Changes at the pier

For the past month the WA Dept. of Natural Resources has had a contractor removing creosote treated pilings from the Woodard Bay Natural Resource Area. Under contract to DNR, Cascadia Research has provided the personnel qualified to monitor the unavoidable disturbance to the harbor seals that haul out at the same site, to ensure that the permitted disturbance 'take' is not exceeded the number approved by Nat. Marine Fisheries.

The sections used by the myotis bat nursery colony is not being removed, but the first 100 ft. section of the pier's decking (the shore side) has been removed to lower the risk from the rotting beams. The pilings remain in this section.

As far as the affect to the bats when they return this spring, the DNR is aware that this is an experiment -- it is any one's guess how much changes to the pier will be tolerated by the bats. When they leave each spring and summer evening, the bats fly under the cover of the pier, leaving only where it ends at the shore. They then fly along the shoreline until they reach the nearby wooded areas and then along the canopy edge or along the road cut as they head to Capitol Lake for the night's work of consuming thousands of insects apiece.

It appears that the bats use the pier as a protective cover from predators (primarily hawks and owls) while they leave the roost in the relatively bright light of dusk. There may come a point when set of conditions required by the bats of this maternity colony are compromised enough to make this site unsuitable. It is already disadvantaged by both the distance from their foraging grounds and the fact that the pier is not a 'warm' roost site.

Changes... time will tell what happens to the largest known bat colony in the state of Washington.