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Utility, DOT and land clearing crews

Where are the trees you'll clear?

Look up when northern long-eared bats are unlikely to be in summer forest in your state, plus the listed species on your site's IPaC list. Free.

  • Free to read
  • No sign-up until the draft
  • Hands off to the right door

ePlan fills in

  • State
  • Listed bats on IPaC
  • Forest cover
  • Critical habitat

How it works

Clearing-window note by state, from one answer

  1. Enter the site and roughly how many trees you'll cut.
  2. ePlan pulls the state's bat dates and the IPaC species list.
  3. Read the free note. Need these rules in your project specs? Start a design criteria appendix.

What you get

Clearing-window note by state and 2 more documents

The check is free. The paperwork after it is drafted at the Design criteria table door.

The first draft

Clearing-window note by state (free)

  1. Site and state
  2. Listed bats and other species on the IPaC list
  3. Inactive-season dates outside swarming areas
  4. Distance to known caves and mines, if you have it
  5. Suggested clearing window
  6. Federal link and consultation route

Modeled on: USFWS inactive season dates table for northern long-eared bats

Next · 2

Design criteria appendix

  1. Timing restrictions
  2. Buffers
  3. Sources
Next · 3

Section 7 species memo

  1. Species and habitat
  2. Effects
  3. Proposed determination

From public data

What ePlan fills in, and from where

37 states

have northern long-eared bats, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified as endangered in a final rule published November 29, 2022
Source: USFWS species profile

Ready for the paperwork?

Build the design criteria (resource protection measures) table for your EA or CE from your forest plan, National Core BMPs and signed decisions.

Design criteria table →

Questions

Tree Clearing Window for Bats, by State: what people ask

When can I cut trees without harming northern long-eared bats?

FWS lists inactive-season dates by state, when the bats are unlikely to be in summer forest away from swarming areas. In Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and New York it is October 1 to March 31. Louisiana and Mississippi have no inactive season.

Source: fws.gov

Where don't the dates apply?

Near caves and mines: FWS expects fall swarming and spring staging within five miles of hibernacula. Bats may also be in forest year-round in the coastal plain of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

Source: fws.gov

Is the northern long-eared bat endangered?

Yes. FWS published a final rule on November 29, 2022 reclassifying it as endangered, mainly because of white-nose syndrome. The bat is found in 37 states and eight Canadian provinces.

Source: fws.gov

The rules this door follows

Related doors

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Which forest is the project on?

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Where is the facility you might report?

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Where will the solar array go?

Tribal housing and environmental offices

Review level note

Where is the tribal project?

Ranchers, inholders and co-ops crossing federal land

SF-299 prep checklist

Where would the road or line go?

Federal projects · NEPA

NEPA environmental assessment

What are you proposing, and where?

Tree Clearing Window for Bats, by State: check it free

Answer it and ePlan opens the Design criteria table door with your answer filled in.