Florida Panther PVA

Good Morning Mr. Tobias,

I apologize for the delay in responding to your email.

It appears you are seeking to make a FOIA request, but you sent your
request via email rather than using one of the written forms of submission
listed on the Department’s FOIA website, https://www.doi.gov/foia, or
utilizing physical or facsimile addresses of an appropriate FOIA contact,
located at https://www.doi.gov/foia/contacts. Per our regulations, your
request cannot be processed until you resubmit it utilizing one of the
written forms of submission noted above. *See **43 C.F.R. § 2.3(b)*
<http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=0fc3ab3499768eebc2e3691c8cf88dec&rgn=div5&view=text&node=43:1.1.1.1.2&idno=43#43:1.1.1.1.2.2.5.3>
Thanks!

V/R

Tiffany McClurkin

Government Information Specialist

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Coordinator

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Southeast Region (Region 4)

1875 Century Blvd, Suite 214

Atlanta GA 30345

(E) foiar4@fws.gov

Dear Jimmy Tobias:

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Headquarters FOIA Office received your request dated February 3, 2020. We have forwarded your request to our Atlanta office for processing. You will receive a formal acknowledgement shortly.

If you have any questions regarding your FOIA request, please contact tiffany_mcclurkin@fws.gov<mailto:tiffany_mcclurkin@fws.gov>.

Respectfully,

Barb

United States Fish and Wildlife Service

Headquarters Freedom of Information Act Office

MS: IRTM

5275 Leesburg Pike

Falls Church, VA 22041

Dear Jimmy Tobias:

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) office received your request dated February 3, 2020 and assigned it tracking number FWS-2020-00403. Please cite this number in any future communications with our office regarding your request.

You requested the following:

“Any and all population viability analyses related to the Florida panther produced since 2015 by Fish and Wildlife Service staff, including Ken McDonald and/or David Shindle, in the agency's south Florida office or elsewhere in Region 4.”

We have classified you as a representative of the news media. As such, we may charge you for some of our duplication costs, but we will not charge you for our search or review costs; you also are entitled to up to 100 pages of photocopies (or an equivalent volume) for free. See 43 C.F.R. § 2.39. If, after taking into consideration your fee category entitlements, our processing costs are less than $50.00, we will not bill you because the cost of collection would be greater than the fee collected. See 43 C.F.R. § 2.37(g).

You have asked us to waive the fees for processing your request. Our FOIA regulations state that bureaus will waive, or partially waive, fees if disclosure of all or part of the information is (1) In the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of government operations or activities, and (2) Not primarily in your commercial interest. See 43 C.F.R. § 2.45(a). Our FOIA regulations also provide four specific criteria that are used to determine whether these two requirements are met. See 43 C.F.R. § 2.48(a). Your request meets the requirements and your fee waiver has been granted.

We use Multitrack Processing to process FOIA requests. The Simple track is for requests that would generally take one to five workdays to process. The Normal track is for requests that would generally take six to twenty workdays to process. The Complex track is for requests that would generally take twenty-one to sixty workdays to process. The Extraordinary track is for requests that would generally take more than sixty workdays to process. The Expedited track is for requests that have been granted expedited processing, which are processed as soon as practicable. Within each track, requests are usually processed on a first-in, first-out basis.

Your request falls into the Complex processing track. Presuming that our current FOIA capacity and burden remain constant, we expect that we will dispatch a determination to you by March 9, 2020.

If you have any questions about our response to your request, you may contact Tiffany McClurkin, by email at foiar4@fws.gov, or by mail at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; ATTN: Tiffany McClurkin; 1 Wildlife Drive; Sanibel, FL 33957.

Respectfully,

Tiffany McClurkin
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Headquarters Information Resources & Technology Management
Atlanta Regional Office
FOIA Coordinator

Good Afternoon,

Please see the attached letter and enclosure reference Freedom of Information Act FWS-2020-00403.

For additional information please feel free to contact me. Please consider this matter closed. Thanks!

Respectfully,

Tiffany McClurkin
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Headquarters Information Resources & Technology Management
Atlanta Regional Office
FOIA Coordinator