Hosted by the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network
9-12 March, 2004 - Hot Springs, Arkansas
The symposium was organized by Bat Conservation International and funding
sponsors were the USDA Forest Service‹Southern Research Station, USDI Bureau of
Land Management, National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, Weyerhaeuser
Company, East Kentucky Power Cooperative, and American Forest and Paper
Association. One-hundred seventy people from numerous state and federal
agencies, industry, colleges and universities attended the symposium. The
objectives of the symposium were to synthesize current knowledge on the ecology
of forest bats and to present information on how forest management can be used
to conserve bats. The objectives were met in four ways. On the first night,
two lectures entitled ³Bats 101² and ³Silviculture 101² were presented to make
sure that bat biologists and forest managers all had the same basic level of
knowledge and understanding of the system. For the next day and a half, a
series of invited talks synthesized much of the literature about day roosting
ecology, night roosting, foraging ecology, migration, monitoring, and effects of
silviculture on bats.
These talks were interspersed with presentations of
empirical studies which illustrated many of the themes presented in the
synthesis papers. On Thursday afternoon, eight concurrent workshops were
conducted with the intent of presenting specific tools and techniques for
managing bats. Finally, on Friday 54 people participated in a day-long field
trip to the Winona District of the Ouachita National Forest and Weyerhaeuser
Company lands to see examples of various forest management practices and how
they can be used in bat conservation.
Needless to say, the meeting was not all
work. The Tuesday night social and Wednesday evening Lake Hamilton River Boat
Dinner and Dance Cruise as well as many informal gatherings provided time for relaxation, social interactions, and
further discussions of past, current, and future bat research and management activities.
The symposium concluded with a session to discuss future needs and
plan to reconvene in several more years with updates on our progress.
The symposium was organized by Bat Conservation International and funding
sponsors were the USDA Forest Service‹Southern Research Station, USDI Bureau of
Land Management, National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, Weyerhaeuser
Company, East Kentucky Power Cooperative, and American Forest and Paper
Association. One-hundred seventy people from numerous state and federal
agencies, industry, colleges and universities attended the symposium. The
objectives of the symposium were to synthesize current knowledge on the ecology
of forest bats and to present information on how forest management can be used
to conserve bats. The objectives were met in four ways. On the first night,
two lectures entitled ³Bats 101² and ³Silviculture 101² were presented to make
sure that bat biologists and forest managers all had the same basic level of
knowledge and understanding of the system. For the next day and a half, a
series of invited talks synthesized much of the literature about day roosting
ecology, night roosting, foraging ecology, migration, monitoring, and effects of
silviculture on bats.
These talks were interspersed with presentations of
empirical studies which illustrated many of the themes presented in the
synthesis papers. On Thursday afternoon, eight concurrent workshops were
conducted with the intent of presenting specific tools and techniques for
managing bats. Finally, on Friday 54 people participated in a day-long field
trip to the Winona District of the Ouachita National Forest and Weyerhaeuser
Company lands to see examples of various forest management practices and how
they can be used in bat conservation.
