Managed hardwood openings offered bat roosting opportunities
WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
Researchers tracked 69 female northern long-eared bats to 197 roosts during six years in two Indiana managed forests and combined habitat observations with lidar of forest structure. Selected roost locations were associated with higher ground, nearby unimproved roads/trails or regeneration openings and lower canopy density. Commercial thinning produced the studied favorable canopy-density conditions for roughly eleven years post-harvest. These are roost-selection and structural results, not a measured population rebound.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
A landowner choosing between protecting old forest and creating openings is being handed a false binary if the goal is a structural mosaic. The evidence supports retaining substantial mature forest while considering carefully designed regeneration patches and thinning where permitted and suitable. Roost-tree protection, species-specific seasonal restrictions and regulatory consultation still come before any harvest plan.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
Roosts and lidar do not establish improved survival or population growth. Field data were collected in 2012–2017 in two forests, and site history may confound treatment effects. Northern long-eared bats are legally protected; prescriptions cannot be generalized or implemented without local ecological and regulatory review.
SOURCE
Beilke et al. · Conservation Science and Practice · bat-roost telemetry and lidar (15 Oct 2026)
View original evidence ↗
Northern long-eared bats selected roost settings near regeneration gaps; thinning effects on canopy lasted roughly eleven years.
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