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Kent Woodruff and the Townsend's Big-eared Bats
© Chris Peterson
Kent Woodruff is a wildlife biologist with the USFWS in Washington's Upper Methow Valley. He spearheaded the effort, which included The Trust for Public Land, to conserve a colony of rare Townsend's big-eared bats. An old cabin (left) that the bats had used for a nursery was relocated. They also built a permanent structure (right), which will let the bats prosper well into the future. Visit BatsNorthwest.org, and see what you can do on behalf of birds, bats, and other wildlife.
BirdNote®
Kent Woodruff and the Townsend’s Big-eared Bats
Today, this is “BatNote!”
“Be careful, this floor is pretty rotten.” [The sound of footsteps…]
We’re with Kent Woodruff, wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service in Washington’s Upper Methow Valley. Kent spearheaded the effort to conserve a colony of rare Townsend’s big-eared bats. Kent and others relocated an old cabin the bats used for a nursery, because it was slated to be torn down. They also built a permanent structure that will let the bats prosper well into the future, if the bats like it and move in. (pause)
We’re in the 1912 cabin, the old one that was moved…
KW “There are no bats here…which is very interesting ...”
Hmmmm…. Well, let’s look in the new bat house.
KW whispers, “There’s a bat right there. So that’s a Townsend’s big-eared bat…The whole nursery colony is here. Very exciting. We need to leave right now, ‘cause we don’t want to disturb the moms and their babies…. The most exciting part of this is that the house that we built…has now been adopted by them.”
Kent, why didn’t you let somebody else try to solve the problem?
“I just saw the opportunity to help out and said ‘I think it’s something important to do’ and chose to grab some partners and work together and figure this out.”
What conservation project is waiting for you? There’s some great ideas at birdnote.org.
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Interviewed by Chris and Todd Peterson. Written and recorded by Chris Peterson.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2009 Tune In to Nature.org
ID# bats-02-2009-08-09-MS
(Corynorhinus townsendii)
