On Nov 15, 7:58=A0pm, chatnoir <wolfbat3...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bay_environment/bal-te.md.bats...
>
> headline:
>
> Bats versus bicyclists
> Old W. Md. rail tunnel attracts both, but coexistence in doubt
>
> By Frank D. Roylance
> November 15, 2008
>
> Text size:
> Bats versus bicyclists
> Old W. Md. rail tunnel attracts both, but coexistence in doubt
>
> By Frank D. Roylance
> November 15, 2008
>
> 12next
> LITTLE ORLEANS - Clouds drift in front of a nearly full moon as a bat
> flutters to the mouth of an abandoned railroad tunnel in Western
> Maryland. There, caught in a web of fi****ng line, it drops into a
> biologist's trap.
>
> A quick and gentle exam by flashlight identifies it as a big brown
> bat, a female. Gloved hands jot down her vital statistics and release
> her - one more data point in scientists' growing understanding of what
> is believed to be Maryland's largest winter hideaway for bats.
>
> The 4,350-foot Indigo Tunnel southwest of Hancock hosts an estimated
> 1,400 bats during their winter hibernation, some of them rare and
> endangered species. But the bats' fondness for the place could derail
> plans to extend a popular bike trail through the cavernous tunnel - a
> route that sup****ters hope will help lure thousands more tourists to
> this hard-pressed region.
>
> In 2005, the administration of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. set aside
> $4.6 million in state and federal funds to extend the Western Maryland
> Rail Trail, a 22-mile paved biking path, for 4.7 miles through Indigo
> Tunnel to the hamlet of Little Orleans in Allegany County. ... (cont)
Could we maybe get Mr Vanderspam to go hiking in that tunnel?
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