Conservation Activities

To date, Bat Conservation International and its partners have evaluated thousands of mines across the U.S. and around the world. Although great progress has been made in many areas, the threats to bats remain and we continue to work with private, state, and federal partners to evaluate and protect abandoned mines for bats.

Many organizations and individuals that find evidence of bat occupation, or conditions that will offer habitat for bats in the future are choosing to install bat-friendly gates to protect the mine for bats and prevent people from entering the mine. These gates frequently offer a less expensive alternative to traditional methods of closure. The endeavors of individuals within various organizations have taken critical steps to protect millions of bats in mines throughout the world, including sensitive, threatened, and endangered species.

The conservation success of Bat Conservation International's Bats and Mines Program is attributable to a dedicated and extensive network of private, state, and federal wildlife and mine-land partners throughout the U.S. and around the world.

The following are just a few examples of conservation projects Bat Conservation International has been involved with over the years:

Bat Conservation International and US Borax joined forces in 2000 to identify abandoned mines important to bats and to install bat compatible gates. This effort was aimed at preventing people from entering abandoned mines while still ensuring adequate air flow and access for resident bat colonies, especially maternity colonies of Townsend's big-eared bats (Corynorhinus townsendii). Since that time, US Borax has installed numerous bat-gates and continues to monitor the response of the bats to the gates at some of the protected sites. Bat Conservation International and US Borax are continuing to work together to better understand how the bats are using US Borax abandoned mines and their relationship with extensive mine workings on other private and public lands in the region, including Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and Death Valley National Park.

Bats from as far away as Kentucky migrate to the Great Lakes Region to winter in critical hibernation sites in abandoned mines. In an effort to protect these sites, Bat Conservation International joined forces with the National Resource Conservation Service, Michigan and Minnesota Departments of Natural Resources, U.S. Forest Service, and private landowners and contractors in 1999 to evaluate mines for gating. By the end of the project, numerous other partners had joined the ranks and contributed to the tremendous conservation success of the collaboration.

Although gating efforts on this project began in October 1999 and continued for a brief two-year period, the conservation, protection, and education efforts continue today by the dedicated individuals and organizations in the region.

The Great Lakes Bats and Mines Initiative and subsequent efforts in the region has contributed directly or indirectly to conservation of bats at many key winter hibernation sites for hundreds of thousands of little brown myotis, big brown bats, and other species. Reopened mines offer the potential to protect hundreds of thousands of additional bats in the future.

In partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and Bat Conservation International, the Unimin Corporation successfully stabilized and gated the Magazine Mine, which housed over 3,000 bats of several species, including winter and summer populations of endangered Indiana bats.

Since the mine was gated, bat numbers are increasing. In 1996 there were only about 100 Indiana bats hibernating in the mine. In 2005, more than 33,000 were found hibernating there and we anticipate seeing a continued increase. Other species protected at this site include eastern pipistrelles, northern long-eared myotis, big brown bats, and little brown myotis.

The Mammon Mine in southwestern Arizona is geothermally heated and offers ideal temperatures for summer and winter roosting for the California leaf-nosed bat. It currently houses over 1,000 California leaf-nosed bats (Macrotus californicus; one of the largest breeding colonies in the state of Arizona) year-round and is adjacent to wilderness areas on three sides. Unfortunately, over the past several years, biologists have noticed an increase in human disturbance to the roost. Repeated disturbance to maternity or overwintering sites can cause bats to abandon roosts. In a collaborative effort to protect this important roost for bats into the future, Bat Conservation International partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department to install bat friendly gates at the Mammon Mine to reduce disturbance to the large maternity colony of California leaf-nosed bats and the ~100 cave myotis (Myotis velifer) that also use the site in the summer.

The largest bat hibernaculum in the northeastern U.S. was protected when Bat Conservation International joined forces with several partners to gate the Graphite Mine, home to more than 120,000 bats in upstate New York. At least six different species of bats occupy this mine during the winter, including the northernmost known colony of the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis). Eleven mine entrances were gated in June of 1997 as a cooperative project between BCI, the Nature Conservancy (TNC), the International Paper Corporation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the New York Department of Natural Resources, and the American Cave Conservation Association (ACCA). Roy Powers, Jr., President of the ACCA, provided the gating expertise, and several volunteers from TNC and the British Trust for Conservation made this project possible. It received overwhelming public support and media attention, including several news articles and local television coverage.