Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Proposed Designation of Critical Habitat for the California Red-legged Frog (Rana aurora draytonii)

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, designate critical habitat pursuant to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended, for the California red-legged frog (Rana aurora draytonii). Approximately 2,175,000 hectares (5,373,650 acres) of land fall within the boundaries of the proposed critical habitat designation. Specifically, aquatic and upland areas where suitable breeding and nonbreeding habitat is interspersed throughout the landscape and is interconnected by unfragmented dispersal habitat are areas proposed as critical habitat. Proposed critical habitat is located in Alameda, Butte, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Marin, Mariposa, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Plumas, Riverside, San Benito, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, Tuolumne, Ventura, and Yuba counties, California. Critical habitat receives protection from destruction or adverse modification through required consultation under section 7 of the Act with regard to actions carried out, funded, or authorized by a Federal agency. Section 4 of the Act requires us to consider economic and other relevant impacts when specifying any particular area as critical habitat. Proposed critical habitat does not include lands covered by any existing, legally operative, incidental take permits for the California red-legged frog issued under section 10(a)(1)(B) of the Act. The Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs), required for issuance of these permits, provide for special management and protection under the terms of the permit and the lands covered by them are therefore not proposed for inclusion in the critical habitat. In areas where HCPs have not yet had permits issued, we have proposed critical habitat according to the factors outlined in this rule. We solicit data and comments from the public on all aspects of this proposal, including data on economic and other impacts of the designation and our approaches for handling HCPs. We may revise this proposal to incorporate or address new information received during the comment period.