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Other Awards
SBDN - 2010 Wings Over The Americas Award
On March 25, 2010, SBDN was recognized by the U.S. Forest Service with a prestigious 2010 Wings Across the Americas Award for its leadership and participation in bat conservation through Bat Blitzes on National Forest and other public lands. The awards ceremony occurred during the 75th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Darren Miller, President of SBDN, accepted the award on behalf of SBDN from Tom Tidwell, Chief of the Forest Service (Darren's acceptance speech follows). Photo (top) - left to right: SBDN President Darren Miller, Dennis Krusac and Chief of the Forest Service Tom Tidwell. 
In addition to recognizing SBDN, the Forest Service honored 10 "Partners" with individual awards. These partners played a significant role in Bat Blitzes and include Jackie Belwood, Tim Carter, Mary K. Clark, Matina Kalcounis-Rüppell, Dennis Krusac, Susan Loeb, Darren Miller, Joy O'Keefe, Blake Sasse, and David Saugey. In addition, 28 Forest Service employees and 27 additional partners representing academia, biological consultants, museums and state and federal agencies received certificates. Photo - left to right: Tom Tidwell with Dennis Krusac, Lynda Mills, Darren Miller, Megan York-Harris, Sybill Amelon and Gary Peters. All were certificate honorees except for Krusac and Miller who received "Partner" awards. President Miller's Acceptance Speech - click here It is my distinct pleasure to accept the 2010 Wings Across the Americas Award for Bat Conservation on behalf of the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network. I am also pleased to accept this award on behalf of the hundreds of volunteers that have made this collaborative effort such a resounding success. I thank the Forest Service for recognizing this partnership between them, The Southeastern Bat Diversity Network, and more than 120 other partners from at least 24 states, including 42 Universities and a wide variety of other private and public organizations and agencies. Southeastern Bat Diversity Network Bat Blitzes began in 2002 in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park as part of their All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory. Since then, this ongoing project has been hosted on 7 national forests across the southeastern region, with the 2010 event scheduled to occur on the Chattahoochee National Forest in northwest Georgia. As of the 2009 Blitz, Southeastern Bat Diversity Network volunteers had donated more than 16,000 hours of time with a value of over $350,000 and also donated more than $10,000 to defray expenses. The cost:benefit ratio for the Forest Service has been as high as 7:1. To date over 2,600 bats of 14 species, including 2 endangered species and 3 Forest Service sensitive species, have been captured. These captures have provided baseline data and filled key gaps in our knowledge of bat distribution and are extremely beneficial to the Forest Service during forest- and project-level planning. As many of you are likely aware, the most immediate, large-scale threat to bats in the eastern U.S. is White Nose Syndrome. This affliction is caused by a fungal agent that has killed more than one million bats in the past three years and has steadily progressed from New York southward and, more recently, into Ontario, Canada. With the disease now documented in northwestern Tennessee, data obtained from Bat Blitzes may provide important bat distributional data as this disease continues to spread and impact more southeastern states. Once again, thank you for this prestigious award. 
Susan Loeb - 2008 Wings Over The Americas
Forest Service (FS) scientist Susan Loeb received honors at the Wings Across the Americas Awards Ceremony (pdf - 800 Kb) held in Phoenix, AZ. Wings Across the Americas is a FS program that represents an integrated and collaborative approach to conservation across agency program areas. The annual awards ceremony celebrates exceptional work that conserves birds, bats, and butterflies and their habitats across the Americas, recognizing the important roles that these sometimes overlooked species play in the environment and in relation to human concerns. Several SBDN members were recognized as part of the award: Eric Britzke, Mary Bunch (SCDNR), Robert Currie (USFWS), and Dennis Krusac (USFS). Dr. Loeb leads a comprehensive research program on the ecology and conservation of southern forest bats which is part of the SRS Upland Hardwood Ecology and Management Research Unit, and serves the research needs of managers in a variety of ecosystems throughout the Southeast. Full text (pdf - 90 kb). Photo - left to right: Dennis Krusac, Joel Holtrop (Deputy Chief, National Forest Systems of the U.S. Forest Service) and Susan Loeb.
