From bunkers to bat caves by Doug Reed
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:
NEWINGTON, N.H. –– The weapons storage
area lies brooding at the core of the Great Bay National
Wildlife Refuge, surrounded by an eight-foot-high chain
link fence capped with barbed wire and razor wire. Thirty
concrete block buildings, 250 power poles, miles of wire,
and 15 weapons storage bunkers––fortified cement crypts
covered with earth and grass––crowd the site with silence.
Clustered at the far end of the 62-acre storage
area, the bunkers are empty of the missiles and explosives
stored there for the past 30 years. The double steel doors
are six inches thick and weigh five tons each. A heavy-
duty hydraulic jack opens one door, and visitors, mostly
members of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire,
wander into the dark. Jim Halpin, the manager of this new
refuge, explains that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is
exploring the bunkers’ potential as bat caves. It’s an ironic
exchange of wildlife for arms: bats for bombs.