Project Challenge:  Over the past 20 years, multiple governors and Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) planners have repeatedly proposed connecting the cities of Evansville and Indianapolis with a major highway or interstate through southwestern Indiana and they have repeatedly been met with difficult environmental obstacles, a lack of funding, and much public opposition.  This controversial and complex project is now being proposed as a 142-mile extension of Interstate 69 (I-69), which Congress ultimately intends to function as an international trade corridor connecting Canada, the United States, and Mexico.  Many Hoosiers have been concerned that such a highway extension would cause serious environmental damage due to construction impacts and habitat lost from additional development that is often spurred by new or enlarged highways.  During the past three years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been closely coordinating with INDOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to identify impacts to the Federally endangered Indiana bat and other species of concern and to develop measures during project planning to avoid unnecessary environmental degradation, to mitigate unavoidable impacts, to address data gaps, and to improve environmental awareness throughout the planning process and beyond.

Ecological Services Meets the Challenge:  The Service's Bloomington, Indiana Field Office recently completed a second round of formal Section 7 consultation with the FHWA by issuing a revised biological opinion that concluded that I-69’s anticipated impacts to 13 Indiana bat maternity colonies (discovered during surveys in 2004) and tens of thousands of Indiana bats that hibernate in 15 caves near the proposed interstate route would not jeopardize the continued existence of the species.  The non-jeopardy finding was in large part attributed to INDOT’s willingness to alter their original plans in order to avoid direct impacts to the bats and their important habitats.  For example, INDOT shifted a section of originally proposed I-69 corridor by three miles in order to provide a larger buffer to a one of the Indiana bats’ most important hibernacula (i.e., a cave where they hibernate).  INDOT and FHWA also formally adopted many of the Service’s recommendations as “conservation measures” for the I-69 project.  As a result, upland forest losses will be mitigated (3:1) in addition to wetlands, seasonal tree clearing will occur, bat-friendly bridges will be designed and built, a hibernaculum and surrounding forest habitat will be purchased, one or more area caves will be protected with a bat-friendly gate, the entire Patoka River floodplain through the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge will be bridged (approx. 1 mile long), additional Indiana bat research will be funded, and an educational Indiana bat poster will be designed and distributed at Indiana’s rest stops and on-line. 

Benefits:  Early Service coordination and identification of the significant environmental consequences of the proposed I-69 project led, in part, to development of a diverse range of conservation measures that are helping the long-awaited project to proceed while avoiding many impacts to the Indiana bat.  Ultimately, these conservation measures will help ensure the long-term conservation of the Indiana bat, migratory birds, and other forest-dependent species in southwestern Indiana.  Construction of the I-69 extension in Indiana is currently scheduled to begin in 2008.

Authorizing Legislation:  Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act , and Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act