ESI completed mutli-taxa field surveys and provided regulatory document support for the proposed I-69 highway expansion project in Indiana.
Services included:
- Section 7 Endangered Species Act Compliance:
- Bats (summer): presence/probable absence mist net surveys and radio telemetry from 2004 through 2005. Nocturnal bridge inspections to determine if night roosting bats were present. Since 2006, through collaboration with Lochmueller Group, mist net surveys, radio telemetry, and acoustic monitoring continue as required in Biological Opinions issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- Bats (autumn/winter): autumn harp trapping at thirty cave entrances in 2004. The same caves were entered during winter 2005 to assess and compare numbers and species of over-wintering bats. Two caves of special concern were trapped again in spring 2005 to collect additional data
- Additional protected species: completed bird inventories in 2004 and 2005. Surveys for reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, and terrestrial crayfish in spring 2005. Plant inventories on the Patoka River bottomlands
- Regulatory document preparation: assisted Lochmueller Group to produce the Programmatic Biological Assessment (BA) for the entire corridor and BAs for individual sections. Also assisted with preparing a Rusty Patched Bumble Bee BA and Environmental Impact Statements for individual sections