EnviroScience Exceeds Goals of ODOT Bat Mitigation Project

When EnviroScience won the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Western Management Unit Bat Habitat Mitigation Project in late 2017, we committed to providing ODOT with 525 acres of high-quality bat habitat mitigation within certain approved areas of central and western Ohio. All sites had to be within a certain proximity to a known Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) maternity colony. We are pleased to announce that we provided ODOT with a total of almost 599 acres of bat mitigation habitat that resulted from the purchase of two properties, one in Pickaway County and another in Highland County. As part of the project, we also oversaw the planting of 20 acres of hardwood forest habitat, 350 acres of native prairie habitat, and 245 acres of intensive invasive species management.

The Pickaway County property totaled 276 acres in size, and it protects over 3,700 linear feet of the Big Darby Creek corridor in an area with known state and federal listed aquatic species. The 322-acre Highland County property provides a large block of contiguous habitat protection in an area that is at the core of known Indiana and northern long-eared bat usage. EnviroScience would like to thank ODOT, as well as the Appalachia Ohio Alliance, a nonprofit conservation organization that will be the long-term landowner and steward of these properties, for this successful collaboration.

If you have any questions about this project or would like information on how EnviroScience may assist you with any of your mitigation needs (species, wetland, or stream), please contact Neal Hess at NHess@EnviroScienceInc.com.