Event:

Event Description: To help us celebrate Bat Week 2024 Dan Bachen from the Montana Heritage Project will be speaking on the distribution and conservation of the state’s bat species, followed by a presentation from Eleanor Kamp, a local Girl Scout who has developed a blue print for bat safe bat houses. Attendees will receive a link to the blueprint to build a bat house. 

Presenters:

Dan Bachen

Originally from rural Alaska, Dan grew up surrounded by mountains with abundant outdoor recreation opportunities and a diverse community of fish and wildlife species.  Dan eventually moved south to Montana and received his B.S. in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana, and his M.S. in Fish and Wildlife Management from Montana State University.  Over his career he's had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of taxa from charismatic megafauna like elk and grizzly bears to charismatic microfauna such as bats and terrestrial small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and other nongame species. Much of his recent work has been focused on understanding the distribution and conservation of the state’s bat species. His previous work included establishing baseline surveys for nongame species across the northern Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, exploring how invasive brome grasses impact small mammals in sagebrush-steppe habitats, modeling disease ecology of large mammals in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and other projects. 

Eleanor Kamp is a middle school student in Helena, Montana. She is working on her Cadette Girl Scout Silver Award, “The Freaky Fungus Among Us: Protecting Bats from White-Nose Syndrome.” In addition to Girl Scouts, Eleanor is passionate about gymnastics, the library’s teen advisory board, and traveling. She loves learning about many things including math, biology, chemistry, and bats!

Bats are an important part of Montana’s ecosystem, but white-nose syndrome is killing off bats across the US and Canada. What can we do to help bats? People can help bats by building bat boxes which can provide clean, safe homes for these important flying mammals. This talk will include simple, printable blueprints for building bat boxes. No power tools? No problem! We will also share resources for vetted, pre-cut bat boxes that you can assemble and paint at home or at the library.