As local infrastructure projects proliferate, developers work to avoid and minimize their impacts on this fragile habitat. However, there remain unavoidable impacts that require compensation to ensure the recovery of these imperiled species.

The Conservation Solution

The Range-Wide Indiana Bat and Northern Long-Eared Bat In-Lieu Fee Program provides a practical mitigation option for unavoidable adverse impacts to Indiana bats and northern long-eared bats from infrastructure projects covered by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-approved biological opinion or habitat conservation plan. There are 22 states where the range of the Indiana bat overlaps with the range of the northern long-eared bat. The total northern long-eared bat range covers an additional 14 states (see map). The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and The Conservation Fund developed the program to serve as a national case study that would provide an innovative and groundbreaking mitigation alternative across the entire habitat range of an endangered species.

The Bat In-Lieu Fee program has created consistency in Endangered Species Act Section 7 consultations for the two bat species across their ranges while reducing the time, cost and workload associated with the process.

Benefits of the Program

• Creates consolidated landscape-level mitigation for multiple smaller impacts for bats;
• Meets mitigation obligation for users by allowing them to simply write a check; and
• Ensures agencies’ approach to mitigation is focused on high-quality conservation projects for bats

Outcome Highlights

The Conservation Fund is actively identifying high-quality conservation lands that can benefit the recovery of Indiana bats and northern long-eared bats. As we pool payments from developers impacting Indiana bat and northern long-eared bat habitat, we work with project partners to acquire these properties. The Deutsch property is one such property in Missouri.

Deutsch Property Acquisition

The Deutsch property was purchased by Great Rivers Land Trust using funds granted from the Bat In-Lieu Fee program. Most of the 159-acre property is adjacent to several conserved properties and covered by a healthy hardwood forest predominantly composed of oaks and hickories in the hills of Lincoln County. The dense forest cover provides suitable foraging habitat for bats and there are numerous dead trees and snags that provide roosting opportunities. The purchase of the targeted property eliminated the possibility of development and prevented the fragmentation of the larger landscape, which comprises nearly 2,000 acres. The Deutsch property contains karst geology, with numerous sinkholes and caves providing potential winter hibernating habitat, and a neighboring property has a verified Indiana bat roost.

Learn More

• • Insights: “Helping Endangered Bats Via Compensatory Mitigation“
  • Indiana Bat and Northern Long-Eared Bat In-Lieu Fee Instrument and Biological Opinion