FWS Notice on Alabama Beach Mouse Conservation Plan Applications

Content

ACTION:

Notice of availability; request for comment.

SUMMARY:

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce receipt of an application from each of Kitty Bowden, Tracey Thompson,
and Douglas J. Spurling (applicant/applicants) for three separate incidental take permits (ITP) pursuant to the Endangered
Species Act (ESA) and the National Environmental Policy Act under the Service's approved General Conservation Plan (GCP) and
final environmental impact statement for the Alabama beach mouse. A GCP is a conservation plan under the ESA that enables
the programmatic permitting and conservation process to address a defined suite of proposed activities over a defined planning
area. Each applicant requests an ITP to take the federally listed Alabama Beach Mouse incidental to the construction of deck
additions, a single-family home, and a pool with deck in Baldwin County, Alabama. We request public comment on these applications,
which include each applicant's proposed habitat conservation plan (HCP), as well as on the Service's preliminary determination
that the proposed permitting action may qualify under the terms of the Alabama beach mouse GCP. We certify that each of the
applications received is statutorily complete and include the necessary information to enroll in the GCP.

DATES:

Comments will be accepted on or before April 20, 2026. Comments submitted electronically using the Federal eRulemaking Portal
(see
ADDRESSES
, below) must be received by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on the closing date.

To ensure your comment is received and considered, you must submit it using one of the methods identified in the
ADDRESSES
section of this document. Comments submitted through any method not authorized in this document, or sent to an address not
listed here, will not be considered.

ADDRESSES:

Obtaining Documents: The documents this notice announces, as well as any comments and other materials that we receive, will be available for public
inspection online in Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2026-0232 at https://www.regulations.gov.

Comment Submission: All submissions must include the docket number [FWS-R4-ES-2026-0232] this document. You must submit comments using one of
the following methods:

• Electronic Submission: Federal eRulemaking Portal at: https://www.regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter FWS-R4-ES-2026-0232, which is the docket number for this action. Then click the Search button. On
the resulting page, you may submit a comment by clicking on “Comment.” Please ensure that you have found the correct document
before submitting your comments.

• U.S. Mail: Public Comments Processing, Attn: Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2026-0232, Policy and Regulations Branch, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
MS: PRB (JAO/3W), 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.

Comments submitted through any method not authorized in this document, or sent to an address not listed here, will not be
considered. We will not accept comments via email, fax, or hand delivery. We are not required to consider comments that are
submitted after the comment period ends or that are submitted via a method outside of these instructions. Comments containing
profanity, vulgarity, threats, or other inappropriate content will not be considered.

We will post all comments at https://www.regulations.gov. You may request that we withhold personal identifying information from public review; however, we cannot guarantee that we
will be able to do so. See Public Availability of Comments for more information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

William Lynn, by U.S. mail (see
ADDRESSES
), by telephone at 1-251-538-2065, or via email at william_lynn@fws.gov. 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:

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce receipt of an application under the approved General Conservation
Plan (GCP) for the Alabama Beach Mouse from Kitty Bowden, Tracey Thompson, and Douglas J. Spurling for an incidental take
permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). Each applicant requests an ITP to take the federally listed Alabama Beach Mouse (ABM; Peromyscus polionotus ammobates). One applicant will take ABM incidental to the construction, maintenance, and operation of a deck and pool addition, one
will take ABM due to a deck expansion, and one will take ABM incidental to construction of a single-family home in Baldwin
County, Alabama. We request public comment on the applications, on the applicants' HCPs, and on the Service's preliminary
determination that the proposed ITPs may qualify for a categorical exclusion under the General Conservation Plan (GCP) and
final environmental impact statement (FEIS) for the ABM published on March 28, 2012 (FWS-R4-ES-2012-N063).

Proposed Projects

Permit Number: PER22978544

Kitty Bowden, applicant, requests a 50-year ITP to take ABM via the conversion of 0.007 acres (ac) of occupied nesting, foraging,
and sheltering habitat incidental to the construction of a deck expansion to an existing house on a 0.145-ac parcel located
at 330 Buchana Ct. West in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The applicant proposes to mitigate for the take of ABM through an in-lieu
fee of $676.20 to the Alabama Coastal Heritage Trust's ABM conservation fund.

Permit Number: PER22254010

Tracey Thompson, applicant, requests a 50-year ITP to take Alabama beach mice via the conversion of 0.056 ac of

  occupied nesting, foraging, and sheltering ABM habitat incidental to the construction of a single-family home on a 0.140-ac
  parcel located at 8400 Zeanah Road in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The applicant proposes to mitigate for the take of ABM through
  an in-lieu fee of $5,609.70 to the Alabama Coastal Heritage Trust's ABM conservation fund.

Permit Number: PER23007373

Douglas J. Spurling, applicant, requests transfer and modify an existing 30-year ITP to take Alabama beach mice via the conversion
of 0.016 ac of occupied nesting, foraging, and sheltering ABM habitat incidental to the construction of a pool with deck to
an existing house on a 0.451-ac lot located at 2177 Ponce de Leon Court, Gulf Shores, Alabama. The applicant proposes to mitigate
for the take of ABM through an in-lieu fee of $1,619.20 to the Alabama Coastal Heritage Trust's ABM conservation fund.

Our Preliminary Determination

The Service has made a preliminary determination that reasonably foreseeable effects of the applicants' proposed projects,
including the construction of a deck with a pool and a single-family home and associated infrastructure (e.g., electric, water, and sewer lines), would have a minor effect on ABM and the human environment. Therefore, we have preliminarily
determined that the proposed ESA section 10(a)(1)(B) permit would meet the requirements of the GCP and FEIS.

Next Steps

The Service will evaluate the application and the comments to determine whether to issue the requested ITP. We also will conduct
an intra-Service consultation pursuant to section 7 of the ESA to evaluate the effects of the proposed take. After considering
the preceding and other matters, we will determine whether the permit issuance criteria of section 10(a)(1)(B) of the ESA
have been met. If met, the Service will issue ITP number PER22978544 to Kitty P. Bowden, ITP number PER2254010 to Tracey Thompson,
and ITP Number PER23007373 to Douglas J. Spurling.

Public Availability of Comments

Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, be
aware that your entire comment, including your personal identifying information, may be made available to the public. If you
submit a comment at https://www.regulations.gov, your entire comment, including any personal identifying information, will be posted on the website. If you submit a hard copy
comment that includes personal identifying information, such as your address, phone number, or email address, you may request
at the top of your document that we withhold this information from public review. However, we cannot guarantee that we will
be able to do so. Moreover, all submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves
as representatives or officials of organizations or businesses, will be made available for public disclosure in their entirety.

Authority

The Service provides this notice under section 10(c) of the Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) and its implementing regulations (50 CFR 17.32), National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), as amended, and the Department of the Interior's implementing regulations (43 CFR part 46).

Jeffrey Powell, Acting Field Supervisor, Alabama Ecological Service Field Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. [FR Doc. 2026-05451 Filed 3-19-26; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4333-15-P

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