KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:
Federal officials have released new regulations designed to protect the northern long-eared bat. It's one of the bat species that's been hardest hit by the white-nose syndrome. That's a deadly fungal disease. North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann reports that some environmental activists say the government should be doing more.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: White-nose syndrome exploded on the landscape here in northern New York in 2007. Federal biologists say the disease killed six million bats as it spread across much of the U.S. and Canada. Dan Ashe, who heads the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says by labeling northern long- eared bats as threatened, biologists will now be able to do more to protect the caves where they hibernate and part of the forest where they live in the summer.
DAN ASHE: And then it allows us to provide protections to maternity trees - so protecting that vulnerable life stage when the bats are having pups and when the pups cannot fly.
MANN: Northern long-eareds were once one of the most common bats in the country. Found from North Carolina to Montana and Wyoming, they're voracious hunters and play a big role controlling insects. Some environmentalists say Ashe's agency should've gone farther, adding these animals to the endangered species list, the highest protection allowed by federal law.
MOLLIE MATTESON: The species, by any sensible measure, clearly deserves endangered status. It's dying at rates of 90 percent to 100 percent.
MANN: Mollie Matteson is with the Center for Biological Diversity in Vermont, where some of the biggest bat die-offs occurred. She says these new regulations still allow risky development by wind farms, loggers, and oil and gas companies.
MATTESON: The Fish and Wildlife Service has now basically opened the door for any and all kinds of activity that may affect this bat and its habitat.
MANN: Dan Ashe, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service, thinks these regulations will prompt companies to work more cautiously in forests where northern long-eared bats live. He says biologists will monitor how well the new rules are protecting crucial habitat.
ASHE: Certainly, in the future, I could see a potential that its status would change to endangered. And so the meantime, people shouldn't, you know, be relaxing. We should be working with the wind industry, and the oil and gas industry, and utility industry and others to put in place durable protection.
MANN: It's unclear just how effective regulations like this will be in saving northern long-eared bats. After all, it's that deadly fungal disease that's pushing them to the brink and scientists still have no way of stopping it. White-nose syndrome is now in 26 states, turning up this winter in Nebraska. It's expected to keep spreading until it reaches the West Coast. For NPR News, I'm Brian Mann in Northern New York.