Bat Monitors Sought For New Forest Preserve Program

SHOREWOOD, IL - Volunteers are wanted to make up the new Citizen Science Bat Monitoring program the Forest Preserve District of Will County will create in order to help preserve the county's bat population. Residents are needed to help collect data for "these beneficial creatures," the Forest Preserve wrote in a news release.

Those who volunteer will need to attend a mandatory training session on April 12, 2018 and hike 1.5 to 2 mile routes at dusk using hand-held iPads with bat detectors next spring. The detectors are used to record and download bat calls.

Three preserves, Goodenow Grove Nature Preserve in Crete Township, McKinley Woods in Channahon and Hammel Woods in Shorewood, will be monitored.

Bats are important for human health because their role in ecological food webs and for the pest control they provide, with some having the ability to eat up to 6,000 mosquitoes a night. The data collection is needed to understand bat migration and immigration patterns, preferred habitats, summer residency locations and the abundance of bats in Will County.

"The information collected by volunteer monitors will be crucial to bat conservation efforts,” said Juanita Armstrong-Ullberg, the Forest Preserve’s natural resource land manager. "The data can be used to help ecologists better understand the habitat requirements for the different bat species during the summer months, providing land managers better knowledge when managing natural areas."

Anyone interested in becoming a citizen bat monitor should contact Renee Gauchat, the Forest Preserve’s volunteer supervisor, before April 1 at 815-722-7364.

Photo by Glenn Knoblock: This Eastern red bat nestled in a tree at Hammel Woods preserve in Shorewood is an example of one of the eight bat species found in Will County.