Effects of silvicultural treatments on abundance of insect prey and activity levels of forest-dwelling bats in the central Appalachians for 2006.  Dr. Mike Lacki, University of Kentucky.

Management of timber resources at the stand-level scale continues to be a cornerstone behind forest management in this region, calling for a more in depth evaluation of the responses of all ecosystem components, including wildlife, to the different stand-level prescriptions that are currently being used. This study will address this need for forest-dwelling bats, including rare species such as the Indiana bat; a species group that is largely understudied and for which limited data exist on how bats respond to changes in forest structure, especially in the central Appalachians.  Summer 2006 was the first field season of a three year study designed to evaluate different harvest prescriptions (undisturbed, single-tree harvest, shelterwood harvest, clearcut harvest) and their effects on bat activity and the prey base of bats. Sites sampled in Tennessee are a component of a larger study throughout the central Appalachians examining the response of bats and insect prey to silvicutural practices.

Summer 2006 represents pretreatment sampling. We completed site selection, and initial field surveys at 4 geographic locations in summer 2006. Replicate sites (n= 4) were established at each of the Raccoon Ecological Management Area (Ohio), the Daniel Boone National Forest (Kentucky), at Wagner Forestry (West Virginia), and at the Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area in Tennessee. At each site we collected data on presence of bat species and insect abundance in July and August using mist net surveys, Anabat surveys, guano collections, and blacklight trap samples. Pretreatment data were collected on replicate nights at all four sites in each location.  Sites will be treated with silvicultural harvests in winter 2006-07, and subsequent surveys in 2007 and 2008 will be used to assess bat and insect response to treatments. Data analysis is in process with 4 bat species known to occur on study sites including northern bat, big brown bat, red bat, and eastern pipistrelle. Whether or not upcoming surveys in 2007 detect Indiana bats at these sites, findings from this study will provide information useful to developing biological goals and strategies in the Forest HCP for other forest-dwelling bats that may be covered in the HCP.