Luanne Johnson

Luanne Johnson, wildlife biologist and director of BiodiversityWorks, together with Liz Baldwin, wildlife biologist and assistant director of BiodiversityWorks, used a 2015 Vision Fellowship award to study Northern Long-eared Bat (NLEB) distribution, roosting and migration behavior on Martha’s Vineyard. This research gathered life history information for NLEB specific to Vineyard habitats to help protect the Vineyard’s population of these rare bats and recover the species within the Northeast. Martha’s Vineyard and Long Island may have the only remaining breeding populations of NLEB in the Northeast due to widespread white-nose syndrome causing mass mortalities at winter hibernacula. Luanne and Liz collaborated with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the USGS Cooperative Research Unit at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Virginia Tech, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Mass. Fish & Wildlife, New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Mass. Dept. of Conservation and Recreation, local conservation non-profits, and private landowners.