Category: indiana bat

Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News The Cumberland Times-News Tue Dec 28, 2010, 07:50 AM EST

— SWANTON — A biologist with the Maryland Wildlife & Heritage Service said Monday that it is so difficult to distinguish hibernating Indiana bats from little brown bats that there is uncertainty about the number of the former in Garrett County’s John Friend Cave.

That cave is mentioned in a federal lawsuit complaint as having a robust population of the federally endangered Indiana bats. The recently filed suit asks the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to delay the startup of Constellation Energy Group’s wind turbine project on Backbone Mountain until the company obtains an incidental take permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Constellation has hoped to begin operating the 28-turbine Eagle Rock project at the end of this month. Spokesman Kevin Thornton said the company has been in contact with the federal wildlife agency and is in the process of applying for the permit.

“In John Friend Cave we haven’t had a substantiated record of the Indiana bat for a long time,” said biologist Dan Feller. “But unless we go pluck every bat off the wall and spread the wings and look for the color of the hairs at the base of the fur it is hard to tell. We generally say they are little brown bats, but there could be Indiana bats in there.”

Feller enters Maryland’s bat caves once each winter to count the animals. He said John Friend Cave is among the top five locations in the state with an average of 300 various bats.

At Crabtree Cave, near the Savage River Reservoir Dam and about 10 miles from the wind turbine site, Indiana bats were observed swarming outside the cave in the autumn in the 1990s, according to Feller. “We have no substantiated records of Indiana bats at Crabtree since then,” he said.

Feller said radio tracking studies have shown that Indiana bats, mostly females and young, use Maryland forests and ridge lines during the summer.

“One study tracked an Indiana bat from a hibernaculum in central Pennsylvania to Carroll County, Md., 120 miles away,” Feller said. “We know that Backbone Mountain is within 100 miles of a number of Indiana bat (caves) in West Virginia.”

The plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit are the Baltimore-based Maryland Conservation Council, the council’s Vice President Ajax Eastman, the Oakland-based group Save Western Maryland and D. Daniel Boone, Bowie, an environmental activist.

Frank Maisano, a spokesman for Constellation and other wind energy developers, said Monday that the start-up of the Eagle Rock project is imminent.

“The turbines have already been pushing power, but it has all been for required testing,” Maisano said. “It is about to start up.”

Maisano said the lawsuit may delay the project, but is unlikely to stop it. He said other wind energy projects such as one in Greenbrier County, W.Va., have been faced with the same roadblock, but were able to move forward after obtaining the take permit, which, in essence, accounts for the killing, injuring or perturbing of bats.

Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com

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With the ever-increasing number of wind turbines being constructed, various government and private organizations are pursuing research into the impact of wind turbines on birds and bats with particular focus on endangered species.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and Fowler Ridge I Wind Farm in Benton County, Indiana announced a plan to research ways to reduce the impact of wind generation on bats after finding a dead endangered Indiana bat near a wind turbine. Fowler Ridge I, like all projects, had conducted due diligence wildlife surveys and consulted with state and federal wildlife agencies prior to construction and operation. The project was found to represent a very low risk for bats in general and the endangered Indiana bat in particular, but the finding of the dead bat led to further scrutiny by the FWS.

The Indiana bat has been listed on the endangered species list since 1967. It is found over most of the Eastern half of the United States. Almost half of all Indiana bats hibernate in caves in Southern Indiana. Indiana bats are small, weighing only one-quarter of an ounce, and
have a wingspan of nine to 11 inches.

While several wind farms, including Fowler Ridge, have recently requested incidental take permits from the FWS, others have been sent notices of intent to sue under the Endangered Species Act for failing to obtain incidental take permits. An incidental take permit is
required when a non-federal action may result in a “take” of an endangered or threatened species. In June 2010, a coalition of environmental organizations and individuals filed a notice of violation against a Constellation Energy, Inc. project proposed for Garrett County, Maryland.

The notice alleges that the project will result in an unpermitted taking of Indiana bats and another protected bat species. While construction on the project is proceeding, the legal wrangling is far from over. Constellation has stated they expect to request an incidental take permit for the protected bat species in the project area. Another nearby wind project also received a notice of violation from the same coalition.

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If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Deep Creek Do It All specializes in cleaning services in Garrett County & @ Deep Creek Lake. Give them a call (301-501-0217) or visit the website – competitive rates and quality results from a locally owned & operated company!