Identifying Potential Habitat for
Northern Long Eared Bats

Results

Land Cover Type	Acres Within Buffer Within Henry Co.
Cultivated Crops	28
Deciduous Forest	11
Open Water	6
Hay Pasture	5.5
Other Uses	~8

The results show that within a buffered area along the Skunk River in Henry County, Iowa, are 11 acres of potential Northern Long-eared Bat habitat. These acres are distributed across the county in small groupings. The rest of the riparian acres are made of cultivated crops (28 acres), open water (6 acres), hay and pasture (5.5 acres), and other uses (approximately 8 acres) (Table 1).

This analysis was successful in identifying potential protectable acres within a specific geography. The map above illustrates the final product for the Henry County, IA analysis.

Conclusion

This analysis is simple but informative. It would be helpful for field offices and “on the ground” resource managers to have access to tools to help identify and prioritize habitats and geographies of interest. This type of evaluative tool could be used to protect myriad species in myriad landscapes. With further exploration and refining, this tool could lead to widespread connectivity, improving the ability for species to successfully migrate across the landscape, and decreasing the impacts of anthropogenic development.