The Symposium on Conservation and Management of Big-eared Bats in
the Eastern United States was held at the Georgia Center for Continuing
Education at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA on March 9-10, 2010.
The event was hosted by the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network and
the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the
University of Georgia. The sponsors were the U.S. Forest Service, Bat Conservation
International and NCASI. Forty-two people attended the day and a half
symposium which consisted of presentations on the life history,
conservation, and management of big-eared bats found in the eastern
United States.
Photos: Top - Georgia Center for Continuing
Education at the University of Georgia; left - Steven Castleberry,
host of the symposium; bottom - symposium audience.
The symposium began with two sessions of plenary
presentations covering the biology and ecology of eastern big-eared
bats, and the efforts directed towards their conservation and
management. The remaining sessions consisted of biologists and
managers presenting data from field studies and monitoring efforts.
The symposium ended with a panel discussion focusing on conservation
priorities and future research needs. A publication based on the
information presented at the symposium is currently in progress and
is expected to be available in April 2011.
The Southeastern Bat Diversity Network
hosted the symposium organized by Bat Conservation International.
Funding sponsors were the Southern Research Station of the USDA Forest
Service, 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 "Bats 101" and "Silviculture 101"
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.
