I received a phone call today from another operator in the area and he informed me that he has been getting reports that operators in the State are still removing bats. Since this operator isn't on the forums I told him I would let everyone know.

It is against the law in Wisconsin to remove bats from dwellings from June 1st to August 15th. The only exception is if the dwelling is a food service facility or a registered Day Care Center.

Please spread the word if you know of any operators who are unaware of this law.

Thanks

If you need more clarification on this law please contact 608-266-5216.

Sounds like a liability bag of worms.

Nate-

I have a reason for asking this but exactly what State Law, what is the verbage and the penalty to remove bats during this period of time?

Don’t know WI law or if this is still current, interesting reading though.
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/erreview/documents/batconservationplan1-10-11b.pdf
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/bats/pdf/environmentalassessment.pdf

Robb I will call Nancy tomorrow and get you that info.

This law was passed in 2011 (I believe) because Wisconsin placed bats on the States Threatened Species List.

The DNR came to the State Association Meeting in 2011 and informed everyone in attendance that this was the new law. I was NOT in attendance but was informed of this law by a board member shortly after that meeting. Since that date I have been in contact with our States "official bat lady" and she has confirmed on multiple conversations that this is the law and the DNR is enforcing it.

I can only speculate that this is probably in direct relation with White Nose Syndrome.

At times you can sex the bats nothing wrong with doing a bachelor group now.

x2

I had a very interesting conversation on the phone with Mike Flick the other day and Mike said after trying to run the law down and the best he could come up with was strong recommendations with no teeth!

I wonder if he is the one the other guy was talking about then? No names were given, just told me "an operator"

I put the call in this morning and she is going to email me the link. So when I get home tonight I will post the link.

I was surprised to learn many game departments and other interested parties believed nwco's were or would prefer "gassing" colonies of bats. The NWCOA rep in attendance did a great job of making those in attendance aware that killing or impacting bat colonies in a negative way is detrimental to our industry and to an operators business.

A "strong recommendations with no teeth" from the DNR or any with oversight can become a law or regulation with lots of teeth if ignored. Best to follow and embrace guidelines if they make sense, best to follow and then meet with officials and explain why a guideline may not work or make sense to get it changed. But just ignoring their guideline or suggestions in the quest to make a buck (we loose bat jobs every year by not being willing to evict bats during blackout period when others will) is a good way to be restricted by laws or regulations that you will not like. And it doesn't take much, one news story that "gets some legs" is all it takes for that knee jerk reaction and then a bill moves through the process and becomes law in record time.

I was practicing the blackouts long before. Nobody wanys a bunch of dead baby bats stinking the house up. I was a little surprised to find that its not a LAW myself, but being meticulous by nature I decided to run it down. Its important to me that recomendations are labled as such, and not mislabled as law. I have seen plenty of game wardens lie to a crowd for what they feel is the greater good, but I dont see it that way.

Here is the link I was given by the DNR:

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/erreview/itbats.html

Page 3 talks about removing colonies from homes. It does say it can be done but you will need a permit and must be able to prove it is NOT a maternal colony.

Unless ( Reading section A) the land owner feels that it is a risk to there health, the land owner, rather than the DNR may make the call. Am I reading into this, or is it up to the land owner to pull the trigger any time of year. I am open to any input from anyone who reads it.I am surprised to see it in writing, and thanks Nate for finding it!

Sure seems to read that way

So if the land owner considers it a health risk than
It's ok to do a removal if it's a bachelor colony??

Like you said Mike, it is very "open to interpitation" but personally I am not going near this one. But again I have been told by numerous DNR heads that they are going to enforce this. They also said since they placed bats on the States Threatened Species List those rules apply and those punishments apply. I believe that falls under section 25 of the State Statute, but not 100% on that one.

It is too easy to just wait to after August 15th to remove a colony. If the DNR wants it that way I will play their way.

Last year by the time August 15th came I had bat exclusions scheduled for every day from August 16th to October 31st and I only do the "easy ones"

I actualy like the way the law was written. They require no permit from home owners, and let them make the call when the bats are removed from there home, acoarding to how safe, or unsafe they feel about the situation.
That leaves it up to us to inform them of the situation they have, if there are any reprocussions. ( Dead baby bats stinking the home up within 3 days) In my opinion it is going to let the good guys operate on batchelor colonies, select a safe target date for removal of there own, and not totaly restrict a home owner from maintaining there home in summer time.

Seems like only 4 species of bats have been put on the list (added 6/1/11) There are 8 species of bats found in Wisconsin I believe. So would that legislature not apply to the other species? But I agree that playing by THEIR rules is always the best policy.

Good point Chris, however 99% of the time, the bats in a home are big browns and little browns. Most of the other 6 we never see.

You guys have a good discussion going here, I think the take home message is that they are allowing for bats in dwelling
issues and aren't even trying to take any hard line on stopping it or limiting it. The best result would be more dialogue from
guys in the state like yourselves who are honest and are trying to teach folks about bats and maternity colonies and why it
is important to conserve them.

The discussions I had at the white nose symposium showed me that folks that interacted with me understood what exclusion
was in principle and very much appreciated the idea that professional excluders promote bats and understanding.

In my opinion while not every homeowner is going to be smiling about bats after they've had to pay for exclusion, the vast
majority I've dealt with in my short tenure on the private end do appreciate bats more after we are done and they aren't sharing
their home with them.

I absolutely guarantee more states are looking in this direction due to declines and thus, it behooves anyone doing this type
of work to know or get to know if they don't already the folks who might write up something similar in other states.

Too often as we all know folks get their hackles up expecting the worst from their game and fish agencies and while this
can be correct sometimes, in the case of our industry and the wildlife we work with, we must do our best always to work cooperatively
with these folks.

The other option is duck and cover and we all know how that goes, at least by reaching out or taking the branch when it is offered
we have a chance to build something constructive.

Again, Mike, Nate and others, good discussion and my .02 for what its worth is it seems WI is on the right track with what they've put
together and it does give flexibility that hopefully an operator and homeowner can work within 99% of the time.

Justin