Planting the Future

BCI and our partners have been hard at work sowing the seeds of the future as part of our continued efforts to create food sources for nectar-feeding bats. This past Bat Week (October 2431, 2018), BCI joined Freeport-McMoRan and the Wildlife Habitat Council, as well as volunteers from local schools, the National Park Service and a Native American Arizona Conservation Corps crew to plant over 1,500 young agaves in the ground.

In November, BCI sponsored an agave and bats (maguey y murcilagos) workshop with Borderlands Restoration Network and Colectivo Sonora Silvestre as part of the Festival Internacional del Bacanora in Sonora, Mexico. Local conservationists, Bacanora producers and rural agave farmers all gathered to learn about the interdependence between agave and healthy bat populations. Workshop participants thinned agave rows and planted agave seeds to foster the next generation of healthy agave plants.

Were so grateful and inspired to be able to work with these passionate and dedicated farmers and conservation organizations on both sides of the border to create a bright future for wild agave nectar-feeding bats, says Dan Taylor, BCIs Director of Habitat Conservation and Restoration.

The binational agave restoration initiative is a significant undertaking for BCI. The kickoff of this work was made possible through generous initial funding from the Bently Foundation. Subsequently, the project has been supported by a mixture of annual appeal donors and foundations.