Hannibal, NY -- Hannibal Superintendent Michael DiFabio has had a lot of issues to deal with this past summer. There were positions to fill. He had high school schedules to work out. There was a construction project to manage.
And then, there was the Indiana bat.
The possibility that these small endangered bats were living in trees in the woods between Fairley Elementary and the Hannibal middle/high school site put the district’s construction project on hold for about a month this summer.
Originally, DiFabio said the district had to wait for wildlife officials to check the area to be sure the bat wasn’t there before construction could continue. But in the long run, changes in the district’s construction plans meant the bat’s habitat wasn’t going to be disturbed.
The Indiana bat saga began in late April when the state Department of Conservation told DiFabio the district had to install an above ground retention pond as part of its EXCEL construction project. The pond would hold water displaced by the building of parking lots and sidewalks so the neighborhood wouldn’t be flooded during heavy rain.
“We were going to have to clear 0.2 acres, about 30 to 40 trees in the woodsy walk area,” DiFabio said.
Then he found out the wooded area was within five miles of a site known to be frequented by the Indiana bat, a bat weighing about the same as a quarter and dime and two inches long that has been on the federal endangered species list since 1969. The bat hibernates for six to eight months in the winter months in a Jamesville cave, but then leaves and flies up through the Fulton and Hannibal area in spring and summer.
Wildlife biologist Michael Fishman, who works for GHD civil and environmental engineering firm in Cazenovia, was called to figure out if the bat was in Hannibal.
“Our plan at one point was to use bat sensors, actually acoustic sensors, and go out and determine if the bats are there,” Fishman said. “We would have to be out there for a couple of nights because the bats change roosts, they move around looking for new roosts while foraging.”
Their favorite roost is under loosened bark on dead trees.
But then, while the bat deliberations were going on, the state DEC changed the Hannibal retention pond project. Agency officials decided the district could build an underground water retention area, so no trees needed to be cut down.
“This bat actually was my saving grace,” DiFabio said, noting the time spent figuring out the bat issue gave the DEC time to decide against the above ground pond.
“That (above ground) pond was going to be huge and ugly and no one wanted it there,” he said. “So the big picture is, the bat was a blessing in disguise,” DiFabio said.
Contact Debra J. Groom at firstname.lastname@example.org, 470-3254 or 251-5586.