North American Bats and Mines Project: A Cooperative Interagency Approach to Bat Conservation Through Mine Land Reclamation

Abstract

Human safety and liability concerns prompted a national campaign to close abandoned mines. These closures, along with renewed mining in historic districts, present a significant threat to mine-dwelling bat populations. Over half of North America's 45 bat species have been documented using abandoned underground mines. The need for mine habitat increases as traditional cave and tree hollow roosts disappear. Bats are a primary consumer of night flying insects, many of which cost farmers billions of dollars annually in crop damage. Likewise, if the role of some species as pollinators and seed dispersers is compromised, entire ecosystems could be imperiled. To prevent further losses of mine roosting bats during abandoned mine land reclamation, Bat Conservation International and the USDI-Bureau of Land Management created the North American Bats and Mines Project (NABMP). This proactive program focuses on education, provides national leadership, and coordinates partnerships with federal, state, and private agencies. To date, the project has involved federal and state mine-land and wildlife managers and the mining industry and has trained hundreds of mine-land and wildlife managers in mine assessment techniques for bats and bat-compatible closure methods. This collaboration with numerous federal, state, and private partners has resulted in the protection of some of the most important mine-roosting bat populations. Since the program's inception, more than two million mine roosting bats have been protected, hundreds of miles of mine passage have been preserved to allow the stabilization and growth of bat populations, and thousands of mines have been safeguarded from public entry. In addition, the mines offer tremendous opportunity for conservation-based research. Future cooperation will ensure the long-term protection of mine roosting bats. 430