Swamp Stomp
Volume 17, Issue 46
I recently visited Craters of the Moon National Park in Idaho and was really excited to explore these unusually landscape as well as the extensive caves. You can imagine my surprise when I was asked if any of the clothing I was currently wearing had been worn while I was in any other cave since 2005. It was explained to me about how a lot of bat species around the world have been affected by a fungus that causes white nose syndrome which is deadly to bats and they were trying to prevent the spreading of the disease. When I got back I knew I had to include an article in the newsletter and I am so happy to be able to include one about what is being done to try and help the bats.
It was announced on July 17, 2017 that the Fish and Wildlife Service has increased their efforts to fight a devastating fungal disease that is threatening the U.S. bat population. They are creating grants that total a little over $1 million for state-level programs targeting white-nose syndrome.
The total dollars going to these grants is $1,016,784. The grants are being spread across 37 states and the District of Columbia. The size of the allocations going to individual states ranges from $12,440 for Arizona to $30,000 each for several states including Kentucky, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
“Bats are beneficial in many ways,” Jeremy Coleman, national white-nose syndrome coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a statement. “While state natural resource agencies are on the front lines of bat conservation, many have limited options for responding to this devastating disease without these funds.”
Some of the money for the grants is coming from the FWS’s “Science Support” component, which the Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal would get rid of.
A fungus called Pseudogymnoascus destructans is the cause of white-nose syndrome, which affects most but not all bat species. It was estimated that more than 6 million bats have died from the disease through 2012, and officials say many more have died since then.
White-nose syndrome has been found in more than 30 states and five Canadian provinces, endangering the insect-gobbling animal that’s helpful to farmers. It has also captured the attention of Congress, with lawmakers holding hearings, touring caves and using past budgets to direct funding for research (Greenwire, April 6, 2012).
The fungus was not discovered in U.S. until the winter of 2006-2007, when it was located in New York. Since the discovery, the FWS has distributed some $7 million in related grants. The funding is part of what the agency describes as “a Service-led, cooperative, international effort involving more than 100 state, federal, tribal, academic and nonprofit partners.”
“Funding from the Service provides state fish and wildlife agencies with critically important support to manage and mitigate the spread of the disease to new areas of the country,” Nick Wiley, president of the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies and executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said in a statement.
Nick Sharp, a biologist with the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, added that “we simply would not have the capacity to do this work” without the federal funding.
More bats were discovered earlier this year to have white-nose syndrome. These bats were the Southeastern bat population in a cave in Shelby County, Ala. With this new species discovered, a total of nine hibernating bat species in North America are known to be afflicted by the fungus. The Endangered Species Act protects three of the nine species.
FWS and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation have created the Bats for the Future Fund, a competitive grant program to fund research.
Source: Doyle, Michael. “Devastating Bat Disease Targeted by New Federal Grants.” Greenwire. E&E News, 17 July 2017. Web. 17 July 2017.