bats monitored

Disease could have ‘devastating’ effectsPISGAH FOREST—Using only her headlamp

to illuminate the little brown bat in herhands, Gabrielle Graeter carefully spreadopen the animal’s wings.As the bat shrieked and chewed at her

white gloves, Graeter hunched over thesmall lightboxon the table in frontof her andmethodically looked for any damage to thebat’s thin black wings, one sign that it couldbe infectedwithwhite-nose syndrome. It’s adisease biologists say could have devastatingimpacts atmultiple ecological levels.“We haven’t detected it, but it could be

here already,” said Graeter, a biologist withthe N.C. Wildlife Resources Commissionand one of a team of scientists catching andmonitoring the bats on the Davidson Riveron Monday night. “If they haven’t (been in-fected) already, it’s going to be happeningsoon.”The infection, named for thewhite fungus

that forms on the faces andwings of affectedbats, has been called the most serious threattowildlife in a century. It’s killed hundredsofthousands of bats in the Northeast, where itwas first discovered in 2006. Right now,

JOHN FLETCHER/JFLETCHER@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission biologist, Gabrielle Graeter, studies an Eastern red bat in Pisgah National ForestMonday night as state and federal biologists help monitor and prevent the spread of white-nose syndrome.

Bats monitored forwhite-nose syndrome

By Nanci BompeyNBOMPEY@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM

Please see BATS on A8

HOW TO TELL■ Signs include white fungus, especially on the bat’s nose butalso on the wings, ears or tail, damaged wings including holesin the wing tissue, bats flying outside during the day in tempera-tures at or below freezing, bats clustered near the entrance ofhibernation sites and dead or dying bats on the ground or onbuildings, trees or other structures.

This bat is checked for signs of white-nose syndrome. For morephotos, visit CITIZEN-TIMES.com.

ASHEVILLE

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ASHEVILLE—A one-time $3mil-lion appropriation by the stateGeneral Assembly will be a shotin the arm for some children.The money in Buncombe

County alone will pay for morethan 2,000 doses of childhoodvaccines, important given thecounty leads North Carolina in

the percentage of students al-lowed to go without state-mandated vaccines.Health officials warn that fail-

ing to vaccinate more children

could cause a drop in herd immu-nity, the theory that vaccinating acertain number of people againsta disease protects thosemost vul-nerable.Leaving toomany peoplewith-

out vaccinations also could leadto the re-emergenceof potentiallyfatal diseases.“In some areas we’re dropping

dangerously low,” said Buncombe

County health director GibbieHarris, citing an outbreak ofwhooping cough in 2009.“Haywood had the bulk of it,

but a lot of exposure started herein this county,” she said.Thenew funding is intended to

ease the transition asNorthCaro-lina stops providing free vaccines

NC bucks up for child vaccinesBy Nanci BompeyNBOMPEY@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM

Please see VACCINES on A3

Aim: Get allkids shotsby the startof school

ASHEVILLE Hiking, swim-ming, biking, jogging — allare great outdoor activitiesand all require some type ofspecialized shoes, clothingor equipment.If you’ve worn out your

favorite sneakers or swim-suit this summer, tax-freeweekend arrives Friday tohelp you out.Designed to help parents

afford school supplies, thetax-free weekend — 12:01a.m. Friday through11:59 p.m.Sunday — includes an ex-

emption for most sportsequipment.Thathelpsmanyparents with athletic chil-dren, but it’s also a boon tooutdoor enthusiasts.Even better, many equip-

ment retailers offer salesand other discounts duringthe weekend, includingBlack Dome MountainSports,DiamondBrandOut-doors, Mast General Store,Dick’s, REI and other sportsequipment and outdoors re-tailers.One example:All ofBlack

Get outdoors,but get thedeals firstBy Damien ChambersDCHAMBERS@ASHEVILL.GANNETT.COM

Please see OUTDOORS on A5

JOHN FLETCHER/JFLETCHER@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM

Beth Hardin works on a display of shirts at Mast General Store indowntown Asheville. The store will have specials this weekend.

WASHINGTON — The Oba-ma administration plans tosend $600 million to helpunemployed homeownersavoid foreclosure in fivestates, including $159millionfor North Carolina.The Treasury Depart-

ment said Wednesday thatmortgage-assistance pro-posals submitted by NorthCarolina, Ohio, Oregon,Rhode Island and SouthCarolina received approval.The states estimate their ef-forts could help up to 50,000homeowners.The administration is di-

recting $2.1 billion from itsexisting $75billionmortgageassistance program to a total

of 10 states. Each state de-signed its own plan. Treas-ury approvedmoney in Junefor Arizona, California,Florida, Michigan and Ne-vada.The Obama administra-

tion has rolled out numer-ous attempts to tackle theforeclosure crisis but hasmade only a small dent inthe problem. More than 40percent, or about 530,000homeowners, have fallenout of the administration’smain effort to assist thosefacing foreclosure.So far, it has provided

permanent help to about390,000 homeowners, or 30percent of the 1.3 millionwho have enrolled sinceMarch 2009.

