Habitat management

Background

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has issued an Incidental Take Permit under the Endangered Species Act to NiSource Inc. (now Columbia Pipeline Group), a natural gas storage and distribution company. The permit was issued in conjunction with the company’s comprehensive Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) to conserve dozens of endangered species while operating and maintaining its network of pipelines in 14 northeastern, midwestern and southeastern states. The permit allows "take" of 11 threatened and endangered species that may result from the company's routine construction, operation and maintenance activities within a one mile-wide corridor of their 15,562-mile pipeline network. NiSource’s HCP identifies how impacts to listed species from NiSource’s activities will be avoided and minimized and how any resulting “take” will be mitigated.  The Incidental Take Permit does not authorize the pipeline work itself, only the take of listed species.

Development

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worked closely with other federal agencies and NiSource to develop the HCP and associated documents. The role of the Service was to provide technical guidance as NiSource prepared the HCP and to evaluate the HCP to decide whether to issue an Incidental Take Permit. In addition, it was our responsibility to evaluate the federal action of issuing the Incidental Take Permit under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Because certain NiSource activities to be covered by the Incidental Take Permit would also require authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Forest Service, and/or the National Park Service, these agencies were brought in to the HCP development. The HCP participants determined it would be more practical, and would give a more complete picture of the extent of effects, to: 1) address the effects of all federal and non‐federal actions in one analysis and 2) develop a conservation package that would sufficiently address all effects while providing additional conservation that would contribute to the recovery of listed species. This resulted in the NiSource Habitat Conservation Plan, Incidental Take Permit, consultation document, and Environmental Impact Statement. The Service was the lead federal agency for the Environmental Impact Statement and the section 7 consultation, and the others served as cooperating agencies.

Draft versions of the HCP and Environmental Impact Statement were available for public review and comment for 150 days in 2011. Both documents were finalized in June 2013. In September 2013, we issued a consultation document, which included the biological opinion and incidental take statement, that addressed potential impacts to 89 listed, proposed, and candidate species that may occur within the Covered Lands. For the 47 species not analyzed in the HCP, the Service will address potential take programmatically, through future tiered section 7 consultations. Under the programmatic section 7 approach, the cooperating agencies will continue to review all future projects to determine if they may affect listed species or designated critical habitat. The Incidental Take Permit, Implementing Agreement and Record of Decision were issued on September 13, 2013. In 2015, the HCP was updated to permit take of northern long-eared bat.

Implementation

The NiSource HCP is being implemented effective January 1, 2014. The Service and NiSource developed consultation implementation guidance to help federal agencies fulfill their section 7 consultation requirements. NiSource also developed a Best Management Practices Guidebook that details all of the avoidance and minimization measures and BMPs required for each listed, proposed, or candidate species that may be affected by the HCP. The Service also provided a training webinar to assist with implementing the HCP

Mitigation

After all practicable steps have been taken to avoid and minimize take, Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act requires that all remaining take be mitigated.  Mitigation measures include preserving existing habitat, enhancement or restoration of degraded habitat, establishment of new habitat, reestablishment or augmentation of populations, changes in current land use practices, and in some very specific instances, funds dedicated to research needs.

NiSource’s HCP includes a landscape-level approach to mitigation. Developed for NiSource by The Conservation Fund, the landscape-level approach provides a method for identifying and evaluating mitigation opportunities within a planned network of natural areas, developed lands and other open spaces that are managed to conserve ecosystem values and functions and also to benefit human populations. The result of The Conservation Fund’s assessment is a framework to identify mitigation opportunities that provide the greatest benefit for the species.

HCP and Associated Documents

Habitat Conservation Plan

Cover, Executive Summary, and Table of Contents

Chapters 1 - 5

     Introduction

     Chapter 2 - Covered Lands and Covered Activities

     Chapter 3 - Physical and Biological Environmental Setting

     Chapter 4 - Species Analyzed in the MSHCP

     Chapter 5 - Conservation Strategy

Chapter 6 - Species Assessments, Impact Analysis, and Mitigation

Chapters 7 - 13

     Chapter 7 - Monitoring, Reporting, and Adaptive Management

     Chapter 8 - Funding Assurances

     Chapter 9 - Amendment Process

     Chapter 10 - Assurances

     Chapter 11 - Alternatives to Take

     Chapter 12 - List of Preparers

     Chapter 13 - References Cited

Amendment adding Northern long-eared bat

Amendment to Northern long-eared bat AMM 29 (Service proposal)

