This page archives past events for learning and evaluation purposes

2025 Events

Bat Walk and Talk, July 4 2025

We hosted 39 people. Admission was free and first-come, first-served. We capped admission at 39 and had a wait list of 4. The event took place on agricultural land that features a community development farm and a flower U-Pick. The land is protected from development by an easement held by Edmonton and Area Land Trust. Our talk took place in a beautiful Yurt, and our walk was through old-growth forest leading to the North Saskatchewan River. Cory Olson of the Alberta Bat Project gave an informative talk orienting us to the Bats of Alberta, highlighting those bats expected to be found in Edmonton’s river valley. Below is a list of some of the other speakers that rounded out the night.

Bat Talk 8:45 pm with Cory Olson & Special Guests

* Taylor Babcook 9:30 pm Taylor spoke of bat program at Otipemisiwak Métis Government

* Catherine Shier 9:35 pm Catherine spoke about conservation efforts at the Edmonton Valley Zoo and oriented us to the unique conservation opportunity the river valley offers for Aspen Parkland. She highlighted how conservation of our river valley is critical if we want to maintain a functional green network.

* Hannah Bayne 9:40 pm Introduced One Health Concept and the Bat accoustics art project.

* Doug and Kelly 9:45 pm. Land Stewards discussed how they worked with EALT on an easement. They also explained the old-growth forest portion of the property.

* Lauren Dobroski 9:50 pm-EALT talked about conservation easement and lands EALT hold in the river valley.

After the talks we met Cory’s rescued bat

Then Cory taught us how to record bats and convert their ultrasonic echolocation into audible recordings.

After a safety talk, we all filed into the woods to record. We walked to the river and back returning at midnight.

Some reviews of the night:

Anytime you get  40-ish people out in a forest in the middle of the night is a good time.

 Develops community with each other and the earth.

 Presentations were great. engaging, interesting, different aspects tackled. Really drove home the understanding how humans need nature for our health and we need to be more reciprocal in nature's health - including bats. 

 We should check out bat hotspots in the forest ahead of time - before the event.

Very cool to see a bat up close and personal. Really made the connection to - hey that is a living creature who deserves to be here just as much as me.

The opportunity to see a live bat under the watchful eye of an expert caretaker, the series of intriguing and educational presentations, and the walk in the forest with bat listening devices were all rare opportunities.  Of course, there were excellent snacks as well.

 I learned about a couple of initiatives I hadn't known about previously - the Opetimisawak being one, and I was reminded of some of the defining characteristics of mammals, as well as some interesting and pertinent facts about bats in particular.

I heard many lively conversations going on, and it sounded like people were making connections and learning from each other.

 The seed packages didn't hand themselves out, as we discovered - I don't know why that is or how it could be prevented.

 All in all, I think it's worth doing again next year.  Maybe the one thing to try to improve on would be trying to maximize the probability that we will actually find a variety of bats.

Below is a video of us walking back from the river.