Eco Report – June 9, 2023

Hello and welcome to Eco-Report. For W-F-H-B, I’m Julianna Dailey. And I’m Frank Marshalek. Today on the program, we have the second half of an interview with Hank Duncan, the City’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator. Environmental Correspondent Zyro Roze asks Duncan about some of the controversy and safety concerns surrounding alternative modes of transit like the E-scooters currently left at all odd points of town, blocking bike racks and ramps, affecting disability access and serving as a pedestrian hazard. We will hear what the City plans to do about improving the situation. And now for your environmental reports: The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) issued an Air Quality Action Day last weekend for three northeast Indiana counties as high ozone levels. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management issued the AQAD for Allen, Huntington, and Wabash in northeast Indiana. IDEM says anyone who is sensitive to changes in air quality may be affected when ozone levels are high. Children, the elderly, and anyone with heart or lung conditions should avoid exertion or heavy work outside. “Ground-level ozone is formed when sunlight and hot weather combine with vehicle exhaust, factory emissions, and gasoline vapors,” IDEM says. “Ozone in the upper atmosphere blocks ultraviolet radiation, but ozone near the ground is a lung irritant that can cause coughing and breathing difficulties for sensitive populations.” —Norm Holy This year biologists will gain a better perspective on whether the Indiana bat will survive. Last year, healthy colonies were found in Vermont.Wildlife biologists in Vermont discovered a hopeful sign for the state’s Indiana bat population: One colony, located in Hinesburg, just south of Burlington, appears to be flourishing.  In the Green Mountain State and nationwide, bats have been suffering from white-nose syndrome for more than a decade, when the disease first appeared and swiftly decimated the populations of several species.  Numbers of Indiana bats in the rest of Vermont have been declining, and the species is federally listed as endangered. But the summer of 2022 colony, located on conserved land in Hinesburg, contained around 700 of the animals, according to data collected this summer by Alyssa Bennett, a small mammals biologist with Vermont’s Department of Fish & Wildlife.  The colony hibernates across Lake Champlain in New York, Bennett said. “In Hinesburg last field season, we counted as many as 300 bats in a single roost,” she said. “That is similar to historic numbers at this site, and three times greater than anything we have found in Vermont over the past decade,” when the white-nose disease was first detected in the state. The conserved land in Hinesburg appears to have contributed significantly to the growth of the Indiana bat colony. Habitat there features a mix of shagbark hickory, dead trees with peeling bark, water and transitions where fields turn to forest, according to Bennett. Bat boxes, which are located at the site, may have helped the animals stay warm and