[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 86 (Monday, May 4, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26443-26444]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-09109]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Review of Nomination for Chumash Heritage National Marine
Sanctuary
AGENCY: Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS), National Ocean
Service (NOS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Department of Commerce (DOC).
ACTION: Notice; Request for Written Comments.
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[[Page 26444]]
SUMMARY: The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is requesting
written comments to facilitate ONMS review of the nomination for
Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (CHNMS). NOAA is requesting
relevant information as it pertains to the 11 national significance
criteria and management considerations that NOAA applied to evaluate
the CHNMS nomination for inclusion in the national inventory of areas
that NOAA may consider for future designation as a national marine
sanctuary. Particular attention will be given to new scientific
information about the national significance of natural and cultural
resources, as well as increases or decreases in the threats to
resources originally proposed for protection, and changes to the
management framework of the area. NOAA will also assess the level of
community-based support for the nomination from a broad range of
interests. NOAA has provided the original nominating party, the
Northern Chumash Tribal Council, an opportunity to share its views on
these same questions. Subsequent to the information gathering and
internal analysis, the ONMS Director will make a final determination on
whether or not the CHNMS nomination will remain in the inventory prior
to the five-year anniversary of accepting the nomination, October 5,
2020.
DATES: NOAA will conduct a virtual meeting to explain the review
process to the public and accept information orally from speakers
during the virtual meeting. The meeting will be conducted on Wednesday
May 27, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. PT. For more information regarding how to
participate in the public meeting and the CHNMS nomination go to
https://nominate.noaa.gov. Written comments must be received by June
15, 2020.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted by the following method:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Submit
electronic comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal with Docket
Number NOAA-NOS-2020-0063.
Instructions: All comments received are a part of the public
record. All personal identifying information (for example, name,
address, etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly
accessible. Do not submit confidential business information or
otherwise sensitive or protected information. NOAA will accept
anonymous comments (enter N/A in the required fields to remain
anonymous).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William Douros Regional Director, ONMS
West Coast Region, 99 Pacific Street, Bldg. 100F, Monterey, CA 93940,
or at [email protected], or 831-647-6452.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background Information
In 2014, NOAA issued a final rule establishing the sanctuary
nomination process (SNP), a process by which communities may submit
nominations of areas of the marine and Great Lakes environment for NOAA
to consider for designation as a national marine sanctuary (79 FR
33851). The final rule establishing the SNP included a five-year limit
on any nomination added to the inventory that NOAA does not advance for
designation. In November 2019, NOAA issued a notice (84 FR 61546) to
clarify procedures for evaluating and updating a nomination as it
approaches the five-year mark. The clarified procedure ensures the
inventory contains nominations that remain relevant and responsive to
the 11 SNP national significance criteria and management considerations
(``SNP Criteria''). The 11 SNP Criteria can be found at https://nominate.noaa.gov.
The nomination for CHNMS was accepted to the national inventory on
October 5, 2015, and is therefore scheduled to expire in October 2020.
NOAA is not proposing to designate CHNMS or any other any new national
marine sanctuary with this action. Accordingly, written comments
submitted as part of this request should not focus on whether NOAA
should initiate the designation process for CHNMS. Rather comments
should address the relevance of the nomination towards the SNP Criteria
and any new information NOAA should consider about the nominated area.
Comments that do not address the SNP Criteria and new information NOAA
should evaluate will not be considered in determining whether to extend
the CHNMS nomination for another five years.
The process to update a nomination about to expire at the five-year
mark includes the following steps:
1. ONMS notifies the nominating party at about the four and a half-
year mark to give the nominating party an opportunity to provide
updates of the nominated area's relevance to the SNP Criteria.
2. ONMS staff works with partners and the public to gather
information on the nomination's relevance to the SNP Criteria. Given
our inability to host public gatherings at this time, NOAA has chosen
to host a virtual public meeting and request written comments to gather
new information on the CHNMS nomination.
3. ONMS staff reviews information received from the original
nominating party, partners, the public and other relevant sources
against the SNP Criteria to assess if the nomination is still accurate
and relevant.
4. ONMS staff produce a brief synopsis report to the ONMS Director,
presenting an analysis of information that has been collected, and a
recommendation regarding maintaining the nomination in the inventory,
or removing it once the five-year anniversary is reached.
Whether removing or maintaining the nomination for CHNMS, NOAA would
follow the same procedure for notifying the public as was followed when
the nomination was submitted, including a letter to the nominator, a
notice in the Federal Register, and posting information on
``nominate.noaa.gov''.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1431 et seq.
John Armor,
Director, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, National Ocean
Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
[FR Doc. 2020-09109 Filed 5-1-20; 8:45 am]
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