Critical Habitat for the Devils River Minnow

About the Document

Title:  Proposed Rule to Designate Critical Habitat for the Devils River Minnow (Dionda diaboli)

Purpose: The document describes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) proposal to designate critical habitat for the threatened Devils River minnow (Dionda diaboli) under section 4 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Act). The proposed rule will be published in the Federal Register for public review and is an assessment of the best scientific data available at this time and will be the basis, in addition to any comments received, for a finding by the Service on whether or not to finalize the rule to designate critical habitat for the Devils River minnow.

About the Peer Review Process

Type of Review: Influential

Estimated Peer Review Timeline: August – September 2007

Estimated dissemination date of the proposed rule: July 31, 2007

Process: The Service will conduct peer review of the portion of the proposed rule for designation of critical habitat that includes a discussion of the scientific information reviewed and our analysis. The Service will solicit peer review through letters to 3 or more independent scientific reviewers with input from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, members of the Rio Grande Fishes Recovery Team, and other local parties involved in the study and conservation of the Devils River minnow.

Peer reviewers will be selected based on the following criteria:

  • Expertise: Reviewers should have knowledge in one or more of the following areas: fishery biology, aquatic ecology, hydrogeology, stream hydrology, and water resource management.
  • Independence: Reviewers should not be employed by the Service. Academic and consulting scientists should have sufficient independence from the Service or the Department if the government supports their work.
  • Objectivity: Reviewers should be recognized by their peers as being objective, open-minded, and thoughtful. The reviewers should be comfortable sharing their knowledge and identifying their knowledge gaps.
  • Advocacy: Reviewers should not be known or recognized for an affiliation with an advocacy position regarding the protection of this species under the Endangered Species Act.
  • Conflict of Interest: Reviewers should not have any financial or other interest that conflicts or that could impair their objectivity.
Peer reviewers will not be asked to provide recommendations on the designation of critical habitat. Peer reviewers may be asked to: comment specifically on the quality of any information and analyses used or relied on in the document; identify oversights, omissions, and inconsistencies; provide advice on reasonableness of judgments made from the scientific evidence; ensure that scientific uncertainties are clearly identified and characterized, and that potential implications of uncertainties for the technical conclusions drawn are clear; and provide advice on the overall strengths and limitation of the scientific data used in the document. We will use the information received from the peer review in the final rule designating critical habitat for the Devils River minnow.

About Public Participation

Public comments on the proposed critical habitat will be sought concurrently with the peer review by a Federal Register announcement and the distribution by mail and press release of this announcement to interested parties. We will publish a final rule for critical habitat of the Devils River minnow on or about July 31, 2008, and publish the finding in a Federal Register announcement, including a summary of the results of the peer review process. Both the proposed and final rules will be published on the Service’s website at http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/SpeciesReport.do?spcode=E03V.

Contact: Nathan Allan, Austin Ecological Services Office, at nathan_allan@fws.gov or 512-490-0057, ext. 237.