The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has been awarded nearly $25,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expand research and monitoring of a deadly disease affecting bat populations that may have habitat in Hall County. Georgia is one of 35 states and the District of Columbia to receive grants totaling about $1 million for projects related to white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease first discovered in New York about eight years ago that has killed many bat populations. “White-nose syndrome has now been confirmed in 26 states and five Canadian provinces,” Dr. Jeremy Coleman, national white-nose syndrome coordinator for the USFWS, said in a statement.