Scouts build bat boxes for local organizations
Warwick. The boxes help to protect New York’s vital bat population.
Warwick /
| 06 Oct 2023 | 03:23
The scouts of Troop 756 present their bat boxes to Warwick Valley Gardeners. (
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Warwick-area Girl Scout Troop 756 recently completed building six bat houses for various local organizations, including the Warwick Valley Gardeners and Camp Wendy, the Girls Scout Camp in Wallkill.
Troop leader Megan Westcott said the girls built the houses themselves an even produced educational materials related to them as their Bronze Award project. In late September, they presented two of the houses to the gardeners and then gave three more to the CEO of Girl Scouts Heart of the Hudson.
In an accompanying educational pamphlet, the scouts noted the many benefits that bats provide to the environment, including helping to reduce populations of gnats, mosquito, moths, wasps, and more. Bat also act as pollinators for plants and help to distribute seeds through their droppings.
“We chose to make bat boxes because bats are endangered,” the pamphlet explained. “Bats are killed because humans don’t understand the important role of bats in the environment.”
The goal is to help New York’s six species of bats find protection from predators and winter conditions.