Forests for the BATS – A Spooky Halloween Edition

Forests for the Bats, a Halloween takeover of the Alliance’s Forests for the Bay newsletter, is all about celebrating our Chesapeake forests and the peak of autumn, which is largely our favorite time to be in the woods. Whether or not you’re a Halloween nut, autumn’s inherent connection to the macabre is hard to dismiss. Leaves rot as they pile up on the forest floor, leaving skeletal remains of trees and the rich smell of wet decay. Nights grow long and days grow shadowier and colder. As we get closer to the edge of winter, it’s no wonder this time of year has a dual meaning for many cultures around the world: celebrating the harvest and noting that the life it will bring is also tied inextricably to death.

Its allliiive, Devil Tooth Fungus (Photo credit: Adobe Stock)

Bats are important members of our forest ecosystems and perform invaluable functions for humanity. Forests for the Bats invites you to learn more about these fascinating animals and their current conservation plights in addition to the other spooky members of our watershed’s forests, wetlands, and streams. Join us to learn about the creepy, crawly, ghoulish, and ghastly flora and fauna that make our watershed so special!

Ryan Davis, the Alliance’s PA Forests Projects Manager, shares a horror story he experienced while in the field one autumn afternoon in remote West Virginia. Read it now.

Alliance Blog Posts

• White Snakeroot, a Pollinator-Pleasing Plant with a Nefarious Past
• From the Grave: Dead Man’s Fingers
• A Visit From the Reaper
• Golbin’s Gold
• Don’t Let Invasive Plants “Return From the Dead!”
• Decomposers: The Creepy Crawly Critters of our Chesapeake Forests
• Dangerous Doppelgangers of Native Trees
• Carnivorous Plants of the Chesapeake Bay
• The Ghosts of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
• The Bewitching Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)
• American Chestnut: Ghosts of Our Eastern Forests
• Owl Pellets Bring Skeletons Into Schools
• The Macabre Mushroom
• Resurrection of the American Chestnut
• All About Bats
  • Forests for the BATS, Part 1
  • Managing Roosts and Hibernacula
  • Foraging Habitat
  • White Nose Syndrome
  • Bats In Your Backyard
  • Riparian Forest Buffers for Bats
• Botanical Boogeymen: Unveiling the Dark World of Poisonous Plants
• Its allliiive, Devil Tooth Fungus
• The Ghosts of the Forest Floor: Ghost Pipes
• Happy Holloween: The Sweet Treat of Finding Tree Cavities
• The Fall Bounty and Beauty of Shagbark Hickory
• The Haunted Holler
• The Wetland Vampire: Dodder

Other Spooky Stories

• White-nose Syndrome, A Deadly Disease
• Bats and Human Health
• No Roost Trees Around? Build A Bat House Yourself!
• Bat Activities and Curricula for Children of All Ages 
• 10 Reasons You Should Love Bats
• Funding for Forest Landowners to Improve Indiana Bat Habitat in Pennsylvania
• The Many Benefits of Bats
• Bats 101
• Five creepy, crawly critters that live in the Chesapeake Bay
• Atlantic Ghost Crab
• A Homeowner’s Guide to Northeastern Bats and Bat Problems

Videos

Tree Talk: Bloodroot		Race to Save Pennsylvania Bats
Tree Talk: Witch Hazel		Tree Talk: Poison Ivy

Forests for the Bats is brought to you in partnership by:

Learn more about Forest Management and Bats and Other Wildlife