Fish and Wild Service (FWS) announced on Tuesday that it is directing $6.2 million to state natural resource agencies to combat white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats.
First discovered in winter of 2006 in New York, WNS is a deadly fungus that has killed up to 6.7 million bats across North America.
U.S. Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA) said that the devastating spread of WNS could be slowed through partnership at all levels.
“As a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, I have been active in ensuring the effects of white-nose syndrome are appropriately addressed,” Thompson said. “I’ve participated in field hearings on the subject and toured habitats where bat populations have been devastated by this fungus.”
FWS awarded federal funding to natural resource agencies in 34 states and the District of Columbia this week to combat the spread of WNS. Pennsylvania, Thompson’s home state, received $33,400.
“There is an ecological importance to sustaining the bat population as well as preventing the species from becoming endangered, which would cause great harm to resource production, agriculture and construction across the commonwealth and a large part of the country,” Thompson said.
Wendi Weber, the northeast regional director for the FWS and the co-chair of the WNS Executive Committee, said that state responses to WNS depend on how long the disease has been present and how close states are to known occurrences.
“Where it has been established, the focus is on increasing survival of bats,” Weber said. “On the leading edge of the disease front, it’s also on limiting the spread, and where the disease has not been discovered, it’s on preventing the arrival of WNS. With this funding, we’re happy to help the states on all fronts to defeat this deadly disease.”