News Summary

They weigh roughly as much as three pennies and are the size of a human thumb. But they have the power to bring Butler County's largest public works projects to a halt.

They are Indiana bats, a federally protected species native to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

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The thumb-size Indiana bat native to Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois, is a federally protected species that flocks from winter caves to give birth in large trees.Click to enlarge

Contractors clear trees for the site of the replacement Liberty-Fairfield Road bridge on Friday, March 28. The deadline has been shortened to accommodate the arrival of the Indiana bat, which will soon begin nesting in the trees.Click to enlarge

Contractors at the Liberty-Fairfield Road bridge site near the intersections of Madison, St. Clair, Liberty and Fairfield townships are rushing to clear trees before April 15. That's when the bats emerge from their winter caves and look for trees to give birth in.

Females each produce only one pup per year. The tiny, vulnerable newborns huddle together on peeling bark of large trees to stay warm.

While there's no guarantee the bats would pick the trees where the new bridge will go, the Butler County Engineer's Office has to presume they will.

This is because the $10.3 million project is partially funded with federal dollars, requiring extensive environmental studies that add years and sometimes millions to the time and cost of a project.

These studies take into account more than a dozen factors, inlcuding water quality impacts, historical structures and community impact. The study for the bridge project, completed in 1999, cost $68,386.

This is comparatively inexpensive. Studies for the stalled Ohio 63 extension have already cost roughly $2 million. Another project that's on the lookout for bats is Hamilton's upcoming hydroelectric plant in Kentucky. The requirements are cumbersome for project managers.

"You've got pressing road needs and issues and these things need to be done now," said Chris Petrocy, spokesman for the engineer's office. "But before you do this, you may have to come up with half a million or a million dollars for an environmental study that's time-consuming and costly to taxpayers."

Projects not involving federal funding don't have such wildlife protection oversight, though they're not legally able to harm protected species.

"We're not in the business of policing and going out and getting involved in everyone's project," said Angla Boyer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife endangered species coordinator. "We're here in an advisory role to help people be in compliance with the law. In order to have a sound, whole functioning ecosystem, you need to have all the players."

This includes the tiny bat.