Bats vs. 'batteries': Clean-energy project worries biologists
The old mine, in the Town of Moriah near the shores of Lake Champlain, is now one of the most important refuges for bats in North America. The Barton Hill hibernaculum, as it’s known, is a winter home to some 50,000 bats, including one of the largest populations of endangered Indiana bats outside of the Midwest. There are more bats in the mine than almost anywhere else in the Northeast. They may now all be in peril. Just down the hill, a developer is looking to reopen a pair of mines that closed in the 1970s to create a new hydroelectricity project.