We Love Bats!
The Cumberland Bat Project is a grassroots community project that brings together biologists and public educators with our community to build connection to the diverse species and ecosystems surrounding us and to collect data to support habitat protection efforts.
The Provincial Program
The North Island Chapter of the BC Community Bat Program started in 2019 and is supported administratively by the Cumberland Community Forest Society. Our program delivery area is approximately the Comox Valley, Strathcona and Mt. Waddington Regional Districts including the associated Discovery Islands, Broughton Archipelago and adjacent mainland coast of BC.
What we do
Our current focus is on education, WNS surveillance, community engagement, dead bat and guano testing, responding to calls and emails related to bat interactions or behaviour, recruiting new roosts, bat box registry management, and the BC Annual Bat Count.
We coordinate and lead the Annual Bat Count for the North Island, including recruitment & training of volunteers and landowners to participate in the project.
We regularly host “bat talks” for the public, interested organizations, or groups by request. This often includes school groups ranging from pre-school to Grade 12, as well as natural history or stewardship groups. We work with municipalities interested in becoming Bat Friendly Communities and in addition, we have a lot of fun elevating bat conservation through grassroots public art and performance opportunities. We have also led a Bat Ambassador training for over 30 people across the spectrum of communities from recreation groups, conservation groups, public and biologists.
We play a pivotal role in supporting private landowners, homeowners, governments, industry and others with science-based, practical advice and best practices on bat-related issues. This includes conducting site visits, identifying the species of bat in question (either with ultrasonic acoustic sampling, or DNA analysis of guano or both), providing health and safety information, and where necessary co-developing mitigation strategies for bat exclusions including the provision of bat boxes where appropriate.
Our Team
Heather Thomson is the Coordinator of the North Island Chapter of the BC Community Bat Program and program coordinator for the Cumberland Community Forest Society. She has a background in education, with a focus on nature and land based philosophy & practices, event and volunteer coordination and forestry work. She is fiercely in love with bats and our local ecosystem in which she was born & raised in and is now determined to protect. She is the primary contact for our program and can be reached at northisland@bcbats.ca and 250-650-4951.
Tim Ennis and the Executive Director of the Comox Valley Land Trust. He is a conservation biologist with over 20-years of experience working throughout BC. He is also a Research Associate with the University of Guelph’s Department of Integrative Biology, focusing on bat conservation on sustainable farms in Southern Ontario.
Meaghan Cursons is the Executive Director of the Cumberland Community Forest Society and the co-founder of the Cumberland Bat Collective, the precursor to the North Island Chapter of the BCCBP. She helps deliver our education and outreach programs as well as the community art portfolio, oversees the program and procures funding.
Tony Billie is a Coast Salish member of the K’omoks First Nation. He is trained as an environmental monitor through his previous role as a K’omoks Guardian. Tony is trained in ultrasonic acoustic sampling for bats, roost counting, deployment of autonomous recording devices used in the NA BAT program and is also our expert bat box builder.
BAT PHONE: 1-855-922-2287 EXT 25 for local inquiries!
Bats on your property? Dead bat found or live bat on the ground? Bat-human or animal contact? Human health related inquiry? Call the new regional bat “hotline”! If bats have returned to the known/ existing roost please call the bat phone or email northisland@bcbats.ca and heather@cumberlandforest.com
Bats are important. They are in trouble. Bats need your help. Learn more about bats. Visit www.bcbats.ca for more information.
Supporters
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of our CCFS donors and special event supporters, the Comox Valley Community Foundation, Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation.