The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
A NEW BAT CAVE
O & Industries in Torrington was recently presented with a 2017 Sustainability Award by the Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association for the construction of a brown bat hibernaculum at the company’s New Milford Quarry. The hibernaculum was constructed in hopes of preserving a population of bats who overwinter there, while protecting them from white-nose syndrome, a disease that has been wiping out large populations of bats as they hibernate for the winter. According to the Department of Energy and Environment Protection (DEEP), the New Milford Quarry is now one of the few disease-free habitats that remains in the state. The new habitat is a 40-foot long tunnel into limestone measuring six feet high and seven feet wide that runs into an underground chamber that is 17 feet wide, 10 feet deep and 15 feet high.