BENTONVILLE, Ark. — The City of Bentonville is purchasing bat mitigation credits from The Conservation Fund for the J Street Interchange Project.
Dennis Birge, the city's transportation director, explained that the interchange project had been part of the master street plan since 2007. It would split the nearly 4 miles of interstate between the Central Ave exit and the Bella Vista Bypass. It would add a way into the city through north Bentonville near Crystal Bridges and the Slaughter Pen trails. In 2021, the project was finally addressed by a bond extension.
"We started working on this over a year ago, designing, and then we got into the environmental process. I'd say that was our first key milestone," Birge said.
The area of work seems like it's free of residents, but in its 32 acres of wooded area, the city has found a variety of bats that are facing extinction.
"Ones that have suffered pretty bad population declines over the last 10 years due to a fungal disease that we call white-nose syndrome. One of them, the northern long-eared bat, has lost almost 98% of their populations here in Arkansas, and the tricolored bats lost around 85%," Blake Sasse with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission (AGFC) said.
Sasse said the bats gravitate toward trees.
"All of these bats will sleep in the trees. During the daytime, sometimes they'll be underneath a piece of loose bark on the tree trunk or in a hollow or one of the species will just hang out at a bunch of dead leaves on the end of the tree branch," Sasse said.
While Sasse said the bats will find new trees for their habitat, the City of Bentonville has started the mitigation process by buying $334,931.40 in bat mitigation credits.
"A lot of times you're just removing trees at that time of year where you will not hurt the endangered species. They'll be out of the way. But in this one, they actually habitat there as well," Birge said.
The In-Lieu Fee Program through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is handled by the nonprofit The Conservation Fund. They will use the funds to buy 50 acres minimum of bat habitat elsewhere in Arkansas.
"It allows progress to be made but also great conservation to be done on the background and great conservation outcomes," Clint Miller with The Conservation Fund said. "When we can combine conservation for bat habitat with other co-benefits, like recreational trails, historical sites, watershed protection that benefits not only the bats, but it also benefits other parts of what's important to us as Americans."
The Conservation Fund does accept donations for their efforts. You can visit their website for more information.
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