TRAVERSE CITY, MI (AP)-- Federal officials are issuing final regulations to protect the northern long-eared bat, which has suffered a steep population decline because of a fungal disease called white-nose syndrome.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the bat as a threatened species last April and imposed temporary limits on harming it. Critics in the timber and oil and gas industries said the limits were too restrictive and would do little, if anything, to protect the bats.
Agency Director Dan Ashe says the updated rules announced Wednesday are less restrictive toward timber harvesting, clearing land for wind turbines and other activities, while protecting caves where the bats hibernate in winter and trees where they raise their young in summer.
Bats are valuable to people because they eat mosquitoes and insects that damage crops.
