Lake Elberta Bat House

The Lake Elberta Bat House was a project headed by FSU Sustainability Fellow Sarah Calzada, in collaboration with the City of Tallahassee and the Lubee Bat Conservancy of Gainesville, FL, from August to December 2020. The Apalachee Audubon Society has tried for years to get a bat house installed at Lake Elberta Park, but wasn't met with much success. When Sarah Calzada joined the Apalachee Audubon team as a Fellow, she was tasked with making this goal a reality. Calzada partnered with the Lubee Bat Conservancy for the bat house because their bat houses have a 90% occupancy rate, far higher than the average bat house. Throughout the months, Lubee, Apalachee Audubon, and the City collaborated on bat house logistics, making this goal more possible by the day. The final and most important step of the project was fundraising, for the bat house standing at Lake Elberta today wouldn't be possible without our generous community donors. We would like to especially thank Dr. Charles McClure for his generous donation, and helping us meet our fundraising goal. The bat house was installed on December 17th, 2020.

The bat house will help support native Florida bats, such as the Brazilian long-tailed bat, for many years to come. These bats are vital to Tallahassee's thriving ecosystem, and we're doing our part to protect them every day with the bat house at Lake Elberta Park.

Are you interested in building a bat house of your own? Visit https://www.lubee.org/general-bat-house-info for more information on how to build one for your own backyard, and become an Apalachee Audubon volunteer to get involved at Lake Elberta Park!