[OHIOBWG] FW: UPDATE: Draft Revised Rangewide Indiana Bat Summer Survey Guidelines

[Titchenell, Marne]

Update on the Indiana bat survey protocol.

Marne A. Titchenell
Wildlife Program Specialist
Ohio State University Extension
School of Environment and Natural Resources
210 Kottman Hall
2021 Coffey Road
Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 292-0402
titchenell.4 at osu.edu<mailto:titchenell.4 at osu.edu>
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From: Carter, Timothy [mailto:tccarter at bsu.edu]
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2013 10:45 AM
To: MWBWG at LISTSERV.BSU.EDU
Subject: UPDATE: Draft Revised Rangewide Indiana Bat Summer Survey Guidelines

MWBWG - Mailing List ----------------------------------------

February 8, 2013

Dear Interested Parties,

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) recently received several similar letters requesting a 60-day extension to our current 30-day public comment period to allow more time to review and prepare comments on the Draft Revised Rangewide Indiana Bat Summer Survey Guidelines and related documents.  While we recognize the hardship an extension at this time will cause many of you that are preparing bids and planning schedules for the 2013 summer survey season, the Service also must ensure that all stakeholders have time to prepare and submit their comments.  Therefore, we have decided to extend the public comment period for these documents for an additional 30 days.  This extension was formally announced in the Federal Register today, February 8th, and will extend the comment period through March 11, 2013.  The FR notice can be accessed at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-02-08/pdf/2013-02889.pdf.

The Service and U.S. Geological Survey are continuing to develop the test call library designed to evaluate automated acoustic ID software programs submitted for use with the revised guidelines.  We acknowledge that a significant amount of additional time will likely be needed to 1) test/approve automated acoustic ID software programs and 2) review and consider forthcoming public comments given the 30-day extension.  Therefore, we have decided that we will implement a contingency plan for the 2013 field season.  A draft of the 2013 Contingency Plan is currently available for public comment.  However, we are interested in modifying the plan to allow for options to incorporate mist-netting at a level that would result in similar probabilities of detection as acoustics and establish presence/probable absence of Indiana bats in summer habitat.  Currently available information suggests a netting level much higher than the 2007 mist-netting protocols will be needed to adequately detect Indiana bats in many locations (e.g., areas of the range impacted by white-nose syndrome [WNS] and heavily forested landscapes).  We request any pertinent data that you may have that would assist with finalizing this level of effort, particularly from areas affected by WNS.

Given the decision to move forward under a contingency plan, we encourage you to use some of the additional review time to prepare constructive comments and ideas for improving this draft document.  We recognize the need to have final guidance in place for the 2013 field season as early as possible to allow survey planning to take place.  With this in mind, our goal is to have the 2013 Contingency Plan finalized no later than April 1, 2013.  In order to meet this goal, while fully incorporating your input, we respectfully request that reviewers not wait until the very end of the extended comment period to submit their comments.  We will attempt to post new comments to our website as they are received.  Throughout 2013, we will continue to work towards finalizing the Draft Revised Rangewide Indiana Bat Summer Survey Guidelines and plan to have a final version of them for use during the 2014 field season.

The draft documents are still available for review and comment on the Service's Indiana Bat Summer Survey Guidelines web page.
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/Endangered/mammals/inba/inbasummersurveyguidance.html

Please feel free to share this announcement with others that may be interested.

Lastly, to help improve the efficiency of our review, we would greatly appreciate receiving your comments in a spreadsheet format with each unique comment entered on a separate row.  Please feel free to use the attached Excel file as a template and to send them to us via email (Indiana_bat at fws.gov<mailto:Indiana_bat at fws.gov>).  This is an optional format/request.

Thank you,
Andy King, Mike Armstrong and Robyn Niver
___________________________
R. Andrew King
Fish and Wildlife Biologist
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Bloomington Field Office
620 S. Walker Street
Bloomington, IN  47403
Phone:  812-334-4261 x1216
Fax:  812-334-4273

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