Northern Long-Eared bat listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act

This post was originally shared on our site dedicated to protecting Allegheny Mountain.

There is a rare bat hibernaculum adjacent to the Allegheny Tunnel, known to house the endangered Indiana bat. Now, the Northern Long-Eared bat will be another protected species in harm's way if the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission cuts an open highway gash through 1,400 acres of roosting, swarming and migratory habitat found above the tunnel. Bat populations are dwindling at an alarming rate due to white-nose syndrome and habitat degradation. Let's not make the problem worse.  

Valessa Souter-Kline is western Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Pittsburgh. She tweets @ValessaSK.

Preserve the integrity of the Allegheny Front

This post originally appeared at Save Allegheny Mountain, where you can learn more about our efforts to protect the Allegheny Front. 


In a year-end interview, PennFuture's president, Cindy Dunn, highlights the importance of preserving the integrity of the Allegheny Front in 2015 and beyond. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission's potential plans to cut a six-lane gash through Whitehorse Mountain, part of the Allegheny Front, threatens one of our state's most beautiful and important landscape features. Referring to the possibility of the Turnpike Commission cutting a notch out of the top of the mountain, instead of fixing or expanding the existing tunnel, Dunn says an open cut...

"would have a devastating environmental consequence. It'd be removing a big piece of the mountain. We're working with the local hunting and fishing club there whose land would be destroyed. We think this has important value to biodiversity and these mountaintop ridges are important migratory pathways...plants need ways to expand."  

Valessa Souter-Kline is western Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Pittsburgh. She tweets @ValessaSK.