U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand
today wrote a personal letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking him to
provide immediate, emergency funding and resources for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey to tackle White-Nose Syndrome
(WNS), a growing ecological crisis that has devastated bat populations across
Upstate New York and the entire Northeast. Since the first case of WNS was
reported in 2006, over one million bats have been killed. This issue has
profound public health, environmental, and economic implications: Bats are
beneficial animals, keeping populations of insects like mosquitoes, moths, and
beetles in check and reducing the need for pesticides, which cost farmers
billions of dollars every year and are dangerous to human health. They are also
critically important as pollinators. Without immediate action, several
bat species within the United States may face extinction.
White-Nose Syndrome has been found in New York in the
following counties: Clinton, Essex, Warren, Washington, Hamilton, Lewis,
Jefferson, Columbia, Putnam, Albany, Schoharie, Montgomery, Ulster, Sullivan,
and Onondaga.
“This issue has gone on long enough and if we don’t do
something soon to tackle this disease, it will continue to spread across the
country threatening the existence of our bat populations,” said Schumer. “Bats
are one of the most beneficial creatures for Upstate New York farms and
ecosystems, as they reduce the need for costly and harmful pesticides. We must do everything we can to provide
researchers with the funding and resources they need to conduct the appropriate
tests to help save the bats from this mysterious disease.”
“The bat population in New York is declining at an alarming
rate and putting our ecosystem at risk,” said Senator Gillibrand. “More
research is critical to help protect the bat population, which is vital to the
food chain and to our farmers, who rely on bats to reduce pesticide use.”
The first case of White Nose Syndrome was reported in the
winter of 2006 in Howes Cave, in Schoharie County. Scientists working for
the New York Department of Environmental Conservation observed hibernating bats
with a previously unidentified white fungus on their noses and bodies. Since
then, WNS has killed over one million bats throughout nine states in the
northeast. Scientists recently reported that the disease appears to be
spreading to Southern and Midwestern states.
In order to combat the spread of WNS, increased funding and
resources are needed to determine why the bats are dying so rapidly. States, in
partnership with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey,
have been working diligently to establish a cause for this deadly mystery and
develop solutions to this crisis, but have extremely limited resources.
Additional research, work, and proper funding are needed to fully address the
crisis.
To help stop the spread of White Nose Syndrome, Senators
Schumer and Gillibrand joined Senators Leahy, Sanders, Byrd, Lautenberg,
Menendez, Kerry, Webb, Casey, Warner, Rockefeller, Lieberman and Congressmen
Welch, McHugh, Courtney, Olver, Visclosky, Gonzalez, Boucher, Hinchey,
Kilpatrick, Wexler, Shea-Porter and Dogget in a letter to Secretary of the
Interior, Ken Salazar, requesting that the Department provide adequate funding
to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other
agencies to carry out critical research on and develop a cure for WNS.
In the letter, the Senators wrote, “We must do everything we
can to stop the spread of WNS or it will continue to spread across the country
decimating our bat populations. We ask for your help in providing
immediate, emergency funding for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the
U.S. Geological Survey for research, management, coordination, and outreach in
order to provide an appropriate coordinated response to this deadly, newly
emergent disease.”
A full copy of the letter is below
May 5, 2009
The Honorable Ken Salazar
Secretary
U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20240
Dear Secretary Salazar:
We are faced with an alarming ecological situation in the Northeast.
Over the last two winters over one million hibernating bats have mysteriously
died. While scientists have not been able to determine the precise cause
of these deaths, with mortality rates in some caves as high as 90 to 100
percent, the bats appear to be infected with a fungus that turns their noses
and bodies white. This affliction of unknown origin, dubbed White-Nose
Syndrome (WNS), must be stopped. We ask for your full support to respond
to this crisis by providing immediate, emergency Fiscal Year 2009 funding for
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey to respond to
this crisis.
The first case of WNS was reported in the winter of 2006 in
Howes Cave, near Albany, New York. Scientists working for the New York
Department of Environmental Conservation observed hibernating bats with a
previously unidentified white fungus on their noses and bodies. Since
then, confirmed cases of WNS have shown up in nine states: Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont,
Virginia, and West Virginia. In addition, there are unconfirmed WNS
reports in Rhode Island. Given what we have seen in the past three years,
it is highly likely that WNS will spread from the northeast into some of the
largest and most diverse bat colonies in the nation, which are located in the
southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest. If this happens, we risk the
possibility of extinction of several bat species.
This issue has profound public health, environmental, and
economic implications. Bats are among the most beneficial animals. We are
just beginning to fully appreciate the roles that bats play in North American
ecosystems, and it is clear that threats like WNS have the potential to
influence ecosystem function in ways that we currently do not understand. They
prey almost exclusively on insects such as mosquitoes, which spread disease,
and moths and beetles, which damage crops. A single bat can easily eat
more than 3,000 insects a night and an entire colony will consume hundreds of
millions of these crop-destroying and disease-carrying pests every year.
Bats reduce the need for pesticides, which cost farmers billions of dollars
every year and are harmful to human health.
States, in partnership with the Fish and Wildlife Service
and the U.S. Geological Survey, have been working diligently to establish a
cause for this deadly mystery. With extremely limited resources,
scientists have been working to determine a cause and develop solutions to this
crisis, while minimizing its impact on populations of hibernating bats in North
America. Additional research, work, and proper resources are needed to
fully address this crisis.
We respectfully request that the Department of the Interior
provide adequate funding to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological
Survey, and other agencies to carry out critical research on and develop a cure
for WNS. As the bats emerge from their hibernation caves, it is vital
that researchers have the resources in place to conduct tests this
summer. We must do everything we can to stop the spread of WNS or it will
continue to spread across the country decimating our bat populations. We
ask for your help in providing immediate, emergency funding for the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey for research, management,
coordination, and outreach in order to provide an appropriate coordinated
response to this deadly, newly emergent disease.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. We
look forward to your prompt response to this
inquiry.
Sincerely,
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Senator Patrick Leahy
Senator Bernard Sanders
Senator Robert C. Byrd
Senator Charles E. Schumer
Senator Frank R. Lautenberg
Senator Robert Menendez
Senator John F. Kerry
Senator Jim Webb
Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.
Senator Mark R. Warner
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman
Representative Peter Welch
Representative John McHugh
Representative Joe Courtney
Representative John Olver
Representative Peter Visclosky
Representative Charlie Gonzalez
Representative Rick Boucher
Representative Maurice Hinchey
Representative Carolyn Cheeks
Kilpatrick
Representative Robert Wexler
Representative Carol Shea-Porter
Representative Lloyd Doggett