LEBANON — New Hampshire Fish and Game is asking residents to help with its annual summer bat count.

The effort is part of the New Hampshire Bat Counts Project, which monitors the state’s summer bat colonies. The department is calling for land and homeowners who have bats on their property to help tally “emergence counts” by documenting the number of bats leaving the roost site at night. Volunteers should conduct at least one count in June and one count in July.

“Structures like barns and church steeples often serve as summer homes for female bats and their young,” a press release reads. “In the face of white-nose syndrome, which has been causing significant declines in bat populations throughout the Northeast, monitoring these “maternity colonies” is more important than ever.”

Those interested in volunteering can learn more at the following link: wildlife.state.nh.us/surveys/bats.html

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