One session: September 28-October 1 (Wednesday-Saturday). Class size: Limited to 20 students. Location: Jumonville Camp and Retreat Center, Uniontown, PA.

Laurel Caverns
Situated on a spur of Chestnut Ridge overlooking the Ohio Valley towards Pittsburgh, Laurel Caverns is the longest mapped commercial cave in in Pennsylvania with 2.228 miles of explored passages. With an elevaton change of 464 feet, Laurel Caverns is by far the deepest cave in Pennsylvania, although no vertical drops are necessary to reach the bottom. The cave can be thought of as two distinct sections, a complex maze located near the Visitor Center and a series of large trunk passages descending partway down the mountain. Historically the cave harbored an estimated 100,000 overwintering bats including the now federally endangered Indiana bat. Our workshop will enter the Upper Cave once for a private tour (no special equipment or clothing is necessary), and we will enjoy the fall swarm during the evening at the Historic Entrance.

Workshop Instructors:
Joe Szewczak, B.S.E. (1980) Duke University, Ph.D. (1991) Brown University, is an Associate Professor at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA. His research has investigated the physiological capabilities of bats and other small mammals, from cold hibernative torpor to the intense demands of flight and high altitude, and the physiological ecology of bats,. His teaching includes “Using SonoBat for Non-invasive Bat Monitoring” for the University of California, “Biology of the Chiroptera” at Humboldt State University, and “The Ecology and Conservation of California Bats” through San Francisco State University. Joe has also taught acoustic monitoring workshops for BCI and other groups in California, Oregon, Arizona, Washington, South Dakota, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. He is the developer of SonoBat software to analyze and interpret bat echolocation calls and is currently developing automated bird and bat acoustic monitoring and identification methods for the Department of Defense (SERDP) and other agencies.

Janet Tyburec, B.A. (1989) Trinity University, a full-time employee at Bat Conservation International, Inc. (BCI), from 1989 thru September 2002, has been involved in the structure and execution of training workshops since the inception of BCI's workshop efforts in 1992. She has been extensively trained by BCI founder, Merlin D. Tuttle. Over the years, she has personally taught over 1,500 wildlife biologists, land managers, and students of conservation in the course of presenting over 100 field workshops. She currently oversees all training and instruction at BCI's Arizona, California, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania locations. She continues to be involved with many aspects of BCI's workshop program and its growth as a contract employee, a position she has held from September 2002 to the present. She has also contracted with other federal and state agencies, including the USDA Forest Service, USDI National Park Service and the Department of Defense to conduct custom training workshops for directors, staff, seasonal employees, and volunteers.

John Chenger president of Bat Conservation and Management, Inc. (BCM), has worked with the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) to conduct cave and mine assessments and other bat inventories. He has also worked with BCI since 1997 to facilitate training workshops in Arizona, California, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. He founded BCM in 1999 to address nuisance bat management issues by providing man-made roosts and performing bat-exclusion and bat- proofing services. His company has grown to include seasonal bat roost and habitat surveys, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&WS) endangered species compliance inventories, acoustic monitoring studies, and large-scale migratory bat radio-tracking projects. His work has led him to develop and manufacture commercially available survey gear including mist net poles, portable triple-high mist-net sets, harp traps, and bat houses certified by BCI. He has also served as Director of Interpretation at Laurel Caverns for 5 years.

Lectures/Discussions:
Lectures and demonstrations cover a full range of bat echolocation and acoustic monitoring subjects, with a focus on the use of SonoBat software for designing inventory and monitoring programs for bats. Topics will include:

• Introduction to bat bio-acoustics, echolocation, and bat detectors
• Hands on demonstration with available bat detector models
• Bat detector use in the field for active and passive monitoring
• Bat monitoring program designs and choosing the right bat detector for the job
• Introduction to SonoBat software for recording and signal analysis_
• Call characteristics for bat identification on the basis of echolocation calls
• Auto-classification using SonoBat 3.0, data handling, storage, and interpretation

Evening Practicums:
Instructors will provide guided, hands-on demonstrations during evening and night-time field practicums. Participants will be split up into small groups for added opportunity for individual instruction. Topics will include:

• Active monitoring using bat detectors, tips for following bats
• Key morphological characteristics to help identify bats “on the wing”
• Passive setups using bat detectors and digital audio recorders (e.g., Pettersson D240x and Samson Zoom)
• Passive deployment of direct recording detectors (e.g., AR125, Pettersson D500x, SM2)
• Implementing mobile acoustic transects
• Addressing power, security, and weatherproofing for long-term, passive deployments

Location and Directions: Jumonville Christen Camp and Retreat Center, Uniontown PA. Please see map at http://www.jumonville.org/directions.html. Jumonville has many historic buldings on campus so please familarize yourself with the location of the Inn http://www.jumonville.org/fl.inn.html.

Dates and times: September 28 (Wednesday) thru October 1 (Saturday). Check in begins at noon on September 28, at the Inn located on the Jumonville campus, the first classroom session begins promptly at 1pm. Formal presentations will conclude by noon on Saturday October 1. An optional, private tour of Laurel Caverns will begin at 1pm for those wishing to participate and should conclude by 3pm.

Jumonville Lodging:
Overnight lodging is available at the Inn in the same building where lectures are scheduled. Each room has a double bed and private bath for $70.00 a night. No smoking or credit cards accepted; cash or check only. Contact Mary at (800) 463-7688. To reserve a room, you may have to send a check in as a deposit to Mary at Jumonville, 887 Jumonville Rd., Hopwood, PA 15445. http://www.jumonville.org/contact.html

Off-site Lodging:
(Lodging less than a 10 minute drive from either Jumonville or Laurel Caverns)

General Equipment: Participants need to bring appropriate field gear, including hiking boots, a headlamp with batteries, a personal pack, and a water bottle. No bats will be handled at this workshop, so participants do not need rabies pre-exposure vaccination. The location is a mountaintop in the fall, please bring a jacket and dress appropriately for evening activities. We will be visiting abandoned mine and natural cave entrances, but not physically entering them, therefore WNS decontamination is optional.

Acoustic Equipment: Please bring your personal bat recording gear, laptops and connecting cables. We will have a number of Pettersson D240x detectors for participants to lend, and a demo AR125 and SM2BAT. Functional trials of SonoBat will be available to install on your laptop for this workshop to get you quickly up and running. Being familer with the basic operation of your detector and successfully test connecting to your laptop prior to the workshop is helpful. Please bring a memory stick 2GB or larger. One field trip will include a driving transect; if you plan you use your own equipment during this exercise consider power and portability issues.

Meals: Dinners on 28th, 29th, and 30th are included with the registration fee. Lunches are provided on the 29th and 30th. Please indicate below if you require vegetarian meals. All other meals are "on your own". Many resturant options are available within 20 minutes of Jumonville, but be advised there are no food options immediately surrounding Jumonville.

Fee: $789.00

How to Register: Please select options below and order online. If you are registering multiple people, please add each person individually to your shopping cart: