Plans for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians’ proposed 0 million casino complex in South Bend, Indiana will not be derailed by a new federal rule protecting the northern long-eared bat. The species was declared threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in April, after its population declined due to white-nose syndrome, a fast-spreading fungal disease.
Initially the rule placed stricter prohibitions on development on sites
containing caves or mines where the bats hibernate and on trees where they roost. But this month a less restrictive rule will take effect, prohibiting the clearing of trees only on sites known to contain roosting trees, which are recorded in a Fish and Wildlife Service database. The database for Indiana contains no records of roosting trees on the 165-acre site in South Bend where the tribe wants to build its casino complex.
The tribe is waiting for its land-trust application to be approved by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also will conduct an environmental impact study of the land.
Pokagon Band spokeswoman Paige Risser said, “This is a federal process, and the band defers to the federal authorities on these issues.”
The project, which would generate about $620.4 million in annual revenue,
would include 44 housing units, an 18-story Class III casino, meeting space, hotel, parking garage, health services and tribal government offices. About 2,000 permanent and 1,400 construction jobs would be created.
The Pokagon Band currently operates Four Winds casinos in Hartford, New Buffalo and Dowagiac and a tribal village in Dowagiac. The tribe owns land in Elkhart County that would be an alternative site for the development if the BIA rejects the present land-trust application.
