Acadia National Park is going to restore its historic Rockefeller gatehouses. Here's how we'll protect the imperiled bats that live there.
Preserving Historic Buildings that Bats Call Home
Iconic American financier John D. Rockefeller, Jr., built the Jordan Pond and Brown Mountain gatehouses at Acadia National Park in 1932. He placed them at the entrances to his estate's carriage roads on Mount Desert Island off Maine's rocky coast. American architect Grosvenor Atterbury designed the stone and half-timbered buildings with a nod to historic French architecture, creating a unique "Acadian" design style.
Both gatehouses need extensive masonry rehabilitation, but they are also home to three vulnerable species of Myotis ("mouse-eared") bats. Bat populations have declined by the millions in North America since the emergence of white-nose syndrome, a devastating disease. The National Park Service's mission tasks the agency with protecting these buildings and the imperiled creatures that roost in their nooks and crannies. How can we reconcile these two seemingly competing goals?
Preserving Historic Buildings that Bats Call Home
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Ronda Bernstein
Historical Architect
National Park Service
Southeast Regional Office
Atlanta, GA
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