Travelers to Texas might notice a new addition to the landscape as the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is making a play for conservation along with its usual traffic management. According to TxDOT, the agency is installing 18 new bat boxes on the Walnut Creek Bridge along I-35 in Austin, providing alternative roosting spots for the Brazilian free-tailed bat displaced by bridge construction.
The move is part of a larger plan to alleviate congestion on the state's roadways, as part of the I-35 Capital Express North project. Tracy White, TxDOT Environmental Specialist, noted the agency's dedication to giving bats alternate roosting habitat, "We wanted to give the bats alternate roosting habitat so that when we excluded them from the habitat under the Wells Branch Parkway and Howard Lane bridges, they would have somewhere else to go," White told TxDOT. The bat boxes are a proactive measure in a state where bats are both a beloved tourist attraction and an ecological staple.
Moreover, this isn't a one-off endeavor—TxDOT has a growing roster of bat box installations slated statewide, stretching from Shelby County in east Texas to Corpus Christi in the south. The initiative dates back to 2019, with a collaborative design between TxDOT districts and Bat Conservation International and has since broadened its reach with current and planned construction including the Amarillo and Austin areas.
The conservation measure takes on greater significance with the threat of White Nose Syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that has already decimated bat populations in other parts of North America. TxDOT's steps toward bat protection aim to buffer against the projected decline in Texas's cave bat population, which could see reductions up to 75% in the Panhandle and 50% in Central Texas over the next ten years, according to predictive models. "TxDOT bat stewardship efforts are highly important and have only gained in importance with the spread of WNS through the northeast United States," TxDOT Environmental Planners John Young Jr. and Lauren Young said.
Initiatives in Corpus Christi reflect this growing consciousness, with planners including bat boxes in bridge projects as a new standard procedure. Amy, from the Corpus Christi department, confirmed the change in operation stating, "What we’re doing from a planning level perspective is that as bridge projects come up where we identify them as being a good candidate for a bat box, we’re going to include them now." While these steps are small in the grand scheme of environmental conservation, they represent a notable integration of wildlife preservation into Texas's infrastructure development.
