The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announces the availability of a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS), application for an Endangered Species Act incidental take permit, and associated habitat conservation plan (HCP) from Beech Ridge Energy, LLC for the Beech Ridge Wind Power Project in Greenbrier and Nicholas Counties, West Virginia. We welcome comments on the draft HCP and DEIS prior to making a final decision on the application for a permit. If approved, the permit would authorize take of endangered Indiana and Virginia big-eared bats associated with construction, operation, and decommissioning of the project. The 60-day comment period opens on August 24, 2012 and closes on October 23, 2012. Please see the attached letter for additional details on how to access documents and submit comments.

As a courtesy to those concerned about release of personal e-mail addresses, I have used the blind carbon copy (bcc) feature of e-mail to send this notice so that e-mail addresses of individuals on the mailing list can not be seen by others. Please be aware that if you submit a comment via http://www/regulations.gov, your entire comment--including any personal identifying information--will be posted on the Web site. We will post all hard copy comments sent by U.S. mail on www.regulations.gov as well. If you submit a hard copy comment that includes personal identifying information, you may request that we withhold this information from public view. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

(See attached file: dear intersted party letter DEIS.pdf)


_________________________
Laura Hill
Assistant Field Supervisor
West Virginia Field Office
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
694 Beverly Pike
Elkins, WV 26241
e-mail: Laura_Hill@fws.gov
Phone: (304) 636-6586, ext. 18
FAX: (304) 636-7824