Over the past few years, nearly 7 million bats have died due to white-nose syndrome. One of the species that have been hit the hardest is the Indiana bat, an endangered species. So, if these endangered bats are found in an area, isn't it our job to protect them? Well, the Forest Service in Illinois doesn't seem to think so. They have come up with the Shawnee National Forest Plan, which will trade out a parcel of the forest, which happens to be endangered bat habitat, for strip mining for the Peabody Energy Company. The Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club oppose the land swap, and are suing the Forest Service for not consulting with the US Fish and Wildlife Service first to see that this deal would not illegally hurt the species. Just last summer, biologists found 2 types of endangered bat species roosting and foraging: the Indiana bat and the gray bat. So far the dreaded white-nose syndrome hasn't appeared in gray bats yet, but biologists believe that they are susceptible to the disease as well. As far as the Indiana bat goes, their numbers have been reduced by 70% in the Northeastern US. The chair of the Sierra Club's Shawnee National Forest Committee Jim Bensman, has this to say: “The Forest Service has a legal obligation to make protection of endangered species a top priority. When the agency found out last summer there were Indiana bats and gray bats on the land, its first move should have been to safeguard that habitat, not move forward with a plan with Peabody to have it strip-mined.”
I will be on the look-out for what happens with this issue.
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