"When Middlebury writing professor Don Mitchell was approached by a biologist with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department about tracking endangered Indiana bats on his 150-acre farm in Vermont's picturesque Champlain Valley, Mitchell's relationship with bats--and with government--could be characterized as distrustful, at best. But the flying rats, as Mitchell initially thinks of them, launched him on a series of 'improvements' to his land that would...