June 7, 2000 Retreat

Due to the unseasonablly cold weather in southeastern WV, we elected to head six hours north to south-central Pennsylvania in order to finish our mist netting obligation for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Our initial assesment leads us to beleive that finding suitable net sites along the Kanawha will not be a problem, even in the vicinity of the industrialized areas. Perhaps this study may demonstrate how adaptable some of these critters really are.

Weather permitting, we will be completed with our Pennsylvania survey and will re-arrive at Gauley Bridge Wednesday, June 14. At that point, we will have two camp setups, a 12' boat for island surveys, a whitewater kayak (no self respecting kayaker would travel in New and Gauley territory without at least driving around with their boat), about five personel, and more bat equipment than some wildlife agencies.

I don't know how often this website will be updated as I have no good source yet for an internet connection except for an aquaintence in Charleston. So if updates next week are slow to come by, I apologise in advance.

Since reading about mist netting gets a bit boring, (seen one digi-picture of a quadruple-high net setup in a bunch of trees, seen 'em all), I am hoping to spruce the site up with a few semi-bat related side trips that the crew is bound to take, i.e., the first ever(?) bat and/or woodrat survey of Mystery Hole, a mussel survey of the New River whitewater from Hawk's Nest State Park to the New River Campground (by kayak of course, hey, you don't know until you look, right?), and a experimential new survey technique called "bat trolling", which involves stretching mist nets across multiple barges while crusing the river.

JC