Sen. Lautenberg Secures Funding for White Nose Syndrome Research
Washington, DC –-(AmmoLand.com)- Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) has announced that funding to protect bat populations in New Jersey and throughout the region has been increased from $500,000 to $1.9 million for FY 2010.
The senator successfully fought to increase the funding for research into a mysterious and deadly illness called White Nose Syndrome (WNS) that is destroying bat populations in New Jersey and the Northeast Region.
The legislation will now head to the White House where it is expected to be signed into law.
WNS is named for white fungal growth around the noses and on the bodies of affected animals. It first appeared in caves near Albany, New York in February 2006 and was confirmed in New Jersey in 2009. Over the last two winters, more than one million hibernating bats have died.
On July 8 Lautenberg, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Water and Wildlife Subcommittee, highlighted the threat of WNS on bat populations during a Senate hearing that he called for to examine threats to native wildlife species.
For more information, including a link to a map showing the disease’s spread, see the news release on Senator Lautenberg’s website at https://lautenberg.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=319502 .