Ohio’s Department of Transportation and the Ohio office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have received the Service’s 2007 Transportation Environmental Stewardship Excellence Award. The agencies were honored today in Washington, DC, for a statewide initiative that conserves the endangered Indiana bat during transportation construction projects.
The initiative includes a five-year agreement that guides transportation project planning to protect valuable Indiana bat habitat, including waterways and forests. At the same time, it streamlines regulatory processes and improves DOT’s ability to meet project deadlines.
“ This agreement is a wonderful conservation tool for the Indiana bat, with tremendous benefits for the people of Ohio,” said Service Midwest Regional Director Robyn Thorson. “We have a consistent and predictable process for transportation planning that saves money, shortens project review time, and safeguards the survival of an endangered species.”
The agreement was developed by Ohio DOT and the Reynoldsburg, Ohio, office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agencies identified the biological needs of the Indiana bat along with a range of impacts to the bat from transportation projects within geographic units across the state. Conservation measures were then developed to address the bat’s needs and the expected impacts of project construction.
It is estimated that review times for construction projects that affect the Indiana bat have been reduced by 50 percent, and the time savings has saved DOT $7 million to $10 million to date. In addition, protecting habitat for the Indiana bat – particularly forested stream areas – also conserves habitat for a range of other species, minimizes flood damage and improves water quality.
Established in 2003, the Service’s Transportation Environmental Stewardship Excellence Award is awarded every two years in recognition of Earth Day. Past winners include Service offices and state transportation departments in Colorado and Oregon.
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 546 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.
