The mere mention of endangered species can send a shiver up the back of the most fearless miner. Court battles have been waged, enforcement paper written and mining plans altered when species were tagged endangered. They are federally protected by the 30-year-old Endangered Species Act. The act has been the subject of several lawsuits and reform debates in Congress.

But when Unimin Specialty Minerals discovered the near-extinct Indiana bats had taken a liking to one of its abandon mines in southern Illinois, the company didn't run for cover. In fact, it made the bats the centerpiece of its environmental program. And company says that environmental program is key to its community relations plan.

Unimin operates a micro-crystal silica mine and processing plant in Alexander County, the southern-most tip of Illinois where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers converge. The company mines silica in open pits on about 20 acres, yet it owns 2,000 acres and has the mineral rights to another 10,000 acres. Part of that acreage hosts long-abandon underground silica mines.

“There was silica mining here with mules and carts 150 years ago,” says Siebert Cowley, plant manager at Unimin's Elco-Tamms plants. The site's 30 underground mines were abandon between 1911 and 1985.

“The bats have always used the old mines, and we knew they were there,” says Rick Fox, safety, health and quality supervisor at the Unimin site. But in 1995, they discovered that some of those bats were endangered species known as Indiana bats. Shortly after that, the site got on board with a company-wide edict to gain Wildlife Habitat Council certification.

“With the wildlife habitat program Unimin was engaged in, we saw (the bats) as an opportunity and built on it,” Fox says. “That's been our premier project.” The company partnered with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Bat Conservation International, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forestry Service to enhance and protect the bat habitat in what is called the Magazine Mine.

The bats are attracted to the Magazine Mine because of its near-perfect temperature, humidity and airflow. During the winter months, the mine maintains a temperature variance of 2°F to 3°F. But like many old underground mines, the Magazine Mine was in a state of decay. The mine went inactive in 1979.

To halt the decay, the agencies pulled together $135,000 of grant money, and Unimin put up the materials and labor. “The project would have run close to double if (the agencies) would have had to bring in the equipment and labor,” Cowley says. Most of that manpower and equipment went to securing the mine's two entrances. The challenge was to devise a barrier that kept unauthorized humans out but did not disturb airflow or the bats' access.

At both entrances, the team constructed specially designed iron barriers with grates too small for human passage yet large enough not to restrict bat flight. At the smaller escapeway, the barrier was anchored deep in the ground. At the larger entrance, an opening was left giving bat researchers access to the habitat. That passageway was enclosed with a 12-ft fence topped with barbed wire. To stave off Mother Nature's inclination to seal that opening, Unimin erected a steel support structure.

The team also installed light monitors in the mine that detect and record light. This lets Unimin officials know if vandals breach the gates. These devices also protect Unimin from liability by reducing the chance that an uninvited visitor is hurt or killed in the abandon mine.

Researchers are not sure why the Indiana bats came to the Magazine Mine. One theory is that they stumbled upon it by accident. What is certain is that the bats like the mine. Researchers first conducted a bat population census at the site in 1999 and found 9,074 Indiana bats (12,293 for all the species). In 2001, the census revealed 14,679 Indiana bats (18,329 for all species) in the mine.

The site is credited as hosting the largest bat population in Illinois, some believe it is the largest population anywhere. The site is now considered crucial to the species' survival. Experts predict that if nothing were done to protect the Unimin habitat, the Indiana bats would have been extinct by 2012.

One way the team hopes to further increase the bat population is finding other suitable habitats. Fox says there are about four other abandon underground mines that may work. Researchers want to know why the bats hibernate in some parts of the Magazine Mine and not others. They've installed several small devices, called Hobos, that measure and record the temperature and humidity every 15 minutes. “Every six months they will go in and download these things,” Fox says. “It's a learning experience for all.”

For Fox and Cowley, the WHC certification efforts extended well beyond the bat habitat. “We've got habitat efforts for turkeys, white deer and a variety of bluebird boxes,” Cowley says. “We've got a lot of programs for creating new habitats or maintaining and building existing habitats.”

The site's certification application listed 11 different projects. They include creating dens for state-protected timber rattlesnakes; planting crops, such as corn and soybeans, for wildlife feed; creating ponds that improve wildlife habitat and stormwater drainage for the mine; and allowing scientists to experiment with herbicides to eradicate the rogue plant kudzu.

“No program is too small or too large for our certification,” says Wildlife Habitat Council spokeswoman Vanessa Kauffman.

So why do so much work when any one of these projects may have qualified the Unimin site for certification?

“We happen to have so much natural resource here and the availability of (state and federal) organizations that we were able to make this program as big as it is,” Cowley says. “It really has snowballed from just getting certified and maintaining that certification to expanding the whole program.”

Unimin has 88 operations worldwide, and 31 sites are WHC-certified. Yet Elco-Tamms is the company's flagship operation when it comes to WHC certification. And the efforts at Elco-Tamms were recognized beyond the Unimin boardroom. Elco-Tamms won WHC's Rookie of the Year Award in 1997 and the Corporate Habitat of the Year Award in 2002. The latter award is the most coveted WHC offers.

“We were up against major corporations … (like) Ford, British Petroleum and Eli Lilly,” Cowley says. “They have tremendous budgets set aside for their programs.”

As this certification program has snowballed into an award-winning project, it has consumed its share of the operation's resources.

“(We're) taking advantage of the resources we already have,” Cowley says. “We do spend several thousand dollars a year on building food sources and maintaining food and habitat sources for wildlife. But mostly it's the hard work of employees and Rick (Fox) leading those programs with our own equipment and manpower. Rick really has devoted a tremendous amount of his time. There's a lot of work, but actual money expenditure is a minimum part of the whole thing.”