Dennis Krusac - 2008 Legends Award
Dennis Krusac, Endangered Species Specialist in the Southern Region, was honored as the U.S. Forest Service's 2008 recipient of the American Recreation Coalition's (ARC) Legends Award. The Legends Awards recognize outstanding federal employees for their efforts to enhance the nation's outdoor recreation opportunities and resources. Mr. Krusac's development of outreach programs for mentally and physically challenged children, as well as minority students, and widely emulated accessible fishing facilities for children, senior citizens and disabled anglers were highlighted during the ceremony. He was applauded for his significant contributions to the success of the 2007 Atlanta Recreation Forum, which provided a showcase of his efforts to reach minority youth in Atlanta ... Mr. Krusac's work with inner-city Atlanta minority youth culminated in a 2008 "More Kids in the Woods" $80,000 grant focused on minority teens in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation and several other non-traditional partners. Full text (pdf - 68 kb) Photo - left to right: ARC President Derrick Crandall, Dennis Krusac, Deputy Chief for the National Forest System Joel Holtrop.
Alison McCartney and Darren Miller - 2006 Chester O. Martin Award
Alison McCartney (formerly Sherman) and Darren Miller jointly received the Chester O. Martin Award for outstanding service to the MS Bat Working Group. The awards were presented by the working group's founder, Chester Martin (right) on Jan. 18, 2007 at the MBWG annual meeting in Jackson, MS (MS Museum of Natural Science).
Timothy Carter - 2006 Community Partner Award
Indiana Professor Timothy Carter Receives 2006 Community Partner Award From Wildlife Habitat Council. Timothy C. Carter, Ph.D. (right) received international recognition as the 2006 Community Partner of the Year from the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) for contributions to wildlife habitat conservation and environmental education at the Unimin Corporation's Tamms/Elco Plant in southern Illinois. The Community Partner of the Year award goes to one organization or individual for making a significant contribution to a corporate site's wildlife habitat enhancement programs. Continue reading - click here A mutual interest in bat conservation made it easy for Dr. Carter to strike up a relationship with the Tamms/Elco's wildlife restoration program in 1998 where the wildlife team had initiated a bat habitat restoration program. Dr. Carter has worked extensively on the federally endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) and helped to restore the abandoned mines at Tamms/Elco as habitats for the Indiana bat and other types of bats most notably at Unimin's abandoned Magazine Mine. The ongoing effort at that mine has gained Dr. Carter widespread recognition for helping to restore populations of the Indiana bat. Speaking about Dr. Carter, Rick Fox, head of the wildlife team says, "You need to get out of his way!" As a dedicated community partner, Tim has taken visitors into the Tamms/Elco mines, developed educational activities for a great variety of visiting groups and media, including the Chicago Tribune and Smithsonian magazine. His dedication to and enthusiasm for the Tamms/Elco wildlife restoration efforts is also evident through his facilitation of academic research. He has advised two Southern Illinois University graduate thesis projects and worked with groups from the University of Illinois, Humboldt State University and Indiana Bat Recovery Team on utilizing the mines for research. Dr. Carter, an Assistant Professor at Ball State University, is an expert in his academic field of zoology and has published widely on bat conservation.
Darren Miller - 2006 Wildlife Stewardship Award
Dr. Darren Miller received the American Forest & Paper Asociation's 2006 Wildlife Stewardship Award, at the 2006 SFI Program Annual Conference, on October 4th, 2006. This award recognizes significant achievements in the science and practice of wildlife management, and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative program's goal of continuous improvement in forest resource management. In the award announcement letter, Dr. Miller was particularly commended for his commitment to sound science and dedication to increasing the understanding of bats and their conservation on managed forests. About his award, Dr. Miller thanks the members of BCI, MSBWG and SBDN for their support that made the award possible and he says: "... I feel like I accepted this on behalf of many."
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