I believe in this case both David and Eric have very valid points.
The state you live in and the current "non-game" biologists, along with the division chief or head of said wildlife agency play a major role in what or how things get done, and who is allowed to learn enough to be up to speed.
In nearly every state you can count on non game species getting the bad end of the stick as quite simply until the last decade or so, the goal was on raising funds and that happens through license sales for hunting and fishing.
Now WNS unfortunately has been the nasty even that has caused more non game funding to occur but it is still a ridiculously low amount.
Speaking as an ex fed, state and fed agencies hire based on a set of qualifications and then once you get someone in the job they are tasked with any number of things. Rarely do you see a "bat biologist" position, but they do exist.
So generally a non game biologist is going to have to try to know a bit about everything from turtles, to insects, to bats, and so on and so forth...
Then we have funding of that position and where the requests come from. If they don't have special funding or grants for bats specifically, research is only going to happen if a university sends a student as in David's example.
I would still say that it is important to use the local game and fish or dnr as a resource and hopefully a colleague that will allow for sharing of knowledge.
In some states I can tell you they are very much trying to learn more about NWCO's and the more professional nwco's lead that discussion the better for the industry.
I have two amazing non game biologists in this state and talk to them at least once a month even if just to share the type of maternity colonies we see during summer, or report an interesting finding. Same goes for some fed agencies where we've made some friends and private folks that are "bat people."
It is a tragedy that we don't have a balanced dept. in every state and an interest but that usually comes down to funding and politics and always will.
Good points again by both!
