Leveraging Forest Service Investment in the North American Bat Monitoring Program to Inform Forest Management

In addition to stressors facing all wildlife populations, bats in the U.S. are imperiled by two novel challenges: White-nose Syndrome and wind energy development. Monitoring the populations of these stealthy, nocturnal creatures has been a long-standing challenge. The US Forest Service was a founding member of and top data contributor to the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) which provides a framework for understanding the population status of these important insect predators. 

Standing on the foundation of data collected in the field by dedicated Forest Service biologists across the country, the NABat program is yielding important results that will help the agency and others manage habitat to support bat populations. Ted’s talk will describe some of the products developed through the NABat program to help find and protect bat roosts on the landscape, understand bat response to wildfire and determine how populations are changing over time.