Wildlife Diversity Program Quarterly Report for April–June 2026
Cooperative Land Conservation
AMERICAN THE BEAUTIFUL GRANT – The hoop house was completed in June at the Sandhills Depot with funding from an ATB grant. Seeds from 40+ Sandhills plant species have been collected over the last 3 years and will be propagated in the hoop house with the intent of distributing to landowners that are working to replant longleaf pine and enhance herbaceous groundcover with appropriate ecotypes. In addition, in association with Sandhills LAWA staff, plants will be grown to revegetate food plots and openings on Sandhills GL, no longer being used because of poor productivity. Funding from this grant has also allowed for the contract growing of 25+ Sandhills and Coastal Plain species in association with a local nursery and two state botanical gardens. COMPETITIVE STATE WILDLIFE GRANT – Frosted elfin (an SGCN) surveys were conducted across the State in April and May with funding from a cSWG. On Sandhills GL, populations from last year were verified and counted; an additional population was noted on Block A and will be monitored in coming years as well. As part of the cSWG, NatureServe is running models to give potential locations of appropriate frosted elfin habitat to broaden our survey areas. In addition, butterflies were found at Voice of America GL and Goose Creek GL in April and May, respectively. Monitoring also occurred at Holly Shelter GL and Chowan Swamp GL. Lastly, HabCon staff worked with TVA, USFWS, and USFS to survey existing populations in Cherokee County through nighttime larval surveys. PIEDMONT BAT SURVEYS – With the help of an intern, we continued to monitor the 10 hibernacula sites for the Piedmont tricolored winter study and maintain the acoustic, game camera, and temperature/RH data loggers. The intern analyzed data and wrote her undergraduate thesis on the hibernacula study. She received Highest Honors for the thesis from UNC. The group is working on publishing the results from this study. We found evidence during this study that bats are foraging on insects in the mine during winter. We plan on further studying this behavior. Recently, we received a small grant to study tricolored bats at the Stoney Creek Restoration Site in Nash County. In May and June, we conducted 5 mist-net surveys for bats, two of which were training/professional development events. We are providing technical guidance to a UNC-CH graduate student, who is studying geological characteristics of mines as potential drivers of hibernaculum selection by bats. STINKING QUARTER MITIGATION SITE MULTI-TAXA RESEARCH – We con- ducted second year of post-construction aquatic and terrestrial wildlife surveys and eDNA sampling at the Stinking Quarter Mitigation Site. We currently have two UNC-G graduate students conducting their thesis on different aspects of the multi- taxa Stinking Quarter Mitigation Project. I also met with a graduate student to discuss using the Stinking Quarter Mitigation Site for an aquatic, acoustic study.
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