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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Environment - Indiana bat endangered by wind farms?

Bats are already at serious risk because of a fungus -- this May 6th story in the Chicago Tribune is headed "Fungus is bat version of the black plague." This June 4th AP story begins:

WASHINGTON - A mysterious fungus attacking America's bats could spread nationwide within years and represents the most serious threat to wildlife in a century, experts warned Congress Thursday.

Displaying pictures of bats speckled with the white fungus that gave the disease its name — white-nose syndrome — experts described to two House subcommittees Thursday the horror of discovering caves where bats had been decimated by the disease.

As a state wildlife biologist from Vermont put it, one cave there was turned into a morgue, with bats freezing to death outside and so many carcasses littering the cave's floor the stench was too strong for researchers to enter.
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They also warned that if nothing more is done to stop its spread, the fungus could strike caves and mines with some of the largest and most endangered populations of hibernating bats in the United States.

At stake is the loss of an insect-eating machine. The six species of bats that have so far been stricken by the fungus can eat up to their body weight in insects a night, reducing insects that destroy crops, forests and carry disease such as West Nile Virus.

"We are witnessing one of the most precipitous declines of wildlife in North America," said Thomas Kunz, director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology at Boston University, who said that between $10 million and $17 million is needed to launch a national research program into the fungus.

All the more reason, then, to pay serious attention to this AP story today on bats and wind farms that begins:
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Environmental and animal rights groups are asking a federal judge to require the developer of a West Virginia wind farm to comply with the Endangered Species Act because of the potential harm to the endangered Indiana bat.

The Animal Welfare Institute and Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy say Beech Ridge Energy LLC should be required to obtain a federal permit because the spinning blades of its 124-turbine wind farm could kill bats living and migrating through the area.

The institute is a Washington, D.C.-based animal protection organization. Mountain Communities is based in Williamsburg, W.Va. Also named as a plaintiff is Frankford, W.Va., resident David Cowan, who lives about five miles from the project.

Beech Ridge has received state approval to build the wind farm over a 23-mile stretch of ridgetop in Greenbrier County in southeastern West Virginia. Under the Endangered Species Act, a permit is required from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service if an otherwise lawful activity results in the incidental death or harm to an endangered species, said Bill Eubanks, who is representing the groups and filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Maryland. * * *

In their filing, the groups say Beech Ridge's development will place 390-foot-tall wind turbines within miles of know Indiana bat habitat.

"This case is not about halting, it's about mitigation," Eubanks said. "We don't want to see the Indiana bat die off."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 11, 2009 06:46 PM
Posted to Environment