Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

There was a great interview/discussion on bats on the NPR/Diane Rehm show this past Monday.

In case you missed it, here’s the link:
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-11-07/declining-us-bat-population

Click on “listen” in the left corner – Audio starts up about 30 seconds in so don’t give up on it (like I did at first) – just let it play and it’ll get rolling at about 30 seconds in.

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-11-07/declining-us-bat-population

Bat Conservation International sent this action alert and it’s important enough that we all should take the couple of minutes to take action.  Bats are integral to our lives and our future and are worthy of our resources to help save them:

Bats are as much a part of Halloween as jack-o-lanterns and trick-or-treating. But some parts of the United States have almost no bats left – they’ve been killed by an epidemic called White-nose Syndrome (WNS).

Please keep the bats in Halloween by helping to stop this disease.

Tell the White House to fund the fight against WNS.

WNS continues to spread each year, with dire consequences for North American bats. We want President Obama to include WNS funding in his Fiscal Year 2013 budget. With current economic constraints, however, he needs to hear from the public about the devastating impacts of WNS. So we are using the White House’s new “We the People” petition tool to make our request. White House staff will review our request – but only if we obtain 25,000 signatures by November 25!

The November 25 deadline is just around the corner! Click here to sign.

If you already have a whitehouse.gov account, click “Sign In” at the bottom of the petition page, enter your information and then click “Sign this Petition.” If you are new to the whitehouse.gov webpage, click “Create an Account” at the bottom of the petition page. After you enter your information, an automated email will be sent to verify your new account. Once you have set-up your account, click the above link again and then click “Sign this Petition.” When you sign-up for a whitehouse.gov account you can select whether or not you want to receive emails from the Administration. We know it is not easy to register on this site, but remember, you only need to do it once.

After signing, spread the word by asking your friends and family to sign on, too.

You may have seen the articles over the last week or so about Bats and White Nose Syndrome.  Researchers have confirmed that a fungus is the cause of the disease.  The Washingt0n Post has a good article summarizing the findings and talking about the issue:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/study-links-fungus-to-bat-killing-disease/2011/10/25/gIQAbI9OXM_story.html

Now, the question is, can researchers figure out a way to help the bats and combat the fungus before it wipes out our bats.

Some may ask the question, why should I care if we have bats or not? Well, besides bats being awesome in their own right, they also are incredibly important to our food production.

The Washington Post article explains some of the role that they play in keeping insect populations down which in turn helps our farmers.

Bat Conservation International is at the forefront of the issue – support them as you can and sign up for their newsletter to stay on top of the issue:

http://www.batcon.org/index.php/media-and-info/e-newsletter.html?task=_viewArticle&ArticleID=1236

If you have bats at your house… (well if I had bats at my house I would celebrate but if you have bats and you need advice about how to co-exist with them), you can reach out to Bat World NoVa, a great bat rehabilitation organization in our area: http://www.batworld.org/nova/ 

Learn more about bats through the Save Lucy Campaign: http://savelucythebat.org/

The Fascinating World of Bats ― Wednesday, October 12, at the Carver Center in Purcellville, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. 

Leslie Sturges of the Save Lucy Campaign will describe the fascinating and enchanting world of bats, our only flying mammal, and how important they are. 

She will also introduce the seven species of bats, some of which are common and some of which are rare, that call Loudoun County home. 

This free adult program is sponsored by Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy. 

The Carver Center is located at 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 

Questions: contact Joe Coleman at jcoleman@loudounwildlife.org.

YES – we are Batty About Bats!!  Come on out for this great FREE family event tomorrow night!

You’ll learn about bat behaviors and lifecycle, hear stories about what they do as they swoop over our yards and ponds, and see BATS!!  What could be cooler? This will be way more fun than swim meet and we promise – none will get caught in your hair – so come on out and join us!

Great program for the whole family!

Here are the full details:

Batty about Bats! ― Wednesday, July 20, at the Broadlands Community Center 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.  Join us as we welcome Leslie Sturges of Bat World NOVA and learn about the fascinating world of nature’s only flying mammals and their important role in our ecosystem.  Loudoun County is home to seven species of bats, some of which are common and some rare.  After the lecture we will walk around the community center and eavesdrop on bats’ ultrasonic calls as they forage for bugs.  This free, family program is co-sponsored by Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy and the Broadlands Wildlife Habitats Committee.  The Broadlands Community Center is located at 43008 Waxpool Rd, Broadlands. Questions: contact Laura McGranaghan at lmcgranaghan@loudounwildlife.org.

