By Jack Sullivan
STORRS - White nose syndrome, which has already killed hundreds of thousands of bats in the northeast, is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately, said Jenny Dickson, wildlife biologist for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.
Dickson said that is that it is very difficult to restore the bat populations because bats can live 20 to 30 years, and often produce only one offspring annually.
“Even if we could magically stop white nose syndrome right now, we still wouldn’t be able to recover the population for at least a decade,” said Dickson.
At a recent talk at the University of Connecticut, Dickson stressed the severity of the issue, and the continued funding and research that will be needed to find the cause and possible cure of the disease.
According to Dickson, white nose syndrome occurs only in cave-roosting bats, and it is named for the fuzzy white fungus often found on the nose and faces of the afflicted. Dickson said that the fungus can also spread to the wings and tail membranes of the bats as it worsens.
While it is unknown where the disease came from or how to stop it, Dickson said that researchers are almost positive that the massive bat deaths are directly related to the fungus. Almost every dead bat found since 2006 has had it. Dickson said affected bats are severely dehydrated and have little to no fat reserves. She said that their wings can also get dehydrated and suffer severe cracks and damage.
Dickson also said that affected bats show abnormal behavior that can lead to their death. She said that they will cluster near cave entrances, which they don’t normally do, and they will often fly outside during the day in the winter during hibernation. This can cause them to freeze to death or get caught in ice or snow.
One thing that can cause the disease to spread is that bats tend to cluster together in caves. Dickson said that the Indiana Bat, a federally endangered species that hibernates in Connecticut during the winter, gathers in packs of up to 300 in one square foot. This makes it very easy to spread fungal spores and cause white nose syndrome to spread.
The first known case of white nose syndrome was documented on Feb. 16, 2006, in the Howe Cave near Albany, N.Y. Dickson said that at first, it wasn’t taken seriously, but by 2007, dead bats were seen more often in New York and Vermont. Since then, the disease has spread like wildfire across the northeast, also killing bats in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Dickson said that cases of white nose syndrome have also been found in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Virginia this year.
Bats play a role in the pollination of wild crops, but they are most useful to humans for their huge role in insect control, said Dickson. She said that 70 percent of bats in the world eat insects, and they help control insect population booms on a nightly basis. She said they also are known to eat some agricultural pests, and are considered important in the agriculture business.
If this disease keeps spreading and killing off the bat population, Dickson said that it will cause a ripple effect over time. She said it could mean that we won’t have effective control of disease-carrying bugs that could not only infect humans, but crops and trees as well. More money would have to be spent on pesticides, and over time, the economy would take a big hit from the increased bug and pest control it would have to undertake.
Congress in October appropriated $1.9 million towards research on white nose syndrome. Also, in a separate action, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service earlier in October awarded six grants totaling $800,000 towards further research. Dickson said that sites have already been mapped in the northeast to keep tabs on how quickly the disease is spreading and where it’s spreading.
She said that over the upcoming winter, weight and condition studies will be performed on hibernating bats, as well as surveys of their winter hibernation shelters. There will also be additional surveys of their hibernation areas throughout regions of the country to compare conditions of the areas where the disease is and isn’t spreading. Other than that, Dickson said there will be individual capture studies, and continued lab research into the fungus and other possible mortality factors.
Dickson said that the public can help the cause by reporting any bat maternity colonies that they come across. She said that in Connecticut, research was done during the summer on maternity sites to see how the bats are responding and reproducing. Another option would be to assist in bat conservation efforts, by building bat houses where bats could possibly get away from the disease.
The biggest role that the public could play, said Dickson, would be to help raise awareness. She thinks that due to pop culture, many Americans are terrified of bats, and don’t take any interest in the importance of bats and the seriousness of this disease.
“Most people don’t get the opportunity to see them up close and understand how interesting and unique they are,” she said.
