USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

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USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby PYoungbaer » Mar 4, 2011 4:16 pm

The USFWS is actively soliciting data and qualitative information about several bat species as part of their consideration of whether or not these bats should be added to the federal Endangered Species List. Survey forms have gone out to bat biologists and other wildlife officials, with feedback due over the next couple of months.

Priority is being given to information about the Little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), the Eastern small-footed bat (Myotis leibii), and the Northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis). All three of these are the subject of formal petitions or status reports already received by USFWS.

In addition, information and data is being sought for the Big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), the Tri-colored bat ([i]Perimyotis subflavus[/i]), the Southeastern myotis (Myotis austroriparius ) and Cave bat (Myotis velifer).

In addition to information about hibernacula, population data, and presence of WNS or Geomyces destructans, questions include information about other environmental threats - natural or manmade - from floods, to development, to wind turbines, and more. Further, the survey seeks information as to whether the respondent feels there are adequate protections in place, such as cave closure orders.

All of this will lead USFWS to conclusions as to whether or not any of these species are threatened with extinction, and thus warrant listing as endangered. Significant habitat, recovery plans, and other protection measures will need to be developed for any species they deem warrant this protection. Some states are already moving in this direction under their own laws and regulations, Wisconsin, Vermont, and Massachusetts among them.

The Endangered Species Act process is a lengthy one, and it does certainly involve public input. While some of these bats have clearly been seriously affected by WNS, the question of federal listing is a complicated one. It will behoove all of us to pay close attention to this process and to provide input along the way. Listing will have ramifications both below and above ground.

Once USFWS makes a determination that a full-blown investigation is warranted, that decision is required to be published in the Federal Register, along with any draft regulations. These are then the subject of review and public and professional input. For anyone wishing to review the entire Endangered Species Act, it can be found on line at:
http://epw.senate.gov/esa73.pdf
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby rlboyce » Mar 4, 2011 5:54 pm

Some of these bats can be found in every cave near me. If any of these are deemed ES, what is the likelihood all private caves are mandatorily closed?
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby wyandottecaver » Mar 4, 2011 6:41 pm

mandatory? virtually none under the *current* interpretations. As long as you aren't "harming" (with specific definitions) bats ESA doesn't apply to non Federal entities unless there is Designated Critical Habitat, or they accept Federal Grants.

The "Hey dude, do the right thing or big brother might drag you into court"....that happens all the time they even bully States that way.

The real danger is that in conjunction with these listings there is a land grab to designate many caves Critical Habitat, and/or to change the interpretation of "harm".
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby rlboyce » Mar 4, 2011 11:11 pm

I see. Makes sense. Thanks!
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby Batgirl » Mar 5, 2011 1:57 am

If memory serves me correctly, doesn't the species have to decimated throughout its range in order to list? Or is this a regional listing? Does the Endangered Species Act allow this?

ok now for my rant......I understand humans feel the need to "fix whats broken", but lets face it, listing is not going to save the LBB. They (USFWS) are wasting time and resources on "feel good" scenarios that needs to be dumped into "real world" research. Under normal circumstances (ie depopulation or habitat loss due to human activity), listing is very beneficial to recovery. But you can not list a species thinking that it has any real world applications to protecting or saving a species that is being decimated by a fungal disease for which there is no treatment or cure. How can you provide a recovery plan when you don't know how to recover it? For me, this is putting the cart before the horse. Listing should come later, after we have a better understanding of this disease and how to treat it.

Some may think that listing allows money to be released from the federal government that would not ordinarily be available to them, but a few months ago when I attended the Cave and Karst Working Group meeting, I was informed that TN had not received one dime in ES money for this crisis and not only that but the 1.9 million dollars that was slated for WNS research was redirected to the gulf for the cleanup, even though we were all told that no public money would be spent for that cleanup. What's to prevent this from happening again? So I say, the point of listing is..............?
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby PYoungbaer » Mar 5, 2011 7:45 am

Batgirl,

Correction - none of the $1.9 million appropriated for WNS went to the Gulf cleanup. Approximately $900,000 was used by USFWS for WNS staff and planning; $1 million went directly to research grants on WNS.

What did happen in 2010 is the Gulf disaster, which meant that other core USFWS funding that might have been available for reallocation to WNS was not.

In addition, USFWS used some of its core Preventing Extinction funds as well as competitive State Wildlife Grant monies to fund WNS activities - surveillance, monitoring, and research. USFWS cites over $3.9 million spent on WNS to date. It is unclear how much other federal agencies have allocated, but advocates working on Capitol Hill estimate $2,780,000 through USFS, USGS, NPS and Dept. of Defense. These are total dollars since WNS hit the scene - most not becoming available until into Federal Fiscal Year 2009.

