Agency Information Collection Activities; Eagle Permits

AGENCY:

Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION:

Notice of information collection; request for comment.

SUMMARY:

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are proposing to renew an information collection without change.

DATES:

Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before March 14, 2023.

ADDRESSES:

Send your comments on the information collection request (ICR) by one of the following methods (reference Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control Number 1018-0167 in the subject line of your comment):

• Internet (preferred): https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments on Docket No. FWS-HQ-MB-2023-0009.

• Email: Info_Coll@fws.gov.

• U.S. mail: Service Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: PRB (JAO/3W), Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Madonna L. Baucum, Service Information Collection Clearance Officer, by email at Info_Coll@fws.gov, or by telephone at (703) 358-2503. Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay services offered within their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) and its implementing regulations at 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1), all information collections require approval under the PRA. We may not conduct or sponsor and you are not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

As part of our continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burdens, we invite the public and other Federal agencies to comment on new, proposed, revised, and continuing collections of information. This helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. It also helps the public understand our information collection requirements and provide the requested data in the desired format.

We are especially interested in public comment addressing the following:

(1) Whether or not the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether or not the information will have practical utility;

(2) The accuracy of our estimate of the burden for this collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used;

(3) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and

(4) How might the agency minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of response.

Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of public record. We will include or summarize each comment in our request to OMB to approve this ICR. Before including your address, phone number, email 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 us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Abstract: The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (Eagle Act; 16 U.S.C. 668-668d) prohibits take of bald eagles and golden eagles except pursuant to Federal regulations. The Eagle Act regulations at title 50, part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) define the “take” of an eagle to include the following broad range of actions: To “pursue, shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, destroy, molest, or disturb.” The Eagle Act allows the Secretary of the Interior to authorize certain otherwise prohibited activities through regulations.

All Service permit applications associated with eagles are in the 3-200 and 3-202 series of forms, each tailored to a specific activity based on the requirements for specific types of permits. We collect standard identifier information for all permits. The information that we collect on applications and reports is the minimum necessary for us to determine if the applicant meets/continues to meet issuance requirements for the particular activity.

The Service proposes to renew this information collection, without change, in order to extend the expiration date for the collection (currently July 31, 2023) while the Service continues to finalize our rulemaking under RIN 1018-BG70, Permits for Incidental Take of Eagles and Eagle Nests. On September 30, 2022, we published the proposed rule (87 FR 59598) to revise the regulations authorizing the issuance of permits for eagle incidental take and eagle nest take to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of permitting, facilitate and improve compliance, and increase the conservation benefit for eagles. The comment period for the proposed rule ended on November 29, 2022. On November 28, 2022, we extended the proposed rule's comment period to December 29, 2022 (87 FR 72957).

In addition to continuing to authorize specific permits, the proposed rule, if finalized as written, would create general permits for certain activities under prescribed conditions (qualifying wind-energy generation projects, power line infrastructure, activities that may disturb breeding bald eagles, and bald eagle nest take). It also would remove the current third-party monitoring requirement for eagle incidental take permits, update current permit fees, and clarify definitions. We anticipate publication of the final rule under RIN 1018-BD70 in late 2023 or early 2024.

The public may request copies of any form contained in this information collection by sending a request to the Service Information Collection Clearance Officer (see ADDRESSES ).

Title of Collection: Eagle Permits, 50 CFR 22.

OMB Control Number: 1018-0167.

Form Numbers: Forms 3-200-14, 3-200-15a, 3-200-16, 3-200-18, 3-200-71, 3-200-72, 3-200-77, 3-200-78, 3-200-82, 3-200-11 through 3-200-16, 3-1552, 3-1591, and 3-2480.

Type of Review: Extension without change of a currently approved collection.

Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals and businesses. We expect that the majority of applicants seeking long-term permits will be in the energy production and electrical distribution business sectors.

Total Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 4,068.

Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 4,318.

Estimated Completion Time per Response: Varies from 15 minutes to 228 hours, depending on activity.

Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 25,894.

Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain a benefit.

Frequency of Collection: On occasion for applications; annually or on occasion for reports.

Total Estimated Annual Nonhour Burden Cost: $1,369,200 (primarily associated with application processing fees).

An agency 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.

The authority for this action is the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).