Dispatches from the Field & Project Summaries
Going Batty in the Southwest!
March 27, 2011
The month of March heralds the return of the Mexican free-tailed bat, Tadarida brasiliensis, to the southwest. After
overwintering in sites across Mexico, hundreds of thousands of these bats migrate north to gestate, give birth and raise their young. While we were a bit early in the migratory season to witness a massive colony emergence, we were fortunate enough to explore two famous roost sites, Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico and the Congress Avenue bridge in Austin, TX.
While 17 different species of bats call Carlsbad Caverns www.nps.gov/cave home, upwards of 400,000 Mexican free-tailed bats reside in this cave each year. They form colonies larger than all other bats and even larger than any other warm-blooded animal in the world! This particular species is also known as the “guano bat” for their extraordinary solid waste production. During the early exploration years of Carlsbad Caverns, from 1903 to 1923, an estimated 100,000 tons of guano was removed and sold as fertilizer to California fruit growers.
The densest congregations of Mexican free-tailed bats are found in central Texas, where an estimated 100 million bats return each year. As we are now in Austin, the “bat capital of America,” we had to go check out the Congress Avenue bridge, which houses the largest urban colony in North America. Joints under the bridge create a perfect roosting site for nearly 1.5 million bats during the peak
summer months. Hundreds of spectators converge upon this site to witness the expansive black cloud of bats emerge each night. In just one evening these bats can consume up to 30,000 pounds of insects! They play a crucial role in reducing the need for toxic agricultural pesticides. Austinites are truly helping to eliminate the negative connotations of bats and it was really great to see so many people gather in support of these amazing little flying mammals.
To learn more about bats around the world check out Bat Conservation International www.batcon.org. Better yet, build a bat house and provide a roost in your own backyard, it’s easy and fun!
Thank You Northwest Flower and Garden Show!
March 10, 2011
We had a great time at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle this past week www.gardenshow.com. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to join your amazing event and thanks to those of you who shared your time with us. We loved talking to you all and enjoyed hearing about the great green initiatives taking place in Washington. Here are a few of our favorite stories…
The Evergreen State College in partnership with the Washington State Department of Corrections has initiated an untraditional relationship known as the Sustainable Prisons Project www.sustainableprisons.org. Through science and hands-on experience with gardening and conservation, inmates are able to learn and incorporate sustainable practices into their daily lives, both now and throughout their future. This is truly a win-win program, enhancing both inmate reform
and the preservation of our planet.
The City of Seattle has also been promoting the use of green solutions for problems related to storm water runoff. As a result of roofs, roads and driveways, hillsides erode, houses flood and chemicals flow into streams. Thus, residents in targeted combined sewer overflow (CSO) basins are eligible for rebates on a variety of installations such as rain gardens, cisterns, and porous pavement. Find out how you can be rewarded for living sustainably at www.rainwise.seattle.gov.
Even the Woodland Park Zoo www.zoo.org has jumped on the sustainability train with their popular “Zoo Doo” composting program. Non-primate herbivores such as elephants, hippos and zebras help create one million pounds of compost per year, saving $60,000.00 annually in disposal costs and helping to create organic healthy soils around the Seattle area. We second their notion that, “Sometimes a simple act or change in behavior can create a ripple that has a dramatic effect on the world.”