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News and Activities
Indiana Bats Date Posted: January 17, 2003 The Rock Island Field Office continues to assist the Army in the conservation of Indiana bats and habitat enhancement at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant near the City of Burlington, Iowa. The City of Burlington is in the southeast section of the state, along the Mississippi River at the confluence of the Skunk River. The Indiana bat occurs along the southern tier of Iowa during the breeding season from May through September. The Iowa bats are believed to hibernate in caves located in Illinois and/or Missouri. The western portion of the Indiana bat population which includes Iowa continues to decline. The bats use the few forested tracts remaining in southern Iowa where they establish nursery colonies in the bark of certain tree species and tree cavities. A potentially important conservation area for Indiana bats in this part of Iowa may be at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant. The installation contains several thousand acres of timber including old age stands of oak and hickory. Biologists from the Rock Island Ecological Services Field Office have a long standing relationship with the Army and Iowa Department of Natural Resources over many different types of activities at the installation. We have been working with these partners on planning new radiotelemetry, bioacoustic surveys and habitat surveys to help determine the bats core foraging areas. The last radiotelemetry surveys were conducted a few years ago which identified two of the several streams that flow through the installation as higher use areas. We are now working to determine contaminant clean up levels and waste water discharge loads for the streams that are important for the bats.
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