Many of the employees have donated their time because they take so much pleasure from outdoor activities like hunting, fishing and hiking. Likewise, Cowley and Fox share an enthusiasm for the outdoors. Fox, who holds a bachelor's degree in biology, also takes professional pleasure in the outdoors. Fox says one of the benefits to the program is spending less time in the office and more time inspecting the habitats.

Aside from feeling good about improving the environment, what is the return on Unimin's investment of money, labor and equipment?

WHC's Kauffman says for some companies, there's a cost savings. In many cases a company will make site changes that improve the environment and the operation. Elco-Tamms made such an improvement when it planted native thorny shrubs around its operation. The hedgerow serves as a barrier to keep trespassers out.

There is no federal tax incentive associated with the certification. Yet, Kauffman says, certification projects can be designed to meet state and federal obligations whether its mine reclamation or wetlands restoration.

Public recognition also is key, she says. WHC helps its members develop promotional material to spread the word about their certification.

“The payoff is really community relations,” Cowley says. “There may be only 30 people with homes living right here in Elco.” And neighboring Tamms isn't much bigger; the entire county population is only 9,590. “We are even more rural than a lot of our other operations.”

Although the scrutiny of the community relations' spotlight does not shine constantly in the eyes of the Elco-Tamms plant, Unimin has used its efforts there to help other locations. When a sister plant in Illinois was seeking a permit, it used Elco-Tamms as an example of what the community can expect from Unimin, Cowley says. It also helped that Illinois environmental regulators were familiar with the company's work at Elco-Tamms.

“It gave them a very comfortable feeling that the company is not going to come in here, create a bad scene and walk away from it,” Cowley says. “It made (our colleagues') work a lot easier in getting permitting.”

And Elco-Tamms is known beyond Illinois. Unimin used the site as an example when it was acquiring and looking to expand operations in Australia. “It goes a long way,” Fox says.

“Goodwill is really what we're talking about,” Cowley says. “Building goodwill and good communication takes the adversarial relationship away from the table when it comes to getting mining permits.”

Having garnered WHC's top award and become Unimin's poster child for good environmental practices, it would be easy for Fox and Cowley to rest on their laurels — but that's not their style. “The next goal is getting (WHC's) Corporate Lands for Learning Certifications,” Cowley says. “There's a lot involved in getting certified for that.”

That certification requires a company use its land to educate the public about natural habitats. And Unimin's Elco-Tamms operation has a good jump on that. In addition to allowing college students to help study the bat population, Unimin also allows high school science classes to tour the bat habitats, but not at the expense of the bats.

“We've had to be careful,” Fox says. “We don't take any large groups underground during hibernation. If you wake them up you are really putting them in jeopardy. They cannot wake up and go back into hibernation more than once or twice or they will burn out their fat reserves.”

Fox and Cowley identified another mine with a much smaller bat population than the Magazine Mine and use it for winter field trips. Cowley estimates that they brought in more than 200 college and high school students.

For grade-school children too young to go underground, Unimin built a campfire area near one of the ponds it created and stocked. “Most recently we had a group of Girl Scouts here,” Fox says. “It's not all bats. Some of it is just going fishing and teaching them conservation.”

The Elco-Tamms site would have a tougher time generating interest from local children were it not for an unlikely volunteer. Six years ago Fox's 15-year-old daughter Jessica began visiting schools, churches and other groups making educational presentations on the bat habitat.

She became head of the WHC certification program's education component. She's made presentations to more than 800 area teachers and students — about 10% of the entire Alexander County population. When speaking to these groups, she brought credibility by having volunteered on many of the certification projects including the bat census.

“She's a big reason we won the habitat of the year award,” Fox says of his daughter. Now 21, the younger Fox has a degree in zoology and is planning to pursue a law degree. She hopes to eventually practice environmental law.

Fox and Cowley also are working with state agencies to create artificial timber rattlesnake dens in remote areas on Unimin land. The snake is nearing the endangered list partly because of the public's perception of poisonous snakes. “Ten years ago, it was common for people to just kill rattlesnakes,” Cowley adds. “Now the state has efforts to protect them.”

When a snake turns up in the community, Unimin volunteers and state officials capture and relocate it. “The residents don't want them around, which is understandable; I don't either,” Fox says. “We'll keep them on our property out of the public's way.”

Through education and cooperation, the public may come to terms with its anxiety about snakes and bats. Unimin officials are hoping its efforts also help the public come to terms with its anxiety about mining.

The Wildlife Habitat Council

The Wildlife Habitat Council is a worldwide nonprofit, nonlobbying organization that formed in 1988. The group has more than 120 company members and projects covering more than 2 million acres in 48 states and 15 countries.

“We have a huge variety of mining members,” says WHC spokeswoman Vanessa Kauffman. These companies are very active and many have certified sites, she says. But certification is not a condition of membership.

WHC can be reached at 301-588-8994 or www.wildlifehc.org.

Member Company	Certified	Sites	Supplier Member
Aggregate Industries	0	2	Bridgestone
Ash Grove Cement	1	1	ChevronTexaco
Florida Rock Industries	5	3	ConocoPhillips
Graniterock	0	4	ExxonMobil
Hanson Building Materials	0	0	Goodyear
Lafarge North America	9	0	Griffin/Caterpillar
Oldcastle	0	1	Hitatchi
Rinker Materials	1	0	Shell Oil
Unimin	31
Vulcan Materials	34