Zionsville Girl Scout, Caroline DeBrota, recently completed the final stage of her Girl Scout Gold Award project, installing three bat houses on a building in the Zionsville Waste Water Treatment Facility on Starkey Road. Earning the Girl Scout Gold Award is similar to achieving Eagle Scout ranking in Boy Scouts. The bat houses, built by DeBrota and a team of volunteers, were made according to Bat Conservation International’s blueprints. They were installed using provided standards for an optimal bat roosting site: south-facing, 10 to16 feet off of the ground, and receiving at least seven hours of direct sunlight. Matt Dickey, Zionsville Parks Department director, led Caroline to Dennis Mackey, superintendent of the Zionsville Wastewater treatment facility. Mackey was instrumental in finding the perfect location for the houses. A portion of the supplies for the bat houses was donated by Leigh Ann Akard of Boone Village’s Akard True Value Hardware.
Caroline, a senior at Zionsville Community High School, encourages fellow nature lovers to learn more about bats and their important role in a healthy ecosystem, and to build their own backyard bat houses using the free blueprints found at http://batcon.org/index.php/get-involved/install-a-bat-house/subcategory/617.html