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With time left for one last question, an elementary-aged student on the front row cut right to the chase.
“Have you ever been bitten by a bat?”
“I have not,” said Greg Jarman, Manager, Compliance-Renewable and Environmental, with a laugh. “We try to avoid that at all costs. But bats are not really aggressive. You know how mice will typically run away from you? Bats are the same. You’re a lot bigger than they are and they don’t want to mess with you.”
Jarman was among the featured speakers at the Earth Day Sustainability Conference, held on April 22 at Missouri Southern State University. Liberty served as one of the sponsors for the annual event, which was hosted by the university’s Environmental Health and Safety program and the EHS Club. It included educational booths, presentations, an open forum on sustainability topics, and a display featuring Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle competition projects created by local students.
His presentation focused on Liberty's Gray Bat Mitigation Bank at Buffalo Quarry in Southwest Missouri. The former limestone quarry has been inactive since the mid-1980s. The bat population (approximately 80,000 of them) was discovered by the National Weather Service in Springfield, Missouri, which noticed a nightly blur would show up on radar in the vicinity of the quarry.
“It was like a little mini storm that was popping up in the same place every night,” Jarman said.
Liberty purchased the 20-acre property in 2019, as a way to meet environmental compliance requirements while helping to preserve an endangered species. The gray bat can be found in a limited range in the southeastern U.S., with hibernating populations generally found concentrated in caves in northern Alabama and Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee. They play a key role in ecosystems by acting as pollinators and controlling insect populations (to the tune of more than 500 pounds of bugs a night).
“We’ve had the unique opportunity to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Missouri Department of Conservation to create a bat mitigation bank,” he said.
Working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Liberty has focused on managing the habitat and ensuring that the ecosystem is maintained.
Jarman fielded questions ranging from the application process for conservation easements to the most unique thing caught on security cameras set up at the quarry (that would be a family of otters exploring the area).
Thank you, Greg, for representing Liberty at the Earth Day conference and sharing the important work we do to protect wildlife, habitats, and our planet!