The north american BAT monitoring program (nabat) is an interagency program designed to monitor BAT distribution and abundance on a continental scale

This $1,228,154.45 Cooperative Agreement awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the White-nose Syndrome National Response Implementation program (CFDA 15.684) supports the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABAT). NABAT is an interagency initiative designed to monitor bat distribution and abundance across North America, providing critical data to inform conservation management decisions.

Through this award, the Wildlife Management Institute, Inc. will deliver a comprehensive suite of products and services to bolster NABAT's coverage in the eastern United States. Key activities include conducting acoustic surveys, performing colony counts, managing program data, and analyzing findings to strengthen distribution models for endangered and threatened bat species. This work will improve permitting efficiencies by increasing the availability of data to support Endangered Species Act consultations. The award period runs from October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2027.

Nabat provides information to natural resource managers, informing management decisions by detecting population changes and declines. Nabat was established in 2015 in response to the threat of white-nose syndrome and other impacts to north american bats. Since its founding, the program has grown into the main repository for BAT data for federal programs, a role that was recently reinforced by a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the US fish and wildlife service (USFWS) and the US geological survey (USGS) detailing an agreement of shared responsibilities and joint management of the nabat program.USFWS has an opportunity to support robust data collection to address data needs in the nabat database through funding allocated by the federal permitting improvement steering council (fpisc) and title 41 of fixing americas surface transportation act (fast-41). Through contracting colony counts, acoustic surveys, data management, and analysis to an external partner, USFWS will boost the coverage of nabat in the eastern U.S., thus improving distribution models for endangered and threatened bats. This work will improve permitting efficiencies through increasing the amount and extent of data for the nabat program, which strengthens data products used in endangered species act section 7 consultations.