Fringed bat COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 10

Existing Protection or Other Status Designations

This species is not listed by the IUCN. It was designated Special Concern by COSEWIC in 1988 (see Balcombe 1988). The global heritage status rank is G4G5 (apparently secure to secure); national ranks are N4N5 (apparently secure to secure) for the United States and N2N3 (imperilled to vulnerable) for Canada. Three states (Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska) rank the Fringed Bat as S1 or S1? (critically imperilled); two states (Oregon, South Dakota) rank this species as S2 (imperilled). Washington, Montana, Texas, and Utah rank the Fringed Bat as S3 (vulnerable). British Columbia has designated the Fringed Bat as S2S3 (imperilled to vulnerable).

In British Columbia, the Fringed Bat is protected from killing under the provincial Wildlife Act. Although no tree roosts have been documented in British Columbia and it is probably little impacted by rangeland practices, this species is listed as an Identified Wildlife Species under the revised British Columbia Provincial Forest and Range Practices Code. Species listed under the code are considered to be at risk and require special management by establishing Wildlife Habitat Areas (WHA). Guidelines Footnote2 under the Forest and Range Practices Code specify that WHA's will be established to protect known hibernacula, maternity roosts, and areas with high densities of the Fringed Bat. The WHA will include a 100 m radius core area and a 100 m radius management zone. Various management prescriptions are recommended relating to road development, forest harvesting, gating of caves and mines, pesticide use, and buffers around riparian habitats. To date, no WHA’s have been designated for the Fringed Bat. The Forest and Range Practices Code only applies to provincial crown land; in the southern portion of the Canadian range for example nearly 50% of this species’ habitat is exempt from the code (Table 2).

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