Oregon State University - Cascades; Northwest Bat Hub
$49,996  Blue Mountains   Columbia Plateau   East Cascades   Klamath Mountains   Northern Basin & Range   Willamette Valley 

Our Audible Bats Project addresses data gaps concerning spotted bats and pallid bats, two Oregon Conservation Strategy Species. These rare bats produce unique audible vocalizations, which we leverage to gather essential data, foster public engagement, and explore novel monitoring methods. Situated throughout Oregon's arid regions, our project serves as a nexus for community involvement, agency collaboration, and scientific rigor. By leveraging the framework of the NABat grid, we ensure that all data collected by our volunteers become integral to a statistically valid master sample. This facilitates the development of robust species distribution models and detailed occupancy maps, informed by both traditional bat monitoring and this highly targeted approach. The alignment with NABat not only enhances the scientific validity of our data but also reinforces our commitment to fostering community engagement and participation. By extending the project, we seek to further strengthen these partnerships. The project's emphasis on public involvement serves as a catalyst for data collection and empowers Oregonians to connect with their natural surroundings and contribute to conservation efforts. This sense of ownership and stewardship is crucial, particularly in an era marked by rapid environmental change. Through continued collaboration with local communities and agencies, our long-term objective is to improve our understanding of presence and habitat use of the target species. This project is the only large-scale monitoring effort focused on spotted and pallid bats in the Pacific Northwest. Data collected, in conjunction with passive acoustic data collected via the NABat protocol, allows us to empirically describe presence, distribution, and habitat use of these species for the first time in this region. Region-specific data are crucial to conservation as both of these species are highly adaptable and strong inferences cannot be made from data collected in other regions.