{"id":564274,"date":"2026-07-02T00:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T00:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/564274\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T00:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T00:34:13","slug":"how-long-does-it-take-to-grow-a-tree-that-supports-endangered-indiana-bats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/564274\/","title":{"rendered":"How Long Does It Take to Grow a Tree That Supports Endangered Indiana Bats?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBYLINE:<\/strong> Macy Medendorp\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Newswise \u2014 Bugs run rampant in the summer, and if you have ever suffered from a mosquito bite and regretted not putting on bug spray, you should know about nature\u2019s insect repellent: the Indiana bat. Federally endangered since 1967, the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) helps with pest control and\u00a0supports tree growth<\/a>\u00a0in forests, but their habitat has been shrinking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a recent\u00a0study<\/a>, researchers from Minot State University and the\u00a0University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign<\/a>\u00a0identified factors that make trees suitable roosts, informing forest managers about strategies to help preserve the Indiana bats.<\/p>\n

Tree size, measured by diameter, is the most important determinant for making a good shelter for Indiana bats, said lead author Joseph Pettit, associate professor at Minot State University. The age of a tree is less significant \u2014 a good thing for the bats. As long as a tree is the proper size, it does not matter how long it took to grow, meaning forest managers can accelerate the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiameter predicts which trees house the most bats,\u201d Pettit said. \u201cWe\u2019ve known that for a long time. Our question was specifically, \u2018How can we quickly get to that diameter?\u2019 And the answer is early-successional trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Succession is the predictable process by which plant species grow and forests develop. Early in the process, faster-growing, \u201cweedy\u201d plants lay the necessary foundation for slower-growing species, including soil buildup, solid enrichment, and shade.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn average, you need about 100 years if you\u2019re going to make an Indiana bat roost tree,\u201d Pettit said. \u201cBut there\u2019s a little bit more nuance to it: the characteristics of the tree matter, too. Some trees \u2014 early-successional trees \u2014 can grow very quickly. They can be viable for bats in about 70 years, whereas late-successional trees typically take 130 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early-successional trees tend to be intolerant of shade, grow rapidly in the abundant light, and have short lifespans. In contrast, late-successional trees tolerate shade and typically grow in a closed-canopy forest. They mature more slowly and live longer than early-successional trees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both types of trees are needed in forest management practices to provide viable roosts for the Indiana bat.<\/p>\n

\u201cA smart management approach recognizes the importance of maintaining a combination of early-successional and late-successional trees,\u201d said co-author Joy O\u2019Keefe, associate professor and wildlife Extension specialist in the\u00a0Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Illinois Extension<\/a>, both part of the\u00a0College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences<\/a>\u00a0at Illinois. \u201cEach provides a unique benefit that is necessary to create consistent habitats for the bats.\u201d<\/p>\n

To determine which trees Indiana bats preferred, the team radiotagged the bats and tracked them to their roosts. They surveyed 95 roost trees across three study sites: central Indiana, the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey, and the Southern Appalachian Mountains. According to Pettit and O\u2019Keefe, the sites were a representative sample of the eastern U.S. forests, which the study focused on. The team used dendrochronology \u2014 analysis of the trees\u2019 rings \u2014 to establish the ages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe oldest late-successional tree that we surveyed was around 250 years old,\u201d Pettit said. \u201cThat\u2019s a very long time to wait if a bat needs a roost immediately, so the take-home message for managers is if you need forest to shelter bats quickly, early-successional trees can accomplish that more quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Typically, the Indiana bats roost in standing dead trees, known as snags, because the bark starts to split about four years after the trees die. The separation leaves an ideal space for the bats to shelter in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Late-successional trees remained upright for an average of 12 years, according to the research, whereas the early-successional trees fell over about eight years after their death. Because the late-successional trees stand for longer after they die, they house the bats for a longer period of time.<\/p>\n

Both early and late-successional trees have strengths for providing shelter to the Indiana bats, and their characteristics should be taken into account in forest management practice. According to the group\u2019s findings, managers must create a new, suitable roost for the bats every 3 or 4 years to maintain a constant amount of habitat, and there must be enough viable trees to accomplish that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf our goal is to be able to design and create good habitats for this endangered species, it is amazing that age is not the main predictor of how many bats roost in a tree,\u201d Pettit said. \u201cIt means that we can grow big trees that do not need to be immensely old.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and O\u2019Keefe explained that, regardless of the type of tree, creating good habitats for bats will take time. Even if early-successional trees can be viable in 70 years, that time frame is longer than most forest managers\u2019 tenures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to need to be thoughtful about creating the natural habitat that these bats need, and we will have to plan very far in advance \u2014 beyond our own lifespan, in many cases \u2014 to create the conditions to help preserve these bats,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said. \u201cThere is no better time to start than now.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are four other endangered bat species east of the Mississippi. The study\u2019s findings about roost age do not necessarily apply to all of them, as some shelter in places other than trees, but the pair said the study\u2019s framework is a baseline that future researchers can follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can take what we learned from this study and analyze how to best create a habitat for each type of bat,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said. \u201cBy applying the same framework, we can determine what the necessary characteristics of habitats are for all types of endangered animals \u2014 bats or otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The article, \u201cTree roosts used by an endangered bat require almost a century to develop,\u201d is published in\u00a0Forest Ecology and Management\u00a0[DOI:\u00a010.1016\/j.foreco.2026.123942<\/a>].\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BYLINE: Macy Medendorp Newswise \u2014 Bugs run rampant in the summer, and if you have ever suffered from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[7260,37720,37721,18,7261,240903,19,17,3618,941,7262,133,37722,461],"class_list":["post-564274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-all-journal-news","tag-college-of-agricultural","tag-consumer-and-environmental-sciences","tag-eire","tag-environmental-science","tag-forest-managementconservationwildlife-biologybatsendangered-speciesforests","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nature","tag-newswise","tag-plants","tag-science","tag-university-of-illinois-urbana-champaign","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116847579417588164","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}