Letter: Endangered bat consideration in Buffalo Springs Project
A recent article submitted by the Indiana Forest Alliance calls for the Hoosier National Forest (HNF) to study the impacts of the proposed Buffalo Springs Project on the northern long-eared bat, recently declared endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Not mentioned in their article is that the effects of management on the long-eared bat WAS already studied for the Environmental Assessment, as the bat has been on the threatened list since 2015. The report is available at the following link: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=60940.
It is important to note the listing of the northern long-eared bat is due entirely to white-nose syndrome, which occurs in the caves and mines where the bats overwinter. Previous to white-nose syndrome in Indiana, the northern long-eared bats were some of the most common bats in the HNF. Their summer habitat in the hardwood forests is not the problem. They have long existed and thrived in a variety of forested habitats and the disturbances that have occurred there. They are not restricted to “mature, deep forest” as the article stated.
While some of the activities proposed have the potential to affect individual bats, mitigating factors have been added to the project plans, such as retaining snags, protecting roost trees, maintaining undisturbed habitats within management areas, and conducting activities when bats are less likely to be present. The mitigating practices resulted in a determination of minimal if any, negative effect on the bats in the short term. However, in the long term, the project should improve the habitat for bats and many other species by creating more open understories for foraging, young successional forests full of insects and other prey, and maintaining the oak-hickory component that supports more insect species and numbers than any other forest type.
It is also important to note that the Fish & Wildlife Service has regulatory jurisdiction over endangered species. Any activities on the HNF, including this project, will be in conjunction with Fish & Wildlife Service involvement and approval.
Larger than the bats or any single species is the overall value of the project for the landscape and ecology of southern Indiana. We can’t manage all of our forests for any individual species but need to provide and maintain a variety of forest types, ages and structures for all of our native flora and fauna.
Foresters in Southern Indiana have known for decades that we are losing our legacy of oak–hickory forests and the ecosystem that they support, not due to overlogging but due to the lack of fire and other management activities that accommodate the regeneration of these forests. Often these activities are too difficult and the scale too small to implement on private lands, leaving public lands as the best place to incorporate them. While the acres in this project are significant, they are over a span of many years and on only a portion of the HNF. But the project will help maintain that diversity for the benefit of all of our wildlife and the citizens of Indiana.
The Indiana Forest Alliance has long protested any management on the public forests in Indiana. Their objective is to leave the land alone, except to walk on it. Their management will result in a landscape less diverse, less habitable for wildlife and less valuable to the citizens that own the land. The HNF was created to provide multiple benefits to as many people as possible, not to serve a small niche special interest group that wants to lock it up from everyone else.
Four Rivers Forestry Committee
