The Marquette County Road Commission has asked for the public’s cooperation as it works on a tight deadline to clear trees along a handful of road and bridge construction projects, including two in Marquette Township, by the end of the month.

Work to clear the trees is mandated to take place by March 31 to comply with Federal Highway Administration and Michigan Department of Transportation dictates to help protect northern long-eared bats.

The bats are found across a large portion of the eastern United States, including the Upper Peninsula.

Northern long-eared bats are among species afflicted in recent years with white-nosed syndrome, a fungus which grows on the muzzles of infected bats, giving them the appearance of having a white nose.

Not all infected bats have white “noses” and the fungus will also develop on the naked tail membranes and wings of bats, according to researchers.

The syndrome – which is passed between bats as they hibernate close together – disrupts the bats’ hibernation in caves or mines, waking them up prematurely, causing them to use up their fat reserves. If there are no insects available, the bats starve.

Researchers said bats produce only one pup each year and live 10-20 years, providing populations which do not fluctuate greatly. This makes it difficult for bat populations diminished by the syndrome to recover quickly.

“In the spring and summer, the bats nest with their young in trees,” the road commission said in a news release. “If the trees are disturbed prior to the bat pups being able to fly, the bat pups usually do not survive.”

The road commission plans to remove trees along the project areas by March 31 to avoid a one-year delay in completing the projects and loss of funding for the work.

“Please work with us as we have been placed on a very short timeline,” the road commission said. “The felled trees will have (to) be left on the side of the road until the contractors begin the projects in the summer.”

We encourage cooperation with the road commission in this worthy endeavor to not only conserve time and money, but to also help protect this dwindling species of bats.

The road and bridge sections where tree clearing is scheduled to take place include: County Road 492 from Grove Street to Lost Creek Drive in Marquette Township; County Road 498 from Werner Street to Allen Street in Marquette Township; County Road EM bridge at Mehl Lake and Little Lake overflow in Forsyth Township; County Road MK bridge at Warner Creek in Richmond Township and County Road 611 from the Baraga County line to the Main and Mesnard intersection in Michigamme Township.

In April 2014, researchers said the fungus then recently detected in Michigan for the first time threatened to kill 90 percent of the state’s 300,000 colonial hibernating bats within the next three to five years.