Dear Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar,

As a supporter of Defenders of Wildlife and someone who understands the important role that bats play in healthy ecosystems and natural pest control, I strongly urge you to take decisive action to save North America's bats from the deadly white-nose syndrome, a disease that has already killed nearly one million of these ecologically important animals.

Your leadership is urgently needed to address the threat of white-nose syndrome to America's wildlife heritage, agriculture and forestry, and public health. To deal with this urgent threat, I urge you to make available funding for the US Fish and Wildlife Service to:

• Appoint a full-time white-nose syndrome coordinator to work with federal and state agencies and private institutions responding to white-nose syndrome, and to be the central point of information and contact on the disease.

• Elevate departmental focus on this issue; make it a top priority for research and species protection efforts.

• Establish a plan for controlling or minimizing the spread of the syndrome, based on current knowledge.

• Identify funding needs for a coordinated response to white-nose syndrome, including a coordinator position, and funds for research and management.

• Examine the possible tools for implementing greater protective measures for white-nose syndrome-affected and non-affected bat populations, including the use of federal statutes such as the Endangered Species Act.

• Implement an education and outreach campaign for cave recreationists, in coordination with caving and speleological groups. Explain why staying out of all caves and mines in the eastern United States is critically important until scientists better understand the means of white-nose syndrome transmission; and

• Elevate departmental focus on this issue; make it a top priority for research and species protection efforts.