NC gets $159M tostop foreclosuresBy Alan ZibelTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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A8 THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 2010 ASHEVILLE CITIZEN -TIMES • CITIZEN -TIMES.COMNEWS

there’s no treatment forthe disease.Although it has not

been detected in NorthCarolina, white-nose syn-dromewas found in bats ina cave on the Tennesseeside of Great SmokyMountains National ParkinApril, and has shown upin other parts of Tennes-see,Virginia andWestVir-ginia.During routine moni-

toring near Whittier inSwain County this sum-mer, Graeter and her col-leagues found bats whosewings appeared tobe dam-aged by white-nose syn-drome, although presenceof the funguswon’t be ableto be confirmed until thebats hibernate this winter.“We’d be very happy if

we didn’t have it,” Graetersaid, “but we’re preparedfor it.”

Monitoring the batsGraeter and other sci-

entists from the statewild-life resources commission,along with the U.S. FishandWildlife,EasternBandof Cherokee Indians, Fur-manUniversity and volun-teers, are monitoring batpopulations at more than20 sites around WesternNorth Carolina this sum-mer.On Monday night, the

group placed two sets ofthin, nylon nets over theDavidsonRiver at the statefish hatchery. At about8:30 p.m., bats started

swarming around the riv-er, looking for food andwater, and an unlucky fewbecame entangled in thenetting.The biologists waded

into the river and carefullyremoved the bats by the

light of their headlampsand put them in brown pa-per bags. At a makeshiftlaboratory in the parkinglot, the bats were weighedand inspected for sex, ageand any suspicious mark-ings before being taggedand released into the sky.The data will give sci-

entists an idea of batpopu-lations before, during andafter white-nose syn-drome hits the area, alongwith allowing them to lookfor suspicious wing dam-age. None of the batscaught Monday showedsigns of damage fromwhite-nose syndrome.“This (monitoring) has

already been going on any-way, but now that white-nose syndrome is in thepicture, we are taking ex-tra care tomonitor and de-termine changes in batpopulations,”Graeter said.During the winter, sci-

entistsmonitor roughly 115N.C. caves, many of whichhave been closed to thepublic to help stop thespread of the disease.White-nose syndrome at-tacks bats hibernating incaves and mines, wherethe fungus thrives, andcauses them to come outof hibernation early. Batsthat scientists think havebeen affected by the fun-gus are sent to laboratoriesfor testing.“Researchers are trying

to find some kind of treat-ment, some potential cure,but so far nothing hasproven effective enough touse in the field,” Graeter

said. “We are hopeful thatif we can’t do anythingabout white nose rightnow,what we can do is un-derstand what’s happen-ing as an effect of whitenose.”

DevastatingconsequencesScientists said white-

nose syndrome could bedevastating when it doesshowup here.NorthCaro-lina ishome to17 speciesofbats, 10 ofwhich hibernatein caves and threeofwhichare endangered.It’s still unclear if some

speciesofbats aremore af-

fected by the fungus thanothers, but biologists haveseen 90-100 percent mor-tality of bats in severalcaves in the Northeast.Populations of endan-gered Indiana bats have al-ready started declining inNew York since white-nose showed up there.“Bats are already

threatened and this extrahit could make some spe-cies go extinct,” said Ken-drick Weeks, mountainwildlife diversity supervi-sor with the N.C.WildlifeCommission.Bats play an important

role in controlling insects.

Without predation frombats, insect pests could in-crease, causing problemsfor farmers and forests. Asingle little brown bat cancatch and eat 600mosqui-toes in an hour.Bats are an important

part of the ecosystem,which is being exposed toother pests, invasive spe-cies and additional threats,said Sue Cameron, of theU.S. Fish and WildlifeService. “It’s like Jenga,”she said referring to thepopular game. “Howmanythings canwe start remov-ing before things start col-lapsing?”

BATS: North Carolina is home to 17 species, and 3 are already on the endangered listContinued from A1

WHAT TO AVOID■ Stay out of caves andmines. White nose syndrome isthought to be transmittedprimarily from bat to bat butthere is a strong possibility itmay also be transmitted byhumans carrying the fungusfrom cave to cave on theirclothing and gear.

HOW TO HELP■ If you see a bat that yoususpect has white nose syn-drome, contact Gabrielle Grae-ter at the N.C. Wildlife Re-sources at Gabrielle.graeter@ncwildlife.org or 273-9097; Sue Cameron at theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Serviceat susan_cameron@fws.gov or 258-3939 Ext. 224;or e-mail whitenosebats@fws.gov.■ Funding for the N.C. WildlifeResources Commission’swildlife diversity work, likemonitoring the bat population,comes primarily from privatedonations. For more informa-tion or to donate, visitwww.ncwildlife.org.■ For more information, visitwww.fws.gov/whitenosesyndrome.

MARSHALL, Mich. — TheCanadian owner of theruptured pipeline thatspilled up to 1 million gal-lonsof oil into theKalama-zoo River watershed hassaid it will buy as many as200 homes frompeople di-rectly affected by the pipe-line accident.For thosewhose homes

were already listed for sale

before the July 26 spill, En-bridge Energy Partnerssaid it will pay the full listprice.For those who want to

sell but whose homesweren’t listed, it will buythem for their appraisedvalue before the spill.Enbridge Chief Execu-

tivePatrickDaniel said theaction was a first for thecompany, which operates

pipelines in Canada andthe United States, and away to show confidencethat its cleanup will bethorough.The offer, which En-

bridge said is good for ayear, covers homes in avoluntary evacuation zonesurrounding the spill andthose within 200 feet ofthe river as far as 30 milesdownstream.

Firm to buy homes near Michigan spillDETROIT FREE PRESS

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