Group: More needed to combat bat disease
By The Associated Press

RICHMOND, Vt. — A Vermont environmental group says the federal government should be doing more to address white-nose syndrome in bats.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced it will provide $1.6 million for new studies of the disease, which is decimating bat populations in the eastern United States.

Mollie Matson, conservation advocate for the Richmond, Vermont-based Center for Biological Diversity, says that even though millions of bats have died, the Fish and Wildlife Service still lacks a national plan to address the disease and hasn’t acted to add new protections for the animals.

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