Ameren Illinois Utility Poles Attract Endangered Bats
From left, Ameren Illinois linemen Dylan Hubner, Ryan Weder, Nick Wilhoit, Fred Hartbank, Jay Hartbank, and Kyle Mooney as batman, volunteered their time to help set the poles and roosting nest for the bats at Warbler Ridge.
Ameren Illinois electric
supervisor Ryan Weder and linemen from the company's Mattoon Operating Center installed
25-foot-tall manmade bat structures with artificial Brandenbark at the tops as habitat
for the nocturnal flying mammals in Warbler Ridge Conservation Area, just south
of Charleston. Grand Prairie Friends, a nonprofit conservation land trust,
manages the area.
Within
approximately 1,000 acres along the Embarras River, a renewable energy company
partnered with the Friends four years ago to transform a 165-acre parcel of
land with native hardwood trees and pollinator plants in hopes of attracting
the bats.
It turns out that
there are two distinct bat populations at Warbler Ridge—the Indiana Bat, which
is listed as federally endangered, and the Northern Long-Eared Bat, which is
federally threatened.
Tara Hohoff, bat
biologist for the University of Illinois, says, "It took a couple of years
for the bats to find the manmade roosting areas, but today we see hundreds of
bats using these pods. It usually takes many years for the bats to find artificial
roosts. The success we saw right of way was kind of unprecedented and neat to
see." She notes that bats tend to have a misunderstood reputation and
people can be afraid of them, but bats are important to help control the insect
population.
In September, Weder, Electric Operations Director Ron Juarez and Community Relations Executive Karly Combest presented the Grand Prairie Friends with a $5,000 check.
For more
information about Grand Prairie Friends, visit GrandPrairieFriends.org; and to
learn more about Ameren Illinois' biodiversity efforts, visit AmerenIllinois.com.