Cowtown Grotto caver Wayne Peplinski spoke to the Fort Worth City Council this morning, and was interviewed by the media afterwards. The topic listed on the council agenda was "Downtown bat population benefits and current status", and Wayne explained to the council how bat habitat has been recently threatened by construction at the historic Kress Building downtown, and that a significant number of the benefical flying mammals had been killed. Wayne presented the city a small bat house before he began speaking. Mayor Mike Moncrief asked several questions about bats and their habitats that Wayne answered, and while assuring everyone that "We will continue to build and revitalize in downtown Fort Worth, that is a given", the mayor added "Let us take a look at it, we share your concerns..." Wayne favors city support in requiring the designers of bridges to be constructed as part of the Corps of Engineer's Trinity River Vision Project to incorporate bat-friendly spaces under the decks. Interviews with Wayne should be broadcast this afternoon on ABC Affiliate WFAA channel 8 and Fox channel 4 KDFI (if precedent holds the Fox report may be a little more graphic and "gripping", but perhaps not quite as accurate, let's hope they got it right)
Earlier in the week the Kress bat story was featured in a front page news article in the "Fort Worth Star Telegram" newspaper. here is the link to that article: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/classifieds/real_estate/12186297.htm and a letter to the editor supported the idea of bat habitats being designed into the planned bridges: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/local2/12206247.htm The story was covered earlier (although somewhat sensationally and with an unsurprising bat's-eye viewpoint) in an article featured in the "Bat World News" (vol. 11 Summer) To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to mailto:majord...@cavetex.net with the following message--unsubscribe cavetex. For help and information go to www.cavetex.net. List administrator: mailto:jswh...@cavetex.net
