This effort started in 1991 with the initiation of the Division of Wildlife’s Bats/Inactive Mines Project (BIMP) and went on to include many other people, organizations and agencies. The mines project was responsible for identifying three maternity roosts of Townsend’s big-eared bats, a Colorado species of special concern, in abandoned uranium mines in western Colorado. These three roosts represented a significant percentage of all known maternity roosts for this species in the state.

While conducting winter surveys in the southwest part of the state in 2005, the BIMP crew noticed several new mine claim postings on and around the mines which were being evaluated for bat use. An increase in the filing of new claims on old uranium mines was underway because the price of uranium was rising. The crew was immediately concerned that someone would post claims on important roost sites, especially the few known maternity roosts, and would have the legal right to actively mine the minerals in the locations of these important roosts.

The members of the crew thought about filing mine claims themselves but decided it was not a viable option.  The crew, however, did think it was a good strategy to provide temporary protection while working on longer term solutions. The Colorado Wildlife Society (CWS) and the Colorado Bat Society (CBS) were asked to help provide support for this strategy. CWS agreed to pay for the costs of filing and maintaining the claims, and the CBS agreed to hold the claims while other options were pursued.

Therefore, the bat crew went west in September of 2005 to stake claims on three mines and file the proper paperwork to establish mining claims on these three mine complex features. This alone was quite a learning experience!

After contact with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), it was agreed that we would request to formally withdraw these mines from the public lands laws which allow mining claims on public lands. As it turns out, this is a long, slow process! The Colorado Division of Wildlife made a formal request to the BLM in 2006.

Many people played an important role in getting this going, keeping the momentum moving forward to meet deadlines and getting the external support to make it happen. In addition to the groups mentioned above, various employees of the BLM, the Western Bat Working Group, and the chief branch of Lands and Realty played an important role.

While this public land order is in place for 20 years, versus the “in perpetuity” that was originally hoped for, it nonetheless provides long term protection and conservation action for Townsend's big-eared bats in Colorado. In about 18 years from now, up-and-coming biologists may need to take up the fight again to get the mining claims renewed.