Conservation Groups Sue DEP to
Save Blair County’s Heller Caves Bat Hibernaculum, Habitat for Threatened Species
The DEP’s failure to protect a hibernation site and associated habitat supporting the small-footed bat, a threatened and protected species under the Pennsylvania Game and Wildlife Code, has forced Juniata Valley Audubon and the Center for Biological Diversity to sue the DEP.
While not plaintiffs in this case, the Moshannon Group, along with 15 other organizations, supports the fight to save this habitat.
The Heller Caves Biological Diversity Area in Catharine Township, Blair County, is a hibernaculum for eastern small-footed bats. This Blair County Natural Heritage Area is within the boundaries of the proposed Gulf Group limestone mine.
According to the Blair County Natural Heritage Inventory done under the direction of the Blair County Planning Commission from 2001–2006, the Heller Caves BDA hibernacula can be destroyed by adjacent blasting or other earth-moving activities that disrupt bedrock. In addition, the Inventory states that a reduction of forest cover would reduce habitat area for roosting and feeding needed by these bats. According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission “forested areas with caves, mines, rock outcrops or talus provide key summer habitat” for small-footed bats.
The Blair County Natural Heritage Inventory goes on to state: “Blasting and other activities that will affect the bedrock should be avoided within this area so as not to damage the cave being used as a hibernation site” and “maintaining and cultivating forest cover will increase the amount of available habitat for bats.”
The BDA and its defined supporting landscape are part of the proposed mine. The Blair County Natural Heritage Inventory map for Catharine Township clearly indicates that an area circumscribed by a ¼-mile radius from Heller Caves #4 and #5 is Core Habitat for the Heller Caves BDA. Impacts will include forest removal; noise, air, and water pollution; heavy truck and bulldozer traffic; washouts of the trail from runoff from the new heavy-duty roadway; forest fragmentation.
Significantly, the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) provided the DEP with maps indicating a TOTAL AVOIDANCE AREA surrounding Heller Caves 4 and 5 and extending to the Lower Trail and further to the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River. The DEP, however, issued the mining permit for an area within this TOTAL AVOIDANCE AREA.
The DEP failed to protect the PA threatened small-footed bat despite the DEP being aware of the importance of the Heller Caves as a hibernaculum for this species and despite the PGC's designation of a TOTAL AVODANCE AREA between Heller Caves #4 and #5 and the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River.
The DEP should have taken a precautionary approach, and denied the permit for mining in any part of the TOTAL AVOIDANCE AREA, especially in light of the fact that all the bat species using the hibernacula in the project area are under stress from White Nose Syndrome.
Furthermore, Heller Caves 1,2,3,7, 8 and 9 were not surveyed for hibernating bats, and rock rubble at the cliff base and crevices in the cliff face were not surveyed for hibernating bats. In all at least 100,000 square feet of suitable hibernating areas were not surveyed for hibernating bats.
All other options for addressing this problem have failed, and, as a result, Juniata Valley Audubon and the Center for Biological Diversity have been forced to take this step of suing the DEP to protect a Pennsylvania threatened species and its habitat.