The decline in bats has a myriad of environmental consequences, he said.

“All of our bats are insectivores, so they’re eating mosquitoes and midges and moths,” he said. “Some of these insects carry diseases. Some of them cause damage to our crops. And so bats play a key role in keeping a lot of these insects at bay.”

Advances in how to treat white-nose syndrome and better support bat populations in the face of the devastating disease has made Turner feel “cautiously hopeful,” he said. But he worries about continued population recovery for the long-lived species — bats can live for up to 35 years, and reproduce slowly, so it’s hard to know how many surviving bats are of reproductive age, and how younger bats are faring against white-nose syndrome. He also is concerned that any additional disease or infection introduced to local bat populations could further complicate population recovery.

That’s where the work of Stronsick and other rehabilitators in the region comes in, Turner said. Female bats have been more impacted by white-nose syndrome, since they hibernate longer, so there are now more male bats than female bats.

“Every female that can be saved by rehabbers … gives that species, that population, a leg up on persistence into the future,” he said. “The more females we have, the sooner we have them, and the more they’re able to produce young, the faster we can start seeing recovery. And for such a long-lived and slow reproducing species, we’re already looking at a very long timeline for some semblance of recovery.”

Turner and his team have also worked with Stronsick in research on the disease and helping infected bats recover.