FHWA and INDOT intend to apply the range-wide informal consultation programmatic agreement for the Indiana bat and northern long-eared bat to transportation projects in Indiana as of June l, 2016.

The USFWS, FHWA, and FRA have developed a programmatic informal consultation for both the Indiana bat and the northern long-eared bat. Programmatic informal consultation sets out the analytical considerations and conservation measures which allow a federal project proponent to use informal consultation to satisfy ESA Section 7 requirements for the two species.  The project features, impacts analysis, and conservation measures are documented and provided to USFWS.  Projects that do not qualify for programmatic informal consultation, either because of project type, project impacts, or inability to implement required conservation measures, may engage in standard informal consultation or full formal consultation with USFWS.