If people don’t start to take notice and support the research for white nose syndrome, we may soon see a world without bats. Hopefully it doesn’t take that long for people to realize how important they really are.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
UConn Working to Clean Mirror Lake
By John Kennedy
STORRS – Mirror Lake, a symbol of the University of Connecticut’s flagship campus since 1922, will be dredged next summer in order to improve the lake’s health and make it more aesthetically pleasing, said Dave Lotreck, the manager of Building Services, landscaping and elevators.
Lotreck estimated the cost of the dredging project to be between $1.5 million and $4 million, though he said he was more inclined to lean toward the $1.5 million range.
“The broad range [of costs] would be dependent on the amount of material and the composition of the material,” Lotreck said. “On a project like this, the final costs will not be known until the project is pretty much complete.”
Lotreck added that if the composition of the material is hazardous, the price will rise, since it will cost more to decontaminate and dispose of it.
The money for the project will be taken from UConn’s Save the Lakes Fund, which has been collecting donations. If the fund does not have enough money to cover the cost of the endeavor, dredging will be postponed, Lotreck said.
So far, the main problem that has been addressed has been the goose population. The geese, which saturate the lake and surrounding area with waste, have become a huge problem in recent years.
Not only is their excrement a hazard to students walking the shoreline, but the excess nitrogen it adds to the water can cause large algae blooms that can kill other life in the lake.
At the moment, a grid of wires stretches across the lake, invisible to the human eye from a distance, but visible to the geese when they try to land. According to Lotreck, geese don’t like anything strange in their landing area, so the wires throw them off, forcing them to land elsewhere.
Lotreck also said that the vegetation surrounding the lake has been left unmowed, another attempt to keep geese from flocking to the water. Even though it may look unkempt, geese like to have a clear path from land to water, and long grass prevents that.
In addition to the geese prevention measures, other landscaping work has been done. Lotreck said that the island was cleared of brush over the summer so it would be less overgrown, and some of the invasive species, such as phragmites, have been controlled.
The lake, which began as a boggy marsh, is being restored for aesthetic reasons and to improve the overall health of the lake.
The average depth of Mirror Lake is currently 1.5 feet, though it sinks to a depth of about seven to eight feet on one side of the island.
Because of the shallow depth, the lake tends to overheat in the summer, which causes large algae blooms that can starve fish and other aquatic creatures of oxygen, Lotreck said.
Lotreck said the dredging will increase the lake depth to an average of eight to 12 feet, so that little light will reach the bottom and vegetation won’t be as thick. Deeper water will also allow the lake to be healthier, with more movement of water, as opposed to the stagnation that is currently occurring.
In order to avoid sediment from building up again after the lake has been dredged, Lotreck said that the university is investigating more efficient methods of preventing material from draining into the lake from the roads.
Last winter, UConn dumped about 320 cubic yards of sand onto the streets of its campus to counteract ice. Most of that eventually ended up in the lake or clogged the catch basins. Over time, that sand has created a large sandbar between an island on the lake and the shore, where the water is only a few inches deep.
To eliminate this problem, Lotreck said the university is looking at different strategies that would cut back on or even eliminate the use of sand. One of these strategies is to use a brine solution that would melt the ice and result in less runoff than sand.
Another option that the university is looking at is the installation of vortex separators or “high-tech catch basins” as Lotreck calls them.
The current catch basins are designed so that when water and sediment fall into them, the sediment sinks and the water flows out through another pipe. However, most basins fill up before they can be cleaned, resulting in material entering the lake.
Vortex separators, on the other hand, are designed to create a vortex of water that improves their ability to remove sediment and other material from the water.
Lotreck said the plans call for three or four to be installed, at a cost of about $10,000 to $15,000 each. This money will come from the university’s expense budget, much like a bus stop or a road.
Another option – allowing the lake to revert back to its former landscape as a swamp – would save money, Lotreck said.
Lotreck disagrees with that choice, however, since nature will not fully reclaim the lake for about 80 years. During this time, the area will not be pleasant to look at and it could become a hazard.
A swampy setting makes it easier for mosquitoes to breed, increasing the chance of mosquito-borne diseases. It would also be harder to keep the area clean of litter.
