Abstract
NedPower Mount Storm is proposing an approximately 300 megawatt (MW) wind farm in Grant County, West Virginia. Because the NedPower Mount Storm Wind Project is within the range of two federally endangered bat species, the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) and the Virginia big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii virginianus), a Biological Assessment (BA) was prepared to address potential impacts of the project on these bats (see Johnson and Strickland 2003). Based on results of a habitat survey, information obtained on the ecology and habitat of the two endangered species, data on bat use of the project area, and current information on bat interactions with wind turbines, the BA concluded that construction and operation of the project would not likely affect either species. Although several factors were taken into consideration before making the “no affect” determination, two of the primary factors were that (1) habitat within the project area is not suitable breeding or foraging habitat for either species, and (2) available information on species composition of bats killed at other wind plants in the U.S. indicated that long-distance, non-hibernating bats including the hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) and silver-haired bat (Lasionycterus noctivagans) were most prone to collisions with wind energy facilities and that neither migrating Indiana bats or Virginia big-eared bats traversing between caves would be highly susceptible to collision mortality.