Forestry companies may not have to worry about the northern long-eared bat and white-nose syndrome shutting down their operations in the future.
A batch of northern long-eared bats were successfully treated for white-nose syndrome and released into the wild last week by scientists from the U.S. Forest Service and Georgia State University.
The announcement of the release is a hopeful one, especially for the logging industry. The Forest Service on April 1 labeled the bat a threatened species and restricted forest management and tree removal projects wherever white-nose syndrome is found—an estimated 28 states.
While more research is still needed to determine if the treatment is viable, the successful release of the bats indicates that a cure may one day be found and the restrictions placed on logging operations unnecessary.
Michael Rains, director of the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Laboratory, said the agency is “very encouraged” with the treatment, which involves treating infected bats with a bacterium that prevents white-nose syndrome fungi from growing.
White-nose syndrome has killed more than 5.7 million northern long-eared bats in the United States and Canada in the past decade.
