House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (UT-01) today sent a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Dan Ashe, requesting information supporting any final listing determination for the northern long-eared bat (NLEB) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  A final listing decision for the species is expected to be made by April 2, 2015.

The letter, which was signed by 14 additional Members of Congress, references that the most significant threat to the NLEB, as stated by FWS, is not caused by human development activities, but rather a fungal disease known as white-nose syndrome (WNS).  

The full letter can be found here.  

“We…write to ensure that any efforts to protect the NLEB do not cause undue harm to, or impose unnecessary regulatory burdens on economic development, forestry, wind power generation, energy development, agriculture, and conservation projects – activities that, according to the preamble to the proposed rule “have not independently caused significant, population-level effects on the [NLEB]” and that are unrelated to the primary threat to this species – white nose syndrome,” the Members state in the letter.

“We believe the proposed 4(d) rule provides inadequate protections to both long-standing and new activities that are vital to communities throughout the NLEB’s extensive range.  We believe the impacts of these activities are ‘not expected to adversely affect conservation and recovery for the species,’ just as the Service stated in the proposed rule’s preamble for the few activities on which it focused…We urge you to protect the NLEB from population loss associated with WNS, without unduly burdening impacted communities and citizens, by driving up costs for farmers, foresters, and families who ultimately will have to bear the burden of any unnecessarily onerous rules,” the letter states.