Kootenays

The Kootenay Community Bat Project (KCBP) was established in 2004 with the goal of raising awareness about bat conservation, conducting inventories of bats in buildings, working with landowners who have bats, and promoting the Annual Bat Count. Over the past 17 years, we have delivered hundreds of educational programs to community groups and schools, visited over 900 properties with bats in buildings, identified key summer roost sites, and supported 85 sites where bat counts are completed.

The KCBP provides site visits to properties with bats in the Columbia Basin. Biologists can visit your property to identify your bat species, suggest options for mitigating bat-related issues such as guano accumulation, provide ideas for excluding bats from buildings if that is what you choose, and assess locations for bat houses.

The KCBP promotes the Annual Bat Count. If you have a roost site on your property or know of one nearby, we encourage you to become a citizen scientist and collect valuable information on bat populations, baseline information that is critical now that White-nose Syndrome is in the west. In partnership with the Wild Voices for Kids program, the KCBP also provides school programs throughout the Columbia Basin.