The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing new protectionsfor the northern long-eared bat that would give more freedom to the logging industry.
The federal agency wanted to list the bat as endangered after white nose syndrome decimated populations in some areas. But it’s been getting a lot of feedback from the public in favor of a less-restrictive threatened listing.
Now in a 4-d rule, the agency has proposed to give some activities like forest management an exception to rules prohibiting incidental take, provided the bat is listed as threatened.
That means loggers wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally harming individual bats, says Fish and Wildlife Spokesperson Georgia Parham.
“So this 4d rule acknowledges that timber management or forest management activities – while they may have a small effect on the bat, they are not going to cause the declines that we see due to white nose syndrome. And so it’s a way to tailor the prohibitions of the act to the situation of the species.”
Those activities would need to follow some conservation measures like avoiding known maternity roosts in summer, and sites where bats hibernate in winter, as spokesperson Georgia Parham explains.
“And those conservation measures are designed to protect the bats during the most vulnerable parts of their life history or their life stages, which would be during hibernation and during June and July when they’re rearing their pups.”
An earlier draft of conservation measures indicated substantial restrictions on summer logging if the bat is listed as endangered.
That could still happen, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has the option of listing the bat as endangered, threatened with or without the 4d rule, or none of those.
The agency will decide April 2nd.
Public commentsare being taken until March 17th.
