Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Removing Textual Descriptions of Critical Habitat Boundaries for Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, Fishes, Clams, Snails, Arachnids, Crustaceans, and Insects

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are removing the textual descriptions of critical habitat boundaries from those designations for mammals, birds, amphibians, fishes, clams, snails, arachnids, crustaceans, and insects for which the maps have been determined to be sufficient to stand as the official delineation of critical habitat. For these entries, the boundaries of critical habitat as mapped or otherwise described will be the official delineation of the designation. The coordinates and/or plot points that we are removing from the Code of Federal Regulations will be available to the public at the lead field office of the Service responsible for the designation and online at the Federal eRulemaking Portal. This action does not increase, decrease, or otherwise change the boundaries of any critical habitat designation. We are taking this action in accordance with our May 1, 2012, revision of the regulations related to publishing textual descriptions of critical habitat boundaries in the Code of Federal Regulations and as part of our response to Executive Order 13563 (January 18, 2011) directing Federal agencies to review their existing regulations and then to modify or streamline them in accordance with what they learned.