From left are Bill Briggs, charter member A.M. Rotary and club chair for Rotary International Foundation; Dr. William A. Geary, Paul Harris Fellow award recipient and pathologist, director of pathology services at UPMC Chautauqua WCA and Busti town judge; and Steve Hayes, Greater A.M. Rotary Club of Jamestown president. Submitted photo

FINDLEY LAKE — The Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy will host a bat biology and conservation program starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 21 at the Mina Community Center, 2883 North Road, Findley Lake.

The Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy and Findley Lake Nature Center are partnering to present the opportunity to learn about bats. Featured presenter Jonathan Townsend is a bat biologist and the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy’s conservation lands manager.  Townsend is also the assistant director of the Greystone Bat, Bird, and Butterfly Sanctuary.  The presentation is free and open to the public and will last an hour and a half.

Townsend’s presentation will cover the various aspects of bat biology that make them so unique and diverse among mammals, as well as a summary of conservation issues facing bat species worldwide. The program will also highlight the species of bat found in Western New York and local scientific research under way that will help promote more effective bat conservation efforts in Chautauqua County.

The Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy is a member-supported not-for-profit organization which works with landowners to conserve and enhance the landscape features which protect important habitats and collect, store, filter and deliver clean waters to Chautauqua lakes, streams and groundwaters. To date it has led efforts conserving more than 1,000 acres of land across Chautauqua County, including two miles of Chautauqua Lake and Outlet shoreline.