June 20-26, is National Pollinator Week:

Five years ago the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval and designation of the final week in June as “National Pollinator Week” marked a necessary step toward addressing the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations. 

In just three years Pollinator Week has grown to be an international celebration of the valuable ecosystem services provided by bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles.

The growing concern for pollinators is a sign of progress, but it is vital that we continue to maximize our collective effort.  The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture signs the proclamation every year.

As many of you know, our bat population is being obliterated by a disease called White Nose Syndrome.

I received an action alert from Bat Conservation International which is working to get funding for scientists to research and combat the disease. Here is their alert, if you would like to take action as well:

Thanks to all of you who wrote your Senators a few months ago asking them to support the Wildlife Disease Emergency Act, which would expedite the federal government’s response to wildlife disease crises. The bill is still undergoing review.

Now we need your help again. Congress is preparing the federal budget, and White-nose Syndrome is one of many causes vying for a share of the shrinking pool of federal funds. But despite tight finances, the White-nose Syndrome epidemic cannot be ignored.

As you did last year, please urge your Congressional Representatives to support funding in next year’s federal budget to combat White-nose Syndrome.

Writing to Congress is easy. Click here for a sample letter and your members’ contact information. Feel free to tailor the letter to your own style and to describe how much bats mean to you.

We appreciate your support and continued action. Your participation is critical in helping members of Congress understand the gravity of White-nose Syndrome to our nation’s bats and its impact on our ecosystems and economy.

Unfamiliar with this horrible plague that’s wiping out our bats? Here’s a link that explains it and shows how it’s marching from North to south, east to west.  It hit Virginia last year and hit Kentucky this year.

I wish I could embed this video on the blog but it’s not that kind of link so….. here’s the website:

http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_the_hidden_beauty_of_pollination.html

This is an exquisite 7-minute clip on so much more than pollination. The presenter, Louie Schwartzberg, asks the question, “What motivates the pollinators?”  Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch offered the explaination, “Nothing lasts forever, everything eventually wears out.” This is a question about life itself and the imagery of the film clip is a wonderful journey in that.

One commenter posted, “I am saddened to realize that most of the pollinators in these clips are seriously threatened – The honey bees by hive collapse syndrome, the bats by a fungus, the butterflies by habitat loss.”  I think that’s a pretty key obersvation.

As white-nose syndrome wipes out little brown bats, groups petition for emergency protection http://bit.ly/geav4c

Friends, it’s sad news for our local bats.  I received an email update from Bat Conservation International (BCI) last week and I wanted to share it along with some links with you here.

When I first moved to Loudoun, we had bats flying through our yard every summer night. I bought a bat detector so I could hear their echolocation and it was marvelous!  Now when I go outside to listen for the bats it’s radio silence – reminiscent of the folks trying to search for life on other planets, listening to nothing more than the hiss of the atmosphere. 

I hope we’ll see the return of the bats in our lifetime.  Here’s the information from BCI:

“As Bat Conservation International continues our fight against White-nose Syndrome, research being published in the journal Science predicts the outcome we feared: regional extinctions.

The study forecasts that the little brown myotis, until now one of our most common species and one that is often seen roosting in barns, old buildings and attics, could be reduced to barely 1 percent of its current population in northeastern states within two decades.”

Learn more about bats, white nose syndrome and what you can do to help our bats:
Latest news: http://batcon.org/index.php/what-we-do/white-nose-syndrome.html
BCI email newsletter: http://www.batcon.org/index.php/media-and-info/e-newsletter.html 
BCI Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bat-Conservation-International/144437204518?ref=ts 

Spread the news about the bats so more people are aware of what is happening and what we are losing. If you encounter people looking to exclude bats from buildings, Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy has developed some resources that can help both educate people on the situation and enable them to act humanely. BCI and Bat World are also fantastic resources. In times like these, we need to do everything we can to help bats, and part of that is learning to live with and appreciate them.