Awarded to Wildlife Conservation Society Canada to enhance roosting habitat for bats in the West Kootenay, while continuing to monitor the effectiveness of these enhancements.
PROPONENT: Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCSC)
DESCRIPTION: Bats are the longest-lived and slowest-reproducing of all small mammals, making them particularly vulnerable to slow-developing threats. Habitat degradation over decades in the West Kootenay has left limited options for the 13 bat species that spend summer months raising young at low elevations. Four species have adapted to use human structures to raise young, but most bats require trees. And not just any trees. Most tree-roosting bats are crevice-roosting and require cavities under bark and/or within trunks – typical characteristics of old growth trees. While small patches of old growth cedar can be found in parts of West Kootenay, most forests offer young trees with fewer roosting options for nursing bats to successfully raise pups. Significant landscape changes can accumulate over decades, and WSCS is assessing areas in the West Kootenay through a habitat quality lens to enhance maternity roosting areas. Bats support our agriculture and forestry industries with billions of dollars of pest control services, but the associated roost and foraging habitat loss resulting from these industries has negative impacts on bat populations.
As younger forests regenerate, WCSC will mitigate habitat loss by creating roost structures that offer interim habitat for bats across RDCK Electoral Areas A, D, E, F, and H (59 installed within this area and 215 across the Columbia Basin to date). Although WCSC can only offset a small portion of lost old-growth habitat with their roost-tree structures, sites have been strategically selected for maximum ecological benefit. Monitoring has shown strong results—bats begin using the structures almost immediately, and at least nine species have been documented so far, compared to the two that typically use standard bat boxes in this region. Data from these and other roost installations across the Columbia Basin will inform bat-friendly forestry guidance to support enhancement of logged areas using constructed tree-roosts. WCSC is also investigating migratory corridors and overwintering habitats to better understand bat movement and winter habitat use.
OBJECTIVE: The long-term goal of this project is to restore habitat across the West Kootenay. Specific objectives are to: 1) Create and assess artificial/modified trees for enhancement of bat roosting habitat; 2) Develop bat-friendly forestry guidance for anthropogenic roost creation; 3) Monitor bat condos in collaboration with Kootenay Community Bat Program (KCBP); and 4) Fill knowledge gaps about bat migration and winter habitat use in West Kootenay.
PHOTOS: Cori Lausen, Kendal Benesh
