Participants may arrive August 10^th or August 11^th. Trapping will occur on August 11^th, 12^th, and 13^th. Participants will travel home on August 14^th.

Registration is required. Please complete the registration form and return with payment in the form of a check to:

Megan York-Harris
SBDN 8^th Annual Bat Blitz Host
c/o Mark Twain NF
1420 Maud Street
Poplar Bluff, MO
63901

Phone 573.785.1870 x120
FAX 573.785.0267
myorkharris@fs.fed.us

Registration is due June 12, 2009

Lodging will be provided at University Forest in Wappapello, Missouri. The University Forest Environmental Education Center is located at the southeast edge of the Missouri Ozarks in Butler County, just 14 miles north of Poplar Bluff near Lake Wappapello. University Forest is uniquely situated at the junction of three major forest ecosystem types: upland oak-hickory, oak-shortleaf pine and Mississippi Delta bottomland hardwoods.

For more information and pictures of the facilities, check out their website at http://aes.missouri.edu/uforest/facilities/. A maximum 64 participants and 16 team leaders will be accepted for participation in the event. Sixty individuals can be housed at University Forest, with four individuals per cabin. There is no centralized bath house at University Forest, and bathrooms will be shared in the cabins. You will need to plan on bringing linens, pillow, towel, washcloth, etc. Remaining participants are welcome to camp on University Forest grounds or at a nearby full-hookup U.S. Army Corps of Engineers campground just minutes from headquarters - first come, first served. This facility has a full bath house to be used by all campers.

The conference room is centrally located on site. This is where all meetings will occur, extracurricular activity sign up sheets will be posted, trapping results can be found, etc.

Three meals (a late breakfast, early dinner, and a light, after-netting "midnight meal") will be provided in the dining hall. Serving times will be posted, and University Forest will accommodate vegetarian requests.

Directions to University Forest may be found at http://aes.missouri.edu/uforest/contact.php (scroll down). St. Louis and Springfield (MO), Memphis (TN), and Little Rock (AR) are the closest airports, and each is about 3-4 hours from Poplar Bluff. Once at the facility, we will carpool to minimize the number of field-going vehicles. Some personal vehicles will be needed to transport teams to netting sites.

University Forest offers many amenities, including sand volleyball and a basketball court. Wappapello Lake is a hop, skip, and a jump from headquarters ( another info link). This lake is popular for catching white bass, crappie and bluegill, as well as largemouth bass and catfish, so bring your fishing rods and bathing suits!

Organized field trips may include a visit to the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge and Otter Slough Conservation Area. The Ozark Trail can also be accessed nearby for hiking and mountain biking. For outings on your own, the gently flowing Current River is popular for float trips. Located in Van Buren, Big Spring is a site to see. It is the largest natural spring in Missouri with an average daily flow of 286 million gallons of water.

• Area attractions .doc
• Field Trips.doc

Cell phone reception is better than average in the area but may be spotty at trap sites. Emergency contact numbers will be provided before the start of the Blitz, as will a communications plan. Wireless internet access is also available at University Forest.