Idaho Falls

54 IDAHO FALLS MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2019 The first thing that comes to most peoples minds when you mention October is Halloween. A time when scary stuff is meant to be fun, not actually scary. Life is full of such paradoxes and sometimes it's hard to figure out which way is really up. The bat, an icon of Halloween, is a great example of this conundrum. Most people lump bats into the same category as spiders and snakes. Small and creepy and out to get you. I can't speak for spiders and snakes, but bats are much- maligned and certainly not out to get you. Bats are insect-eating machines and a true friend to our farmers and ranchers. Bats in other parts of the world eat pol- len and nectar and even blood, but the vast majority of our Idaho bats are insect eaters, although some types might snack on a small lizard now and then. Bats are such efficient predators of insects that in parts of the country where white-nose syndrome has wiped out untold colonies of bats, farmers have reported having to increase the use of pesticides to control crop pests because the bats aren't around anymore to do the job. Aside from malicious 1J'ers with tennis rackets and shotguns, Idaho's bats have so far fared okay. They have been able to escape the specter of disease, but yet they have some deadly foes looming on the hori- zon of our fair burg. There is an old adage "There is no such thing as a free lunch" and when it comes to Green Energy that's also unfortunately true. We all should know by now how much the dams on the Lower Snake River have decimat- ed our salmon runs. Well, the same holds true for the wind farms east of Idaho Falls. While they generate clean energy, they just so happen to be smack dab in the middle of the migration route of a host of bat species! Bats are famous for their echolocation abilities, but pitted against a turbine blade moving at 300 MPH+ they are no match. Even if they avoid the blades, then the pres- sure bubble around the blades explodes their innards. Bottom line is bats can't beat blades. Every day scores of bats die on the altar of Green Energy. We feel smug as we recharge our Teslas', but bats are the ones paying the price. So even though we see green, in real- ity, we have created a house of horrors for our winged mammal friends. Sometimes the answers are not easy or obvious. Often we need to dig a little further beyond what just feels good. Just as the Father of Conservation, Aldo Leopold said: "Everything has a cost, even if we aren't aware of it." Our obligation is to correct the problems that we know about. Once upon a time, the desert just west of Idaho Falls boasted the highest concentra- tion of nuclear reactors on the planet. It still may, for all I know, but for various reasons nuclear energy has become persona non grata. Maybe just like with our friends the bats, we need to look beyond what feels good and see what really works. Just like Halloween, if you're not handing out treats then you better come up with a better trick than bats in a blender. IF Trick Or Treat? You Decide. BY GREGG LOSINSKI

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