The northern long-eared bat is a medium-sized bat about 3 to 3.7 inches in length with a wingspan of 9 to 10 inches and, as its name suggests, long ears. The northern long-eared bat is found across much of the eastern and north central United States and parts of Canada. The bat is federally listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
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Photo by New York Department of Environmental Conservation; Al Hicks
Why is the northern long-eared bat in trouble?
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the primary threat to the existence of the northern long-eared bat is a pandemic fungal disease called white-nose syndrome, a disease known to infect the muzzle, ears, and wings of hibernating bats. In the Northeast, the species has declined by up to 99 percent from pre-white-nose syndrome levels at many hibernation sites. Infected bats often display abnormal behaviors in their habitats, such as movement toward the mouth of caves and daytime flights during winter. White-nose syndrome has and continues to spread within the range of the northern long-eared bat. No other factor or human activity imposes an existential threat to the species.
Where is the northern long-eared bat located?
The northern long-eared bat is found across much of the eastern and north central United States and all Canadian provinces from the Atlantic coast west to the southern Northwest Territories and eastern British Columbia. The species’ range includes the following 37 states and the District of Columbia: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Click here for a list of U.S. counties in the northern long-eared bat’s range.
What is being done to help the northern long-eared bat?
- 2006: Symptoms of White-nose syndrome first observed in New York.
- October 2013: Fish and Wildlife Service proposes an endangered listing under the Endangered Species Act.
- January 2014: Stakeholders recommend possible 4(d) rule option.
- January 16, 2015: Fish and Wildlife Service proposes 4(d) rule in case threatened listing found for the bat.
- April 2, 2015: Fish and Wildlife Service list the northern long-eared bat as threatened under the ESA, while also publishing an Interim 4(d) rule.
- May 4, 2015: Interim 4(d) rule takes effect.
- July 1, 2015: Comment period on the interim 4(d) rule closes.
What is a 4(d) rule?
A 4(d) rule is one of many tools provided by the Endangered Species Act to allow for flexibility in the Act’s implementation and to customize regulations to those that make the most sense for protecting and managing at-risk species. The goal of a 4(d) rule is to ensure private landowners and citizens are not impacted by regulations that do not further the conservation of the species and, when conducting certain activities, are exempted from “take” prohibitions (defined in the ESA as to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, etc.). This rule may be applied only to species listed as threatened and directs the Fish and Wildlife Service to issue regulations deemed “necessary and advisable to provide for the conservation of threatened species.”
On January 15, 2015, Fish and Wildlife Service published a proposed 4(d) rule for the northern long-eared bat and opened a public comment period on the proposal. In April, federal regulators published an interim 4(d) rule in conjunction with the final rule to list the northern long-eared bat as threatened. There is also a 90-day public comment period open until July 1, 2015 on the interim rule for the Fish and Wildlife Service to gather additional information and finalize the rule, a process IPAA is actively involved in.
What does this mean for the northern long-eared bat?
Photo: Northern long-eared bat proposed 4(d) rule: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
For areas of the country not affected by white-nose syndrome (i.e., areas outside the white-nose syndrome buffer zone), the interim 4(d) rule exempts incidental take from all activities.According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, for all areas within the range of the northern long-eared bat, all purposeful take is prohibited except for removal of northern long-eared bats from human structures, and actions relating to capture, handling, and related activities for northern long-eared bat by individuals permitted to conduct these same activities for species of bats (for a period of one year).
For areas of the country impacted by white-nose syndrome, take from hazardous tree removal is exempt from ESA prohibitions. The measures provided in the interim 4(d) rule also exempt take from the following activities:
- forest management practices (less than 2 percent of the bat’s habitat),
- maintenance and limited expansion of transportation and utility rights-of-way (100 feet),
- prairie habitat management, and
- limited tree removal projects (such as firewood cutting, drainage projects, and landscaping), provided these activities protect known roosts and species habitat (less than one acre).
To qualify, these activities must occur more than 0.25 mile (0.4 km) from a known, occupied habitat, avoid cutting or destroying known, occupied roost trees during the pup season (June 1–July 31), and avoid clear-cuts (and similar harvest methods, e.g. seed tree, shelterwood and coppice) within 0.25 mile (0.4 km) of known, occupied roost trees during the pup season (June 1–July 31).
Unfortunately, as currently listed the rule does not exempt oil and gas activities from incidental take of the bat, despite the limited impact of these activities on the species and the spread of white-nose syndrome.
What is IPAA doing in regard to the listing of the bat?
IPAA joined with numerous other industry groups in January 2014, August 2014, December 2014, and March 2015 urging the Fish and Wildlife Service not to list the northern long-eared bat as endangered. In their March 2015 comments, IPAA and API specifically requested that all oil and gas development activities be exempted from the prohibition against incidental take of the bat through the proposed special rule. In July 2015, the associations again urged the Fish and Wildlife Service to amend the Interim 4(d) Rule for the northern long-eared bat to reflect the fact that oil and gas development activities do not pose a significant threat to the existence of the bat.
What are the potential impacts of this listing?
Unfortunately, the threatened listing and the resulting 4(d) rule by the Fish and Wildlife Service both fail to address the primary threat to the population of the Northern long-eared bat – white-nose syndrome.
Under the current 4(d) rule, oil and gas development activities are not exempt from incidental take of the northern long-eared bat, despite having no proven impact on the health of the bat’s population. In fact, according to an April 2014 Shale Gas Monitoring Report published by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the yearly impact of natural gas development on Pennsylvania’s forests is approximately 150 times smaller than the impact of forest management activities.
Meanwhile, as a result of this rule, family-owned small businesses and local communities are now being unjustly targeted as a result of these new Washington, D.C.-knows-best protections for the bat. The proposed listing could mean significant economic impacts to these States and local communities, while doing little to prevent the fungal disease from spreading and help the declining population of these bats.
These economic impacts go far beyond the oil and natural gas industry – logging and forestry practices, farming, real estate, family-owned retail stores, and other industries throughout the community will be most impacted as a result of this listing. In Pennsylvania, for instance, natural gas development has transformed the economy, creating thousands of jobs for the state’s workforce and contributing $34.7 billion to the state’s economy. The current 4(d) rule stands to threaten the future of these investments in the state.
While every reasonable effort should be made to halt the spread of this fungal disease, preventing highly regulated oil and natural gas activities from moving forward will have no tangible benefits to the bat’s population or the management of white-nose syndrome.
Related News
Check out more news on the northern long-eared bat on ESA Watch HERE.