New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

We are in a severe drought and near record temperatures are expected today likely closing on the 100 degree mark. Even the larger local streams have essentially dried up. The Suncook River out my window is just a sliver of what is usually is. We are literally baking it seems.

But for me I can't help but wonder how this severe drought is impacting our fish and wildlife. No doubt our native brook trout are dying in the smaller brooks. In fact this is the second year in a row that the smaller streams have nearly dried up. And if the weatherman is correct this is actually the third year of below average precipitation. No doubt our native brook trout are in real trouble the last couple of years. 

And the heat. While much of our wildlife can withstand the temperatures it is our moose who can't. Our shorter withers, due to climate change, has significantly impacted moose numbers by causing spikes in winter ticks that have killed off our moose. In fact this past winter 81 percent of the moose calves died from tick loads and even 25 percent of the adult cows died as well. And now this heat is further impacting the moose by causing them to seek cooler spots and drives them to stop eating. As a result of our hotter summers adult cow moose weights are down causing a significant decline in moose calf births. So really a twofold impact on our moose with much higher calf mortality and a decline in calves born to begin with. The last I heard is moose numbers are down to around 3,700 from closer to 7,500 just over a decade ago.

As far as wildlife sightings. Great news there on the bat front. I put up a bat house over my garage roof probably 25 years ago. My father built be several a few years before his death twenty years ago now. I've seen one or two bats come out over the years but no bat colony had ever taken up residence. But this summer by actually count I have some three dozen bats exiting my bathouse just after sunset. Now about 8:15 pm. What a pleasure it is to watch them. I "saved" bats for 25 years. In the early 1980's my boss at Fish and Game the chief of the Game Division, Howie Nowell, would go out with a member of the Pesticide Division and examine house with bat problems. If they determined that their was a "significant" problem, likely a maternal colony of bats, then the state would issue a permit to use DDT to kill the bats. Upon hearing that one summer I became determined to help save these bats. So in 1983 I started a company called Bat and Wildlife Control Specialists and started "batproof" houses. I simply went to homes at night, watched the bats fly out and sealed their entrances. I'd go up in the attics and take out any bats that hadn't exited.  No bats killed. I figure I saved thousands upon thousands of bats from DDT over my 25 years of work. And when I helped draft rules governing what Wildlife Control Operators could do as far as bat control I added to the rules that it is illegal to kill bats while doing bat control. So technically it is illegal to kill bats in NH!