John Tuohy

john.tuohy@indystar.com

When the Indianapolis Airport Authority agreed to hand over management of 2,000 acres of wildlife refuge to Hendricks County parks last year, it set the stage for development of a local nature preserve larger than Fort Harrison and nearly the size of Turkey Run, both state parks.

But the presence of the endangered Indiana bat in the area ensures that development of the land will be slow going — and access to it for the public could be limited, even denied.

"We may be able to put some trails in, but we could end up with a trail that goes around the property," said Jeremy Weber, the new parks superintendent.

The wooded 4-square-mile preserve near Ind. 267 in Plainfield is home to a colony of 130 bats -- females and their single off-spring --who live under dead tree bark and forage for insects on the ground. In the winter, the bats, an endangered species since 1967, hibernate in Southern Indiana caves.

Their presence means that trees can't be cut down and that large structures can't be built in the preserve, so it won't have the swimming pools and tennis courts that Turkey Run has, or a museum like Fort Harrison. Depending on how delicate the habitat is, there's a chance nothing could go there.

Federal rules require developers to avoid or minimize harm to endangered and threatened species or to compensate by buying and replacing their habitat if they do significant damage to the creatures' ranging area. In some cases, a project such as a highway is moved to stay clear of a habitat. In other, less extreme cases, trees will be cut down in the winter, after a rare bird has migrated. Airports, because they are so large, are built in the exurbs of big cities and frequently expand, must constantly monitor wildlife and make development concessions.

Sodalis Nature Park the prototype

Weber, along with airport and Plainfield officials, said he hopes to open some part of the preserve to the public. And they point to Sodalis Nature Park, already developed within the 2,000 acres, as the model for delicate public use of endangered lands.

Sodalis, a 210-acre park, was built in 2011 with minimal disturbance to the bats' living quarters, said Lori Pruitt, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species coordinator for Indiana. The preserve has 3 miles of trails, a pavilion and a floating dock on a 5-acre pond. Swimming and boating are not allowed on the pond, and bikes are prohibited on the trail.

"We didn't clear trees to make the park," Pruitt said. "There were a few access roads to some agricultural property there already that we followed the path of for the trails and already some clearing around the pond."

Marsha Stone, senior director of commercial enterprise for the airport, said officials with the Fish and Wildlife Service, Hendricks County parks and the town of Plainfield likely would use Sodalis to guide them.

"We don't have the answer right now for what can be done, but we have the example of Sodalis, which is very successful and popular with the public," Stone said.

Sodalis, in fact, was named for the scientific classification of the bat, Myotis sodalis, which means mouse-eared companion. The dark, furry bats, which are about 1 to 2 inches long with an average 6-inch wingspan, can live more than 20 years.

The first Indiana bat was found in Wyandotte Cave, near the Indiana-Kentucky border, in 1908, and the species was given its name in 1928. Of the more than 500,000 bats in the eastern half of the United States today, about 186,000 reside in Indiana, Pruitt said.

The endangered bat's numbers have shrunk dramatically because of white-nose syndrome, said Joy O'Keefe, director of the Center for Bat Research, Outreach, and Conservation at Indiana State University in Terre Haute. The disease has reduced the bat population by 30 percent in Indiana and by up to 90 percent elsewhere since it was discovered in 2006.

"It is a fungus that attacks their snouts and wings and puts holes in the wings," O'Keefe said. The disease wakes up the bats in hibernation, causing them to burn fat that they stored. When the weakened bats return to the forest for the summers, they can die.

Paying for conservation

The airport and bats have a long — and expensive — relationship going back nearly three decades.

In 1992, the airport paid $18 million to buy 1,500 acres of nearby woods to replace undisturbed land used by the bat that was cleared to build a United Airlines maintenance hub and a new runway. The bat colony was moved again in 2002 when 700 acres of woodlands was bought for $5.5 million so the state could build an I-70 interchange at Six Points Road west of I-465.

The costs included planting about 170,000 tree seedlings to create bat habitat and paying ISU to monitor the bat population for 15 years.

Pruitt said the deals at the airport have created an endangered species habitat like no other.

"This is unique in Indiana," she said. "We've never had anything of this magnitude in a such a populated area."

Officials have been surveying the 2,000 acres to see what is possible to develop, but there is no time estimate on when a plan might be finalized, Stone said.

The wildlife plan is part of a larger airport board strategy announced in 2014 to sell, lease or divest 32,000 acres that is in the footprint of the old airport terminal. Officials said that land is valued at $83 million and could generate $1.7 million in property taxes for Marion County.

The board appeared to be headed for a deal in March with a developer who wanted to build a massive medical center and a 20,000-seat stadium for a pro sports team on a 130-acre parcel near Washington Street and I-465.

But the board canceled the deal within weeks of announcing it after questions were raised regarding the experience, resources and expertise of the development team proposing the complex.

Airport officials have been taking recommendations at public meetings since then to gauge what type of development should be there. Stone said ideas were being considered, but she could not estimate when the land would be sold or developed.

Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at (317) 444-6418. Follow him on Twitter: @john_tuohy.

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