-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fwd: EARTH: Mysterious Disease Sounds the Death Knell for Bats
Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 12:36:27 -0400
From: Peter Youngbaer <[email protected]>
To: NSS Board of Governors <[email protected]>
Dear BOG,
Just returned from last week's WNS Symposium in Little Rock. About
150 federal, state, academic, and NGO folks working on WNS attended,
including a few European guests. FWIW, 14 attendees were NSS members,
including a number of state officials. Did you know Mollie Matteson
of the Centers for Biological Diversity is an NSS member? Yep, she's
in the Member's Manual. She only attended the presentations, then
left before the work sessions. I heard a number of grumbling comments
about her presence causing other researchers to be bumped from
attending, given the limited slots for the conference.
The first day and a half was dedicated to research update
presentations. The two highlights here were: 1. 18 American bats were
inoculated with the European Geomyces destructans; 18 American bats
with the U.S. version; and 18 control bats were left uninoculated.
Both sets of inoculated bats developed WNS. This result gives strong
support to the hypothesis of introduction from Europe. 2. Hazel
Barton reported research from Kevin Keel that shows that 50 degree
Celcius water (122F) for 15 minutes kills Geomyces destructans. This
is hotter than typical wash water, but less than boiling. It provides
a non-chemical alternative for decon.
The next day and a half was dedicated to working on the WNS National
Plan, which was announced and publicly released on the first day of
the meeting. Attendees broke in to working groups as per the Plan,
and began fleshing out implementation plans.
Personally, I spent a half-day with the Disease Management working
group, then split my time between the Recovery and Conservation
Group/Species Recovery sub-group and a special session for state
agency personnel. With this latter group, I was part of a panel
presentation explaining the role of the NSS and our members/grottos
etc. helping with hibernacula identification, public education, and
caver education.
Lots of networking time, too, to catch up with folks we've funded and
worked with across the country.
Some observations:
1. Most western state officials attending recognized that the USFS
Region 2 actions were not helpful, and didn't want to duplicate them.
NPS and BLM folks spoke positively about the roles cavers have played
and continue to play. They and the state folks are skeptical about
cave closures, but still feeling pressure from the feds. I spent a
couple hours conversing with the Colorado Division of Wildlife Species
Coordinator, Tina Jackson, who had positive things to say about the
Convention organizers. She is a little about having so many cavers
descend (ascend?)at once, but I assured her we've done this before.
Again, she seemed very much pleased with the convention planning.
2. The Disease Management researchers and field managers seemed to
grow increasingly pessimistic about finding any sort of cure,
treatment, or magic managerial bullet for stopping WNS. Further,
there is a serious concern about a shortage of bats for research, and
it is likely that some researchers will be denied access.
3. Management seems to be shifting to Conservation and Recovery. How
can species be preserved? What field techniques can be applied to
assist survivorship, such as habitat manipulation? An example of this
was described by Tom Kunz, Boston University, for maternity colonies.
Used to be that we would see fairly large (500+ animals) roosts that
were able to generate a lot of heat, which is necessary for successful
birth, lactation, and juvenile growth. Now, with maternity colonies
so small, he's found that the addition of wooden baffles in the
ceilings of barns, sheds, etc. can concentrate heat and help smaller
maternity colonies be more successful.
4. There is still a lot of talk about artificial hibernacula, as well
as captive breeding colonies. Re the former, Cory Holliday's Tennessee
underground project is on its way to being built, with more than half
the funds raised. Re the captive colonies, my suspicion is that lack
of funding will limit and experiments in that regard.
5. Regarding funding, it was announced that $1.9 million of USFWS
funding was being made available from this year's base appropriation.
This is NOT congressional action, but simply USFWS taking money away
from other things within its reduced budget. Next year's budget is
clearly looking worse, but that's what we've been working on in DC.
This $1.9 million will be spread out to the states in an as-yet-to-be
announced format. However, spread among 27 states, this is about
$70,000 per state - which won't really do much more than pay for some
staff time for monitoring and surveillance. Funding realities will be
the biggest damper on national Plan activities, and severely limit
research.
6. Species listing: there were two impromptu sessions on species
listing, one for the Northeast, where states are in various stages of
listing certain species, and a second where one USFWS official
(T.J.Miller) was leading an effort to have national listing of all
hibernating bat species. That was the subject of serious debate, with
many people opposing that approach. Reasons given ranged from not
enough information on various bat species, to unnecessarily riling up
opponents, such as the western timber industry, to taking attention
away from the importance of regional or national listing of the Little
Brown Bat, which is arguably the most seriously affected and the one
species for which the case could be made.
7. Another state is about to announce WNS, but the information is
embargoed until the official press release.
Lots more details, of course, but I thought I'd give you this brief
summary. I'd be happy to respond to specific questions.
By the way, below is a teaser and link for the June issue of Earth
Magazine, published by the American Geological Institute. I spent the
$4.99 to download the entire issue. The WNS article begins on page
30. It's a comprehensive article with good quotes, good information
about the disease, and good photos. I don't know if we'll get
copywrite permission to repost it, but I do recommend the article to
you.
Peter
AGI (American Geological Institute) Press release:
Date: Thu, 19 May 2011 13:17:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: [email protected]
Subject: EARTH: Mysterious Disease Sounds the Death Knell for Bats
X-Originating-IP: [209.48.222.240]
To: [email protected]
EARTH: Mysterious Disease Sounds the Death Knell for Bats
Contact: Megan Sever [email protected]
For Immediate Release
Alexandria, VA - Hundreds of thousands of tiny white-nosed bats have
died over the past few winters, falling to cave floors across the
eastern United States. The killer is White Nose Syndrome, a
mysterious disease inflicted by an unusual cold-loving fungus that
attacks bats while they are hibernating. Come spring, as few as 5
percent of the bats in heavily infected roosts are still alive. More
than 2 million bats have already been killed by the disease. And the
prognosis could get worse, as White Nose Syndrome is spreading
westward at an alarming rate.
In response to the crisis, bat research has exploded, as bat
ecologists, wildlife pathologists and cave microbiologists scramble
to figure out how to quell the onslaught. But, as EARTH explores in
its June feature "Mysterious Disease Sounds the Death Knell for
Bats," currently there are more questions than answers about the
disease. Will scientists learn enough about this mystifying illness
in time to save the bats?
Learn more about White Nose Syndrome and the actions being taken to
save the bats, and read other stories on topics such as what
scientists are learning from the Japan and New Zealand earthquakes,
what legacy can still be found in the sands of the D-Day beaches,
and how the Japanese disaster may change the face of nuclear energy
worldwide, all in the June issue. Plus, don't miss the story about
how a new ocean basin is opening up in the heart of Africa.
These stories and many more can be found in the June issue of EARTH,
now available digitally (http://www.earthmagazine.org/digital/) or
in print on your local newsstands.
For further information on the June featured article, go to
http://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/44d-7db-5-12
Keep up to date with the latest happenings in earth, energy and
environment news with EARTH magazine, available on local newsstands
or online at http://www.earthmagazine.org/. Published by the
American Geological Institute, EARTH is your source for the science
behind the headlines.
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