Contacts Lori Pruitt 812-334-4261 x 211
Laura Ragan 612-713-5157
The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service has reviewed a petition to expand critical habitat designated
under the Endangered Species Act for the Indiana bat,
an endangered species found in the eastern half of the United States, and
concluded the petition does not contain substantial scientific data to
indicate the expansion is warranted. The negative petition finding was
published in the Federal Register.
Critical habitat is
a term in the Endangered Species Act describing geographic areas containing
features essential
for the conservation of a species and
which may require special management or protection.
The Service received
a petition from eight conservation groups and individuals in 2002,
asking the agency to expand its existing critical habitat designation
for the Indiana bat, which currently includes important hibernation
caves
and mines used by the species during winter. The petitioners sought
to add areas used by the bat during the summer, which includes forested
habitat throughout the species’ 20-state range in the eastern
United States.
Under the Act, in a
process known as a 90-day finding, the Service
is required to review the petition to decide whether it contains
substantial scientific
information that the request may be warranted. Typically, a 12-month
finding is only conducted if the Service determines the petition
contains substantial
information on the requested revision. However, in this situation,
the
Service elected to respond as if a positive 90-day finding had been
made and also make a 12-month finding.
This finding was prepared
under a court settlement that resulted from a lawsuit filed against
the Service by many of the petitioners.
The
Service was prevented from meeting its deadline for the 90-day
finding because
budget limitations require the agency to focus on other high-priority
issues.
Indiana bats are found
over most of the eastern half of the United States. The 2005 population
estimate is about 457,000 Indiana
bats,
about half
as many as when the species was listed as endangered in 1967.
However, the Indiana bat population has shown increases during the most
recent surveys. Almost half of all Indiana bats (207,000 in 2005)
hibernate
in caves in
southern Indiana.
A copy of the finding
on revision of Indiana bat critical habitat is available on the Internet
at http://www.fws.gov/midwest
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting
and enhancing
fish,
wildlife and plants and
their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American
people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge
System,
which encompasses
545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands
and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national
fish hatcheries,
64 fishery
resources offices and 81 ecological services field stations.
The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the
Endangered Species
Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally
significant
fisheries,
conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands,
and
helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with
their conservation
efforts.
It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes
hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing
and hunting equipment
to state fish and wildlife agencies.
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