Bat Restoration Project in the Wallow Fire area

Nov 18 - Erin Considine, a student in NAU's forestry program gave us a very informative presentation on bats. Besides bats not being rodents, she dispelled several other misconceptions about them.  We learned that there are over 1000 species of bats and Arizona has 21 species. Bats are good for the ecosystem: they prey on mosquitoes, scorpions, and corn meal moths; and they are responsible for pollinating agave, bananas, peaches and cloves. All in all, they bring a $3.5M annual benefit to agriculture. Society has only begun to understand "bat benefits" over the last 10 years. Erin's project involves trapping bats (without injury) and tracking them via "radar" tracking. The Forestry Service (the funders of this project)  is very interested in learning about bat habitats in burned out areas. Erin is obviously very enthusiastic about the work she is doing and that came across in her presentation and the question and answers that followed.