WISCONSIN—This November, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to change the status of the northern long-eared bat from threatened to endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The northern long-eared bat has experienced severe population declines from a disease known as white nose syndrome. The disease is caused by a non-native invasive fungus that has killed more than 7 million bats across the United States. Experts with Fish and Wildlife have estimated a mortality of approximately 95% of the bat population.

The range of this species extends throughout the eastern half of the United States and beyond. Therefore, the impacts of this change in species status will span 30 national forests and grasslands in the Eastern and Southern regions of the Forest Service. Management activities on nearly 25 million acres of National Forest System lands in the Eastern and Southern regions will be affected. Consultation is the mechanism under the act that helps ensure agency activities will not jeopardize the continued existence of listed species or significantly alter their critical habitats.

With the change, forests and grasslands will lose existing act coverage for ongoing projects, preventing these activities from continuing unless action is taken to reinitiate consultation for these ongoing activities.

“Delivery of our program of work is essential for meeting our mission as an agency,” said Rick Lint, deputy regional forester in the Southern Region.
In anticipation of the species status change, staff in the Southern and Eastern regions are working together with Fish and Wildlife using a bi-regional approach to reinitiate consultation for the species at a programmatic scale. The consultation covers projects with signed decisions and projects where a decision is expected to be signed by the end of the calendar year.

“If we had to do this alone, our ability to continue with supportive management activities and plan new projects would be greatly impacted. This approach models our goal to steward the whole, and to create efficiencies for the field,” said Tony Crump, deputy forest supervisor on the Mark Twain National Forest.

Collectively, both regions identified approximately 1,850 projects where reinitiation of formal consultation (where adverse effects to the species are likely) and more than 900 projects where concurrence (adverse effects to the species are not likely) is needed for implementation of these projects to continue. The consultation process for the species is expected to be completed in December 2022.

“This reinitiation process, which is part of a larger bat conservation effort, was only accomplished because of the extraordinary dedication of hundreds of district, forest and regional employees across both the Eastern and Southern regions,” said Steve Kuennen, director of Renewable Resources, Eastern Region. “This proactive consultation effort ensures implementation continues on nearly 2,800 projects without disruption and will save years of consultation effort on projects currently in the planning process.”