Threats To New Jersey's Bat Population
On Wednesday, July 8, 2009, Senator Lautenberg issued the following statement at a morning hearing on threats to native wildlife species, including New Jersey’s bat population.
"Mr Chairman,
Thank you for holding this important hearing about the threats to animals and ecosystems across the country from a changing climate, vanishing habitats and invasive species.
As you know, I am particularly concerned about a threat that could wipe out entire bat populations from New Hampshire to Virginia.
The threat is a fungus called White Nose Syndrome.
Since it first surfaced in 2006, it has spread from cave to cave, leaving 90 to 100 percent of bat populations in some caves dead or dying.
And since bats are slow breeders, scientists fear that White Nose Syndrome could cause many bat species to go extinct.
Over the last two winters, more than one million hibernating bats have died.
At one bat cave in New Jersey—the Hibernia Mine in Rockaway, which I have visited—there are normally 30,000 bats hibernating. As of April, only 750 bats were found alive there.
We’ve got to stop the spread of this disease.
We are dealing with a major threat to an entire ecosystem—with the potential to cause major environmental and economic problems.
Bats are on the front line of defense in protecting the public’s health and our crops. 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 insects. Bats also reduce the need for pesticides, which cost farmers billions of dollars every year and can be harmful to our health.
With fewer bats, there are more mosquitoes to breed disease and more insects to destroy the crops grown on New Jersey's farms, threatening the livelihood of our farmers and damaging our economy.
And this problem is not limited to New Jersey.
This serious threat to our health, environment and economy is repeating itself all along the East Coast.
We need to act fast—and we need help from the Administration.
In May, along with Senate and House colleagues, I sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar requesting emergency funding for research into the cause of White Nose Syndrome—and to develop a solution to stop its spread.
I look forward to the Secretary’s response.
Some of the witnesses on this panel have experience fighting the spread of diseases like White Nose Syndrome and helping species survive such threats.
I look forward to hearing their ideas on how we can save the bat populations in New Jersey and nationwide.”
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