Bat House Project

Garces High student Marissa Krolnik has designed a project for putting bat houses on the Preserve and last week she and bat expert Andy Kraus toured the Preserve to pick out the best places to put them. She has around a dozen bat houses ready to go. Marissa is working on her Girl Scout Gold Award with the project and she has a website on the importance of bats and a lot of other neat stuff. Bat houses are expensive and so far she has financed this project herself but go to her website if you would like to help out and see what is happening.

On Jan. 28, 2011, Claire Thorp of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (out of San Francisco) presented the Kern River Corridor Endowment with a check for $40,000. This will go toward the ongoing revegetation project begun last year in a 30 acre plot near the western end of the Preserve. Funds for the Foundation are provided by PG&E and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Representatives from the Bakersfield Californian and the 3 network TV stations recorded the event while volunteer workers, President Carolyn Belli, Board member Andy Honig, Scott Frazer of the federal Fish and Wildlife Agency, and Rich O’Neil and Bill Cooper of the Kern River Parkway looked on. Eagle Scouts were represented by Aaron and Andrew Levins and Scott Stone, while the Girl Scouts were represented by Marissa Knolnik, who will be doing a project on the Preserve this spring. After the ceremony, volunteers headed into the field to plant more tree cuttings.

According to Mark Schnaidt of Chevron, the California Department of Fish and Game is satisfied with Chevron’s re-vegetation project (the “Chevron Grove”)’ on Jan. 8, he met with Andy and Carolyn to begin the transition process whereby the Endowment will be responsible for maintainance of the grove. Four years ago Andy and Steve Hampson gathered approximately 8 red willow and about 100 cottonwood cuttings which they then planted. Chevron put in and maintained an irrigation system. The trees are now well-established; a few perished during a temporary glitch in the watering system but the remainder look very healthy.