“Bat-Man” makes an appearance at the Carolinas Engineering Conference 2018
SUMMIT’s Environmental Department Manager, Michael Zavislak, P.E., CIH, NRCC-EAC, CHMM was asked to speak at this year’s Carolinas Engineering Conference in June 2018. His presentation focused on a trending topic in site development in the Southeast, and specifically South Carolina – the presence of the “Northern Long-Eared Bat.” An endangered species protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, some estimates put this particular bat’s population decline in the Southeast as high as 99% in just the last decade, due to disease and other conditions adverse to the species’ survival. Mr. Zavislak has been working on endangered species surveys that are requirements for site development in many areas, including federal sites, for the last 15 years, and was able to share valuable information with attendees on what to expect when they are required to survey their potential site for this species of bat.
During his talk, Mr. Zavislak noted that, “The Northern Long-Eared Bat tends to prefer a cave environment with a certain degree of darkness…” and we were pleased to award one lucky attendee from Kannapolis, NC with a door-prize that seems to match this bat species’ habitat preferences quite well! #AccidentalBatman #EngineeringConferencePrizes
For more reading on the survival crisis facing the Northern Long-Eared Bat, see this article from the U.S. FWS.