Amendment to Northern long-eared bat AMM 29 (Columbia's Response)

Appendix A - Annual Acreage Disturbance Estimates

Appendix B - NiSource Environmental Construction Standards

Appendix C - Covered Activities Photographs 

Appendix D - GIS Metadata

Appendix E - Conservation Lands Crossed by NiSource Facilities

Appendix F - Conservation Frameworks for the "Not Likely to Adversely Affect" Species

Appendix G - Take Species Maps

Appendix H - Implementation Agreement

Appendix I - NFWF Agreement

Appendix J - Horizontal Directional Drilling

Appendix K - Natural Gas Pipeline & Storage Permitting Processes

Appendix L - Survey and Other Protocols



     Appendix L1 to L14

          L1 Reserved

          L2 Indiana Bat Habitat Assessment Protocols

          L3 Determination of Potential Winter Habitat for Indiana Bats

          L4 Indiana Bat Survey Protocols

          L5 Service Guidelines for Bog Turtle Surveys April 2006

          L6 Bog Turtle Pre-construction Survey Protocol

          L7 Bog Turtle Recovery Plan - Appendix A

          L8 Karst Monitoring Protocols

          L9 Figure 6.2.3.3_2 Sinkhole Mitigation Procedures

          L10 Figure 6.2.3.3_3 Sinkhole Mitigation Procedures

          L11 Figure 6.2.3.3_4 Sinkhole Mitigation Procedures

          L12 Figure 6.2.3.3_5 Sinkhole Mitigation Procedures

          L13 WV Sinkhole Mitigation Guidance

          L14 Herbicide List for use in Madison Cave Isopod Habitat

     L15 - Mussel Survey Protocol

     L16 - Mussel Relocation Mark/Recapture Protocols

     L17, L18, and L19 - Sediment Transport Estimation Method, Disinfection Techniques, Riparian Restoration Standard

     L21 - Nashville Crayfish Survey Protocol

     L22, L23, and L24 - American Burying Beetle Protocols

Appendix M - Threats Analysis Tables

Appendix N - Mitigation Panel Charter

Appendix O - Information Planning and Consultation System

Appendix P - Easement/Acquisition Template

Incidental Take Permit

Incidental Take Permit (amended May 1, 2015)

Appendices to Incidental Take Permit

Biological Opinion

Biological Opinion

Appendices to Biological Opinion

Letter to Cooperating Federal Agencies

NEPA

Final Environmental Impact Statement

Table of Contents, Executive Summary, and Chapters 1-2

     Chapter 1 - Introduction

     Chapter 2 - Description of Alternatives

Chapter 3 - Affected Environment

Chapters 4 - 9

     Chapter 4 - Environmental Consequences

     Chapter 5 - Cumulative Effects

     Chapter 6 - Consultation and Coordination

     Chapter 7 - List of Preparers

     Chapter 8 - References

     Chapter 9 - Acronyms and Abbreviations

Appendix A - Scoping Report and NOI

Appendix B - NiSource Covered Activities

Appendix C - FERC Plans and Procedures

Appendix D - Migratory Birds Information

Appendix E - HCP Species Information

Appendix F - Biological Assessment for the Non-HCP Listed Species

Appendix G - Summary of Public Comments

Environmental Assessment

Environmental Assessment for Amendment adding Northern long-eared bat

FONSI for Amendment adding Northern long-eared bat

Other Documents

Final Implementing Agreement for NiSource Habitat Conservation Plan

Record of Decision: Proposed Issuance of a Section 10(a)(1)(B) Incidental Take Permit to NiSource, Inc.

Statement of Findings for Amendment adding Northern long-eared bat

Federal Register Notice of Availability

NiSource Approach to Mitigation: Strategic Conservation Planning Using Green Infrastructure

Summary

Final Report

Decision Support Framework for Evaluating/Ranking Mitigation Sites

Network Design Methods

State Plan Review

Mitigation Site Report - Indiana Bat

Mitigation Site Report - Madison Cave Isopod

Mitigation Site Report - Mussels

Mitigation Site Report - Nashville Crayfish

Facilities

Sheepnose (left) and Rabbitsfoot, Walhonding River, Ohio
The Ohio Ecological Services Field Office focuses on conserving endangered, threatened and rare species, migratory birds, inter-jurisdictional fish and their habitats in Ohio and ensuring compliance with federal wildlife laws such as the Endangered Species Act. Our strategy for conservation relies...