Bat Foraging Distance Survey

The summary for the Bat Foraging Distance Survey grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Bureau of Reclamation Lower Colorado Region, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Bat Foraging Distance Survey: Project TasksThe Bureau of Reclamation is seeking proposals to capture and radio track both species from foraging areas and roosting areas to determine and describe the distribution of foraging distances (or distance to resources). The recipient will design a study that will meet the objectives of this FOA with all the necessary information that is laid out within each task.Task 1.0Capture California leaf-nosed bats and Townsend’s big-eared bats within foraging areas and at known roosts and radio track them multiple nights to determine the distribution (minimum, maximum, median and average) of foraging distance between foraging areas and their roosts:Given that leaf-nosed bats are active year round, it is anticipated that tracking will occur in at least two seasons (summer and winter) to determine if foraging distance changes depending on season. Townsend’s big-eared bats are not known to be winter active, but do arouse from hibernaculum in the spring and move to summer roosts. Female bats will not be tracked during the maternity season while they are either pregnant or lactating. In the proposal, the applicant will determine the methodology for accomplishing this task. While radio-telemetry is the desired method, the applicant will propose the technical approach that will be used (active ground tracking, active air tracking, passive data loggers, or a combination of methods). The applicant will describe the preferred sample size for each species (include sex ratio and for each season and year) and give supporting evidence why that sample size was determined. For TBEB, it is anticipated that bats will be captured from 2 known roost locations, one along the mainstem LCR north of Blythe, CA and one along the Bill Williams River near Planet Ranch. There are many more known roosts for CLNB. Bats will be tracked from at least five of these known roosts (two of which are also TBEB roosts). The other three roosts are found in the following general areas (Actual locations will be determined and given once agreement is awarded, or if already known, the applicant may list them in the proposal): near the Mittry Lake Wildlife Management Area; near Palo Verde, CA, and one more roost that will either be along the Parker Strip of the river, or within the Havasu NWR. Tracking at some locations may need the use of a boat, provided by the recipient. These sites were selected based on their geographic proximity to current or future potential LCR MSCP HCA’s. The applicant may propose additional or alternate sites as necessary with detailed reasoning for a proposed change. All sites will be finalized with Reclamation personnel prior to the start of the field season. Note that most of these mines are on the California side of the river.Additionally, bats will also be captured and radio-tracked from foraging areas along the LCR. Most of these locations are MSCP HCA’s where Reclamation staff has ongoing mist-net surveys. Mist-net surveys for this project will overlap with Reclamation’s surveys and often the applicant will be able to utilize these surveys to catch bats for placement of radio transmitters. Most of Reclamation’s surveys are conducted from May-September, though some winter season exploratory surveys may be conducted. It is estimated that this project will be able to utilize the effort by Reclamation to capture bats at foraging areas about 75% of the time. It is anticipated that during the summer months, only 1-2 people for this project will need to be on hand to place transmitters on bats during Reclamation’s surveys. Reclamation currently monitors six different habitat creation sites (at least five of these sites will be utilized for this project): • Beal Lake Conservation Area, within Havasu NWR• Ahakhav Tribal Preserve, near Parker, AZ• Palo Verde Ecological Reserve, near Blythe, CA• Cibola Valley Conservation Area, near Cibola, AZ• Cibola NWR Unit 1 Conservation area, within Cibola NWR• Yuma East Wetlands, near Yuma AZ.The applicant may propose (with reasons why) additional foraging sites to sample if it is deemed necessary. Task 2.0 Assess new roost locations: If bats that are captured within foraging areas are found to use previously unknown roosts, those roosts will be assessed to determine their importance to the overall population within the MSCP planning area. The applicant will propose how these new potential roosts are assessed based on multiple criteria that the applicant will propose with colony size being the most important. The applicant will propose detailed methods with how they will do this (outflight counts, internal surveys, etc). The applicant will determine if these are winter roosts, summer roosts (maternity/bachelor) or both. Provide all information that may be necessary in order to adequately assess these roosts.Note: A detailed study design, which goes beyond the technical approach described in the proposal, for both tasks will be submitted 30 days after the agreement is awarded. Reclamation will then review and comment on the study design for a two week period. The applicant will then resubmit a final revised study design one week later. Study AreasStudy areas will be located from Reach 3 south to Reach 7 of the LCR-MSCP HCP, including the Bill Williams River from its confluence with the LCR, east to approximately Planet Ranch. These include five mine roosts, and six foraging areas. Because mine roosts are just outside of the LCR MSCP reaches (that stay within the historic floodplain of the river), the mountain ranges that these mines are found are also within the study area.