Program Overview

BCI’s Subterranean Program identifies and protects important bat roosts in abandoned mines and natural caves. Collaboration among state, federal and private organizations and management over large geographical areas helps to ensure the best management decisions for both bats and the public.

Program Goals
To conserve threatened, endangered and endemic (native to an area) species through protection and preservation of important mine and cave roosts in the Western United States. We emphasize large-area management that encompasses critical sites for bats that migrate between winter and summer roosts.

Program Objectives

• Management and conservation of mine and cave roosts across migratory routes to maintain safe habitat for migrating bats and to increase public safety.



• Improve public awareness and mine-closure decisions through trainings, symposia, educational materials and outreach programs.



• Assist private landowners and federal and state land bureaus in refining mine closure and conservation actions based on targeted research.



• Conservation and preservation of subterranean roosts across the United States to help maintain numbers and diversity of cave- and mine-roosting bats in the Western U.S. in the face of White-nose Syndrome.

Geographic Area
BCI’s program emphasizes conserving connections among critical roosts for bats over large areas through management of mine and cave roosts in the Western United States, where abandoned mines are concentrated. We work in major forest, desert and mountain ecoregions that extend from West Texas to the West Coast and Alaska. Although we are focused on the West, we will respond to serious abandoned-mine issues outside this region.