As bat enthusiasts across the globe paused this week to recognize the importance of these flying mammals during Bat Week, Oct. 24-31, Alabama Power volunteers made their contribution to efforts to support bats and bat awareness in Alabama.

Volunteers from the company’s Environmental Affairs and Corporate Real Estate departments, along with employees involved in three leadership development programs, joined forces to construct 30 bat boxes.

Alabama Power employees build bat boxes to support these important animals. (Katherine Beshear / Alabama NewsCenter)

A few days later, more than 35 students from Cornerstone Schools of Alabama‘s middle school, in Birmingham’s Roebuck community, put their creative imprint on the boxes during art class. Designs ranged from abstract splatters to polka dots, to sunsets, to scenes from nature including bats. Students planned to vote on their favorite work of bat box art, with the winning box to be installed at the school.

Meanwhile, Alabama Power biologist Jeff Baker presented information about bats and their importance to the Cornerstone students during their science class. Baker is an active member of the Alabama Bat Working Group, a coalition of local bat experts, government agencies, conservation organizations and nonprofits working to build awareness and gather scientific information about the bat population in Alabama to support their protection and health.

Alabama Power volunteers support bat education and preservation from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

“Bats are vital part of our ecosystem but many species are facing significant declines due to the biological threat of white-nose syndrome,” said Jason Carlee, a manager in Alabama Power’s Environmental Affairs organization. The deadly fungus with no cure has been identified in more than half of U.S. states, including Alabama. To date, it has killed millions of bats.

Cornerstone students put their artistic vision on the bat boxes. (Isabel Rothschadel / Alabama NewsCenter)

“Building bat roosting boxes is an excellent way to highlight the importance of bats and provide a conservation benefit to local bat populations,” Carlee said.

Bat boxes can help replace lost or degraded habitat that is contributing to the reduction in bat populations across North America. According to the nonprofit Nature Conservancy, more than half of the bat species in the United States are in decline or listed as endangered.

Minus the one bat box to be installed at Cornerstone, the other boxes constructed this month by the Alabama Power volunteers and Cornerstone students will be delivered to locations across the state, including nature preserves. Alabama Power volunteers will help install the boxes.

Alabama is home to 16 species of bats in Alabama, three of which – the gray bat, Indiana bat and northern long-eared bat – are on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s endangered species list.  All bat species in Alabama are insect-eaters, helping control mosquitoes and other pests. Some bat species are pollinators; they play an important role – along with other pollinators, like bees – in helping to propagate plants, including food crops.

Those who know them think bats are beautiful, and for many good reasons. (Jacksonville State University)

Last summer Alabama Power biologists were among the participants in a “bat blitz” coordinated through the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network (SBDN). The event, during which bat experts spend several nights carefully trapping bats and then letting them go after gathering data, was back in Alabama for the first time since 2016. Also participating in the blitz were the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Alabama A&M University along with experts from across the Southeast.

Alabama Power and its parent Southern Company are supporting research to find a cure for white-nose syndrome through the Bats for the Future Fund coordinated by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Cornerstone Middle School Principal Bill Sellers said the bat box project was an opportunity to educate students about these remarkable creatures and their importance to the planet.

“When we think of bats, usually we associate them with something scary.  Through this bat box project with Alabama Power, Cornerstone students learned that bats play a unique, God-given role in the environment by serving as pollinators and by eating pests. Our students, through this activity, are helping to protect the habitat of these amazing mammals.”

Learn more about Alabama Power’s environmental stewardship efforts here. Learn more about the company’s employee and retiree volunteerism here.

Katherine Beshear, Brittany Faush and Isabel Rothschadl contributed to this report.