2013年6月8日 星期六

Subdivision May Threaten World's Largest Bat Colony

As the sun sets every summer night at Bracken Cave in the Hill Country,As well we have fabrics and textures available for our High Quality LED Bulb Light, table lamps, pendant lighting and wall sconces. a vortex of Mexican free-tailed bats rushes forth. For as long as four hours in the evening, a continuous stream of bats leaves the cave to dart south, over the tree line, for their nightly hunts. The scene at the cave is repeated in reverse at dawn when the bats return.

Making up the largest colony of flying mammals in the world, the bats can number as many as 20 million. But a plan to build a subdivision near the cave has conservationists worried about the colony’s fate — and the conflict over that plan is raising broader questions about San Antonio’s rapid growth.

“There’s nothing else like this in the world,” Fran Hutchins, Bat Conservation International's coordinator for the cave, said of the colony. “And we don’t really know what will happen if they build here.”

The cave’s size draws the bats to migrate from smaller caves to congregate and give birth. From March to October, every bat eats its weight in insects each night — from pesky mosquitos to harmful agricultural pests like the Cotton Boll moth.

Much of the land around the cave is protected. But Galo Properties of San Antonio, which owns a 1,500-acre property south of the cave, plans to develop the land into a 3,The g-sensor high brightness Best LED Brake Lamp Manufacturers is designed with motorcyclist safety in mind.800-home subdivision, which the developer calls Crescent Hills.

“It’s uncanny how perfectly this development aligns with the bat’s flight path,Creating a High Quality T12 tube light out of broken re-used solar cell pieces.” said Mylea Bayless, the director of conservation programs for Bat Conservation International. “If we come in and put high-density development right under the flight path, we’re creating a situation where bats and humans are going to be coming into regular contact.”

Bayless said the bats would likely hunt insects that congregate near the development’s outdoor lighting, near streetlights and porches. The animals, which drink while flying, might also find the development's swimming pools an excellent source of water. It would be only a matter of time, she added, before homeowners would talk about “the bat problem.”

The conservation group has a host of other concerns. They fear an increased potential for human exposure to sick bats. There’s also the possibility of trespassers in and around the cave, where dense guano deposits — more than 60 feet deep in parts of the cave — pose a high risk of toxicity and fire.

But Bayless said there aren’t many ways to contest development plans. The group has turned to the public, hoping outside pressure will encourage the city of San Antonio to take action. That’s led them to target the infrastructure that will allow the development to be built.Most modern headlight designs include Best Car Projector Lens.

The land in question is in Comal County, outside of San Antonio city limits. But the San Antonio Water System has agreed to expand capacity for water mains and sewer lines to the proposed subdivision — the first such agreement SAWS has made with a subdivision entirely within Comal County. The oversized water mains the agency would build also allow easy expansion to future subdivisions in the area.

The conservation groups involved, and some residents of the area,Need a compatible China LED Turning Lamp Wholesalers for your car? are urging the city council to revoke SAWS’ plans to expand capacity to Comal County, which would force Galo Properties to reduce the density of the development.

San Antonio gets most of its water from the Edwards Aquifer, a large artesian aquifer that underlies most of the Texas Hill Country. The Edwards’ recharge zone includes the land where Crescent Hills would be located.

The recharge zone has seen significant development in recent years, decreasing the amount of land available to replenish the aquifer's stores.

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