Re: the listing of species: It may actually make it easier for USFWS to use Endangered Species funding for WNS. As we've written in the past, there had been a shortage of baseline information on many of the bat species, such as the Little Brown, as management work - surveys, habitat protection, etc. - was targeted to listed species, such as the Indiana bat in the North, and the Grey bat and Virginia long-eared in the South and Mid-west.

But yes, simply listing a bat won't protect it from an infectious disease, just as cave and mine closures don't. What will come into play, as Wyandottecaver indicated, is how critical habitat - both above and below ground - and harm are defined and enforced.
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby BrianC » Mar 5, 2011 9:20 am

Just posting to keep up, you don't want to hear my rants!
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby Batgirl » Mar 5, 2011 12:54 pm

Thank you for clarifying Peter. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard that. Good to know that they were completely misinformed.
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby PYoungbaer » Mar 5, 2011 2:16 pm

Batgirl,

In answer to your other question, yes, my understanding is that USFWS can address listing and management regionally.
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby dfcaver » Jun 28, 2011 9:56 am

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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby BrianC » Jun 28, 2011 10:44 am



Looks like someone needs to go cavin to get some of the info needed! Don't know if 60 days will be long enough for accurate info, maybe 60 years will be enough time?
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby PYoungbaer » Jun 29, 2011 8:11 am

For context, the petition to list the Northern Long-eared (Myotis septentrionalis) and Eastern Small-footed (Myotis leibii) was submitted by the CBD a year and a half ago. The delay in USFWS issuing this "90-day" finding is part of the reason CBD filed their Intent to Sue letter.

In addition to this petition, several organizations and researchers, including BCI, CBD, and Dr. Tom Kunz, issued a study calling for it to be considered as a Status Report on the Little brown (Myotis lucifugus), which would put it on an accelerated timeline for a listing decision along with the two bats above.

Note that the USFWS is also calling for information on the following bats: Big brown (Eptesicus fuscus), Tri-colored (Perimyotis subflavus, or Eastern pipistrelle), Cave myotis (Myotis velifer), and Southeastern myotis (Myotis austroriparius). Basically, this covers all the Eastern hibernating bats, plus the Western Cave myotis - a single individual of which was found positive for the fungus in Oklahoma, but no WNS.

Other bats mentioned in the WNS discussions have included the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), the Grey bat (Myotis grisescens), and the Virginia big-eared (Corynorhinus townsendii virginianus), but these bats are already listed as federally endangered.

Options for USFWS include finding that actions aren't warranted, finding that one or more of the species deserve listing as either threatened or endangered, and finding that such listing is warranted throughout the species range, or in a particular region of its range.

For example, I think there is a strong case for at least regional listing as endangered for the Little brown in the Northeast. However, all of these decisions we would hope are based on good science. This will require any of us that have good information on any of these bats, their numbers, distribution, winter and summer habitats, etc. to weigh in with accurate information.

Ramifications of listing include federal authority (and state) to affect both private and public properties, designation of critical habitat, both above and below ground, and the development and implementation of recovery plans with the goal of restoring species to a point where listing is no longer necessary. It had been rumored that the Indiana bat, for example, had been doing well under its recovery plan prior to WNS, and might have been a candidate for de-listing. Although the data is showing this species less susceptible to WNS than the Little brown, there have been significant mortalities, particularly in New York, and recent gains have been offset.
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby BrianC » Jun 29, 2011 9:25 am

Time to resign any group affiliations if you plan on caving :rofl:
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby Anonymous_Coward » Jun 29, 2011 9:33 am

BrianC wrote:Time to resign any group affiliations if you plan on caving :rofl:


Quite the opposite, Brian. The NSS needs you now more than ever. We all understand that you have let your membership lapse. You have told us many, many, many times. Fine. That is your choice. Continually recommending that others do the same is counterproductive and helps neither caves, bats, or cavers. Dropping out is not a constructive solution. :bat sticker:
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Re: USFWS Considering ES Listing for Several Bats

Postby BrianC » Jun 29, 2011 10:59 am

Anonymous_Coward wrote:
BrianC wrote:Time to resign any group affiliations if you plan on caving :rofl:


Quite the opposite, Brian. The NSS needs you now more than ever. We all understand that you have let your membership lapse. You have told us many, many, many times. Fine. That is your choice. Continually recommending that others do the same is counterproductive and helps neither caves, bats, or cavers. Dropping out is not a constructive solution. :bat sticker:

you are exactly right if considering that caving is the goal of the affiliation? I don't really think that any of this matters anymore anyway, caves such as Rumbling Falls, Camps Gulf etc... will never see another caver, possibly researchers, but only with a post doctorates degree. Cavers will certainly be a thing of the pass. Without caves for the younger generations to explore, no one will want to join any non caving grotto? So there won't be any one learning about caves or cave conservation.

PS: I still will be caving, it is just that the fine will be reduced for non affiliated cavers from $6000. to $600.
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