The Twin Cities Field Office has worked closely with the Chippewa National Forest, the Superior National Forest and the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest toward proactive conservation of northern long-eared bat. Together with the forests, the field office has facilitated their compliance with the Endangered Species Act by evaluating the need and establishing the processes for initiation or reinitiation of project- and program-level conferencing and consultation under section 7 of the act. These processes include assisting the forests in making determinations on the effects of ongoing and upcoming projects to the species, deciding the most efficient methods of batching projects to streamline consultations, reviewing draft biological assessments, and writing conference reports. Twin Cities Field Office has also been working with the forests to determine which forest plan standards and guidelines are beneficial to northern long-eared bat conservation, including the timing of project-level actions, and encouraging the implementation of actions that benefit the species. In addition to Endangered Species Act compliance, the forests have sought assistance to analyze a backlog of existing bat acoustic monitoring data and conducted additional surveys for bats in 2013. The information gained from these monitoring efforts will help us understand the population dynamics and habitat use of this species on Minnesota and Wisconsin  national forests, which will inform future consultations and recovery efforts.