Bat Conservation International, Inc.

Bat Conservation International, Inc., a non-profit conservation organization based in Austin, Texas, operates as a federal grant recipient (93% of recent awards) delivering specialized bat biology, habitat restoration, white-nose syndrome surveillance, and ecological research services to the Department of the Interior and related agencies. The organization has been registered to receive federal awards since 2002 and competes without set-aside designation across a broad portfolio of cooperative agreements and project grants focused on bat conservation.

BCI's federal capability set centers on field ecology and species management. Representative work includes a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service Intermountain Region (awarded September 2024, extending through April 2029) to design and implement bat-friendly cave gates at up to three high-vulnerability caves in collaboration with tribal partners, with BCI managing design consultation and subcontracting construction; a five-year habitat restoration and wildlife monitoring cooperative agreement with the Bureau of Land Management (September 2024 through September 2029) to conduct science-driven habitat restoration, water resource improvement, and vegetation management across priority BLM sites with pre- and post-restoration wildlife monitoring; and a white-nose syndrome colony monitoring project funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (March 2025 through March 2027, $340,771) to consolidate surveillance and data collection for cave myotis across five U.S. states and two Mexican states. A small federal contract award from the National Park Service Intermountain Region (May 2024, $19,333.88) covered removal and installation of a bat gate at Middle Cave in Timpanogos National Monument.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward the Department of the Interior. The top five funding agencies account for 41% of recent awards by count, led by Fish and Wildlife Service Region 5 (11 awards, $47 thousand combined potential value), the National Park Service Intermountain Region (9 awards, $19 thousand), and the National Park Service Pacific West Region (8 awards). By dollar value, Fish and Wildlife Service Region 4 leads at $53 thousand across six awards, followed by Region 5 at $47 thousand. Ten awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, triggering potential recompete activity. BCI's work spans the National Park System through multiple regional NPS offices, the Bureau of Land Management at the national and field office level, Fish and Wildlife Service national and regional programs, the Forest Service, and the Department of Energy (via a wind-energy related project on aircraft lighting detection systems for bat fatality reduction).

BCI's recent work spans white-nose syndrome surveillance and species recovery planning, cave and mine gate design and habitat assessment, desert spring and riparian restoration targeting nectar bat populations, abandoned mine internal surveys across multiple parks and monuments, acoustic bat population monitoring integrated with the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat), wind turbine fatality mitigation research, and agave habitat restoration in the Southwest. In its subrecipient role, BCI delivers technical support and coordination to Boise State University on acoustic deterrent testing at wind facilities, contributes to agave habitat restoration through the Electric Power Research Institute and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, and supports oyster restoration work under the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Activity grew from six awards in 2022 to twelve in 2024, with one award recorded in 2026 to date. BCI's organizational positioning emphasizes field expertise in bat ecology, specialized knowledge of mine and cave feature assessment, habitat restoration implementation, and data processing through its National Data Processing Laboratory for acoustic monitoring standardization across federal programs.