First LA and Paul, if this is an issue please go ahead and delete it no worries.

My wife has been working on a project to provide more awareness and raise badly needed research funds for grants in the eastern and midwestern states.
The website is finally up and project is launched to fight white-nose syndrome. On the site you will find links to all white-nose syndrome info from govt. folks, updates on the latest status as well as the ability to donate directly, or purchase t shirts, awareness ribbon or stickers that were all designed by my better half.

We love bats, we love working with bat exclusion jobs, mitigation, but also above all, we love talking to folks and educating them on bat conservation in our role as nwco's.

I hope that those of you who appreciate bats or just have an interest in learning more about white-nose syndrome will take a look.

Having worked with a multitude of large scale wildlife disease projects I know just how little funding carries an issue of this type. In June in Madison I saw the level of projects being pulled off to investigate and attempt to mitigate this syndrome and thought, what if these folks had more funding.

My wife who truly loves bats jumped on this and started working on putting this project together. A local wildlife rehab center here partnered with her to provide the 501 (c) 3 without taking any admin fees, which means this money is going to be put to work in the eastern and midwestern states directly.

In the late spring an RFP (request for proposals) will go out through research channels to allow colleges, private entities and others back east (I'm in NM, so most everything is back east, minus my west coast friends) to compete for grant funding that will be provided after a selection process with experts in the field.

I know many nwco's enjoy their work with bats and promoting bats and wanted to provide this link here because my wife is a nwco and this is her project!

So check it out when you can,

www.fightwns.org

Best,

Justin

Everyone in Wisconsin who loves bats ( That's where the word "batty" came from. by the way ) is both crazy and rich. I can't imagine that your wife wouldn't get a bundle if she focused on some of areas of our state.

I am still taking the " Wait and see " approach. I don't particularly like the fact that white-nosed syndrome has been advertised as being in the state when none of the company's have seen it. What our company doesn't know about bats would fill volumes so we are no position to make recommendations one way or the other. My son and I can't even agree on whether we remove mostly large browns or small browns. ( I don't think he's ever seen a small brown but then he doesn't think I've ever seen a large brown )

Paul, I've had emails from Minn. and WI this morning already along with MI and all over the globe.

I think what is important is for folks to know about an issue like this. If more folks knew earlier
what TB looked like in WT deer in northern lower MI, maybe things would have been different.

While some swabbing has shown to find some geomyces sign in early spring it is not typically going
to be found on bats that aren't hibernating so unless a nwco is doing work on hibernating bats and sees
them, there should be little likelihood of this method of detection.

However, if they know about it, they can report it and it can be tracked and that is very very important
to surveillance and understanding.

Knowledge is power! Though I have to agree when it comes to species, I've got 4-6 myotis species that
look all identical till you measure tiny little parts, which isn't germane to exclusion and such.



Justin

Justin, I never went to college but after my Army days ended, I took an aptitude test. On the down side, the test showed that I was not cut out for college life and probably wouldn't have graduated. On the bright side, it showed that my reading comprehension was at nearly college graduate level. I never appreciate this fact much until I run across words like "germane". Keep up the good work.

Great News Justin.

I have a dedicated FaceBook page with a history of WNS news stories since January 4, 2010 that I will give you to run as your own if you accept. I would be very happy to pass this on to your very capable hands. 216 contacts I have already put together . I hope you can put something viable together and wish you much success. Let me know if you want it .

There is a lot of time in the FaceBook Page when we created it it was originally set up to help collect samples and USFS went in another direction & never happened and evolved into releasin new stories and you can follow it from Saratoga Springs and spread fromthe north east down south and in the Midwest and Appalachian Mountains to finally across the Mississippi River, 216 followers. Your old employer keeps me to busy to do everything these days lol

White Nose Syndrome Task Force
The name can be changed to your own title to match your mission.

You want to do a short interview 10-20 minute interview I will help you get the word out .
Call me if interested.

Robb

Hey Robb,

Thanks very much for the offer, been very busy the last few days thankfully! I'll visit with you shortly offline next week. Appreciate your time
and the offer again!

Justin