BGE recently partnered with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in its Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) project to help increase the population of the Indiana bat, a federally endangered mammal.  As part of an effort to replenish the bat population, DNR has installed two bat boxes on a right-of-way in Carroll County.

The boxes sit under a transmission tower in a remote location, where the bats are likely to set up home. Although the bats’ natural roosting habitat is under the bark of trees or in caves, Indiana bats will also use bat boxes and other manmade structures such as barns or houses.  Putting up a bat roosting box can help replace lost or degraded habitat that has been contributing to the decline of bat populations throughout North America.

“The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is very pleased to be working with BGE to provide habitat for the endangered Indiana bat. Power line right-of-way corridors provide habitat for many of Maryland's rare plants and animals, so we are enthusiastic about expanding our partnership with BGE in the future.”

Jenny McCune
Landowner Incentive Program Biologist
Maryland Department of Natural Resources

This information was taken from the US Fish and Wildlife Service Region 3 Endangered Species Web site:  http://www.fws.gov/midwest/Endangered
 
To access the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Press Release about its original tracking of Indiana bats into Maryland, visit www.pgc.state.pa.us.  Go to Newsroom, click on “2005 Press Releases” and scroll down to release #051-05.
 
For more information about the Department of Natural Resources’ Landowner Incentive Program, visit http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/lip.asp