STORRS – Mirror Lake, a symbol of the University of Connecticut’s flagship campus since 1922, will be dredged next summer in order to improve the lake’s health and make it more aesthetically pleasing, said Dave Lotreck, the manager of Building Services, landscaping and elevators.
Lotreck estimated the cost of the dredging project to be between $1.5 million and $4 million, though he said he was more inclined to lean toward the $1.5 million range.
“The broad range [of costs] would be dependent on the amount of material and the composition of the material,” Lotreck said. “On a project like this, the final costs will not be known until the project is pretty much complete.”
Lotreck added that if the composition of the material is hazardous, the price will rise, since it will cost more to decontaminate and dispose of it.
The money for the project will be taken from UConn’s Save the Lakes Fund, which has been collecting donations. If the fund does not have enough money to cover the cost of the endeavor, dredging will be postponed, Lotreck said.
So far, the main problem that has been addressed has been the goose population. The geese, which saturate the lake and surrounding area with waste, have become a huge problem in recent years.
Not only is their excrement a hazard to students walking the shoreline, but the excess nitrogen it adds to the water can cause large algae blooms that can kill other life in the lake.
At the moment, a grid of wires stretches across the lake, invisible to the human eye from a distance, but visible to the geese when they try to land. According to Lotreck, geese don’t like anything strange in their landing area, so the wires throw them off, forcing them to land elsewhere.
Lotreck also said that the vegetation surrounding the lake has been left unmowed, another attempt to keep geese from flocking to the water. Even though it may look unkempt, geese like to have a clear path from land to water, and long grass prevents that.
In addition to the geese prevention measures, other landscaping work has been done. Lotreck said that the island was cleared of brush over the summer so it would be less overgrown, and some of the invasive species, such as phragmites, have been controlled.
The lake, which began as a boggy marsh, is being restored for aesthetic reasons and to improve the overall health of the lake.
The average depth of Mirror Lake is currently 1.5 feet, though it sinks to a depth of about seven to eight feet on one side of the island.
Because of the shallow depth, the lake tends to overheat in the summer, which causes large algae blooms that can starve fish and other aquatic creatures of oxygen, Lotreck said.
Lotreck said the dredging will increase the lake depth to an average of eight to 12 feet, so that little light will reach the bottom and vegetation won’t be as thick. Deeper water will also allow the lake to be healthier, with more movement of water, as opposed to the stagnation that is currently occurring.
In order to avoid sediment from building up again after the lake has been dredged, Lotreck said that the university is investigating more efficient methods of preventing material from draining into the lake from the roads.
Last winter, UConn dumped about 320 cubic yards of sand onto the streets of its campus to counteract ice. Most of that eventually ended up in the lake or clogged the catch basins. Over time, that sand has created a large sandbar between an island on the lake and the shore, where the water is only a few inches deep.
To eliminate this problem, Lotreck said the university is looking at different strategies that would cut back on or even eliminate the use of sand. One of these strategies is to use a brine solution that would melt the ice and result in less runoff than sand.
Another option that the university is looking at is the installation of vortex separators or “high-tech catch basins” as Lotreck calls them.
The current catch basins are designed so that when water and sediment fall into them, the sediment sinks and the water flows out through another pipe. However, most basins fill up before they can be cleaned, resulting in material entering the lake.
Vortex separators, on the other hand, are designed to create a vortex of water that improves their ability to remove sediment and other material from the water.
Lotreck said the plans call for three or four to be installed, at a cost of about $10,000 to $15,000 each. This money will come from the university’s expense budget, much like a bus stop or a road.
Another option – allowing the lake to revert back to its former landscape as a swamp – would save money, Lotreck said.
Lotreck disagrees with that choice, however, since nature will not fully reclaim the lake for about 80 years. During this time, the area will not be pleasant to look at and it could become a hazard.
A swampy setting makes it easier for mosquitoes to breed, increasing the chance of mosquito-borne diseases. It would also be harder to keep the area clean of litter.
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