Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Final Determination of Critical Habitat for the California Red-legged Frog

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), designate critical habitat for the California red-legged frog (Rana aurora draytonii) pursuant to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). A total of approximately 1,674,582 hectares (4,140,440 acres) in Alameda, Butte, 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, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, Tuolumne, and Ventura counties, California, is designated as critical habitat. Critical habitat identifies specific areas that have the physical and biological features that are essential to the conservation of a listed species, and that may require special management considerations or protection. The primary constituent elements for California red- legged frogs are aquatic and upland areas where suitable breeding and nonbreeding habitat is interspersed throughout the landscape, and are interconnected by continuous dispersal habitat. Critical habitat for California red-legged frogs includes those areas possessing all of the primary constituent elements. Section 7 of the Act prohibits destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat by any activity funded, authorized, or carried out by any Federal agency. Section 4 of the Act requires us to consider economic and other impacts of specifying any particular area as critical habitat. We solicited data and comments from the public on all aspects of the proposed rule and economic analysis. We revised the proposal to incorporate or address new information received during the comment periods.