our most recent rule and reinstates the regulatory protections under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act), for the Preble's meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius preblei) (Preble's) in Wyoming. The United States District Court for the District of Colorado, by order dated July 7, 2011, vacated and remanded the 2008 Final Rule to Amend the Listing for the Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse To Specify Over What Portion of Its Range the Subspecies is Threatened (2008 Amended Listing Decision) and reinstated the 1998 Final Rule Listing the Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse as Threatened Throughout Its Range, effective August 6, 2011. This rule reinstates the listing of Preble's in Wyoming. It also reinstates the special rule that exempts activities related to rodent control, ongoing agricultural activities, landscape maintenance, existing uses of water, noxious weed control, and ongoing ditch maintenance activities from the take provisions of the Act throughout the entire range of the Preble's.