Long-Eared Bats—U.S. Fish & Wildlife Issues Final Rule and Tools & Guidance Documents

Print this Article | Send to Colleague

On November 29, 2022, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published a final rule to reclassify the northern long-eared bat (NLEB) as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The bat faces extinction due to the range-wide impacts of white-nose syndrome, a deadly disease affecting cave-dwelling bats across the continent. On March 31, 2023, when the uplisting rule for NLEB became effective, the Service released interim NLEB guidance and tools to help stakeholders transition to the NLEB reclassification. The interim wind guidance, interim habitat modification guidance and interim Section 7 framework guidance and tools were scheduled to be in place until April 1, 2024, but were extended until final tools were released.

On April 1, we released a draft version of these final guidance and tool documents, with a 30-day feedback period, fulfilling a commitment to seek feedback from interested parties before finalizing tools and guidance. We received comments from 47 entities representing industry groups, federal agencies, state agencies and conservation organizations. All substantive feedback on the draft materials received by May 1, 2024, was considered in the development of these final documents. These tools also support the conservation of the tricolored bat (TCB), should the species be listed. These tools and guidance documents were developed with the goal of providing Endangered Species Act compliance predictability across sectors and to demonstrate our commitment to proactively working with partners to conserve remaining bats within the NLEB and TCB ranges while minimizing impacts to the regulated public.

The final tools and guidance were released on October 23, 2024. At that time the final tools and guidance documents replaced the NLEB's interim products; however, the NLEB Interim Consultation Framework was still valid for use by federal agencies through November 30, 2024. For federal agency projects not completed by November 30, 2024, that previously were issued streamlined biological opinions for NLEB under the Interim Consultation Framework, a memorandum (memo) was released with recommended next steps for these projects. This memo states that agencies that have not completed their projects by November 30, 2024, do not need to contact the Service if the only change to their project is that it will continue after November 30, 2024. It also outlines the process to follow if reinitiation is needed based on reinitiation criteria described at 50 CFR 402.16, such as exceeding the amount of take. This memo can be found here.

Final Tools and Guidance Documents 