(Skip to bottom for a review of this fun presentation!)
Just in time for Halloween, our October guest speaker will be Steven Clark, biology professor at Clark College. He will cover bat biology, our local bats, bats and plants (gardens) and how to help bats choose your yard. Should be a fun topic and great way to learn about one of our least understood native mammals!
Also, don’t forget that this month is when club dues are, well, due – $12 for a year. Members get some extra “perks” like special field trips to private gardens, club newsletter, ability to vote within club, receive mailings on special events, and so much more!
Please, don’t forget that non-members are always welcome to attend the general club meetings to hear our speakers for free – you don’t have to be a member!
Want more info?
Our web page: GardenClubOfCamasWashougal.org
Our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/CommunityGardenClubOfCamasWashougal
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Check out the great Review from one of our members, Karen C., below!
garden 
Steven Clark was the speaker for the Oct. meeting. Steven is a professor of biology at Clark Community College and was voted Outstanding Faculty Member for 2015.
He spoke on The Ecology of Bats, discussing bat biology, local bats and ideal bat habitat. Steven said that bats are the second most successful mammals on the planet, with over one thousand species representing ¼ of the mammal population.
Contrary to popular belief, bats are not blind, but vision is not their primary mode of “seeing.” Bats use an echolocation technique for navigation, bouncing their high-pitched squeaks off objects, with increasing frequency as they approach their prey. Bat echolocation actually aided scientists in the development of the sonar systems used today on ships.
The most commonly seen Washington natives are the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) and the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus). They are beneficial to gardeners because their metabolism requires that they must eat hundreds of insect pests per day.
Bats hibernate over winter in a hibernaculum with other bats to maintain body temperature. Female bats raise their young in nursery colonies.
A bat house in your garden provides a good roosting place. Because bats are very temperature, light and noise sensitive, you will be most successful by finding locations where bats already roost and placing the bat house there. Instructions for building bat houses may be found on the internet.
By the end of Steven’s presentation, members who may not have been interested in or liked bats became bat converts.
[Author: Karen C.]