Mission 2

Protect
and Restore
Landscapes

Throughout the world, bats depend on healthy ecosystems. And healthy ecosystems depend on bats.

Kristen Lear, Ph.D.
Agave Restoration Program Manager

Collecting thousands of seeds to plant agave corridors saves millions of migratory bats.
Photo by Dan Taylor.

We can’t save bats without saving their habitats. A seemingly small change in habitat can wreak havoc. Our challenges are not easy.

Jason Corbett, M.S.
Director, Habitat Protection & Restoration

man walking through cave with a helmet, a backpack, and a video camera

Photo by Nate Breece.

565

Surveyed
Abandoned
Mines

Photo by Priyesh Patel.

Surveying abandoned mines & searching for active roosts

Cave-dwelling bats often seek out abandoned mines as roosting sites.

In the steep scrub-dotted mountains south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Bat Conservation International (BCI) surveys one of the oldest known mining districts in North America, searching for signs of active bat roosts. The area, mined in 900 A.D. by Ancestral Puebloans for its rich turquoise deposits, supported a thriving mining industry of gold, silver, turquoise, and other minerals for ten centuries. BCI’s team of cave and mine specialists survey the historic mining district to document which mines have become home to bats and other wildlife.

In 2021, federal land management agencies partnered with BCI to conduct exacting field surveys to help inform decision-making on closing and cleaning up abandoned mines that pose safety hazards. BCI’s work facilitated the protection of over 150 abandoned mines that sustain active bat roosts.

Priyesh Patel scans a cave using LiDAR technology.
Photo by Josh Hydeman.

2021: International Year of Caves and Karst

Bat Conservation International joined with experts, scientists, and educators in a worldwide initiative to celebrate and inform people about the importance of caves and karst.

Photo by Calvin Weibel.

Assuring resilient watersheds

In the Sonoran Desert near Lake Pleasant, Arizona, two members of Bat Conservation International’s (BCI) Restoration Team hike alongside a Bureau of Land Management biologist to evaluate four heavily impacted springs. Springs in the low desert serve as critical habitat for numerous wildlife species, including bats. Restoration actions at springs like these help create resilient ecosystems and protect them against the continued pressures of climate change and habitat degradation. At least 20 species of bats in this area, including fringed myotis (Myotis thysanodes), are dependent on the desert springs and associated foraging habitat.

BCI’s partnerships with federal land agencies continue to grow, helping them manage water restoration projects that benefit bats and flora/fauna. In New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, BCI is engaged in a multi-year project to restore essential foraging and drinking habitat for 24 bat species in the Big Burro Mountains. In Arizona’s Patagonia and Santa Rita mountains — the most bat biodiverse region in the U.S. — BCI is partnering to restore water resources for bats and other wildlife.

In 2021, BCI set up five water restoration projects in Arizona and New Mexico with the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and Arizona Game and Fish.

Our work on federal lands

In 2021, America’s foremost federal land managers — the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Forest Service — partnered with BCI to provide surface and subsurface assessments of caves and abandoned mines to address public safety while protecting bats and other wildlife.

Restoring agave corridors saves nectar-feeding bats

Mexican long-nosed bats (Leptonycteris nivalis) have seasonally migrated between central Mexico and the arid landscapes of the U.S. Southwest for centuries. Faithfully, thousands of females and their pups have flown hundreds of miles and have returned to their winter roosts, nourished by corridors of blooming agave. But now these bats are in peril. Human development and unsustainable agriculture practices have fractured important foraging routes, reducing numbers of Mexican long-nosed bats to an Endangered status — and putting agave at risk, too.

Mexican long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris nivalis).
Photo by J. Scott Altenbach.

We can’t save bats without saving their source of food

Nectar-slurping Mexican long-nosed bats rely on agave as a critical food source. As bats nuzzle inside flowers to sip nectar, they pick up pollen on their fur. Moving from bloom to bloom, they complete the pollination process essential for maintaining genetically diverse and resilient agave populations.

Without agave, nectar-dependent bat populations cannot be sustained. And without bats pollinating the agaves, the plants are eventually lost.

Planted

4,000
Agave

to support bats
and community livelihoods

Restored

280
Hectares

of Critical Landscape

Photo by Dr. Kristen Lear.

Restoring agave corridors through binational cooperation

Bat Conservation International (BCI) works to restore and protect habitats for nectar-feeding bats like the Mexican long-nosed (Leptonycteris nivalis). In addition to planting thousands of agave plants, in 2021 we:

Expanded the Agave Restoration Initiative to encompass six states in the U.S. and Mexico.
Worked with 79 rural Mexican community members on sustainable and regenerative agricultural techniques.
Trained 15 schoolteachers to serve as “environmental champions” in their communities.
Restored nearly 280 hectares of critical landscape for bat foraging and sustainable agriculture, and ranching in northeast Mexico.
Renovated one community nursery and partnered with one additional nursery to grow agave plants for future restoration.

Volunteers Steve Plath and Leah Sunna plant agave in Morenci, Arizona.
Photo by Dan Taylor.

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