Membership:

This will initially be joint with Herefordshire Action For Mammals (HAM) while both groups get established. HAM is concentrating on surveying the county's mammals so we will be both working on the National Bat Monitoring Programme. There will be occasional training days for all the species being surveyed, while the bat group will be holding additional events. HAM also includes 'representatives' from The Herefordshire Nature Trust, Herefordshire Badger Group and the Herefordshire Reptile and Amphibian Team.

If you are interested the fee is just £5 per household, covering a quarterly newsletter, postage/e-mail, photocopying etc. Click here for an application form.

The more members we have the more events we can hold!! And the more fun we can have!!

You could also join the Bat Conservation Trust and recieve 'Bat News' several times a year to find out what is happening nationally and globally.
 

Funding:

It is thanks to a grant gained through the Bristol Zoo Gardens Millennium Awards Scheme (partly funded by the national lottery) that we have been able to purchase useful equipment such as display boards and a few bat detectors, amongst other things. This funding, which has been over two years, ended in December 2001 so that we are now looking for new funding. The project was has been completed successfully and now Rebecca is a Millennium Fellow!!

If anyone has any information about other funding that may be available to us please forward the details.
 

Roost licences:

If any members would like to train for their English Nature Roost Licence (a legal requirement if you wish to check roosts other than your own) please let me know. We do not have any active trainers in the county, so the more 'trainees' we have the greater the chance of one coming to us rather than us going to them!

Training includes participation in special sessions on health and safety, how to handle a bat and so on, as well as 'clocking up' visits accompanying a licensed bat worker. It is at the discretion of your trainer how long this process takes; when he/she is satisfied that you can be let loose safely on your own!

Participation:

Any assistance, ideas, criticisms are welcome!! Whether it is making the tea or organising a summer roost count it all helps! Suggestions on topics that we should cover, places to visit or groups that we should talk to would all be useful.Of course there is always collecting your drinks cans (see Projects)!

Don't forget that all sightings of bats need to be recorded and passed 'back to base' because they will all help us build up the base-line distribution of bats in Herefordshire.