By Ron Brown
 
September 1, 2009
 
NEAR GOLD HILL, Ore. - The Bureau of Land Management is using $900,000 in stimulus money to find and map old abandoned mines and close them off to public access.
 
The project is to designed keep people from falling into old shafts and tunnels, and to also allow bats to fly in and out of the mines.
 
"What we wanna do is we wanna put a bat grate in that opening to allow the bats to move in and out freely, and to provide public safety and keep people from going in," BLM Mine Surveyor John McNeel said.
 
Sink holes will be filled in with rock, dirt or manmade materials.
 
"We started off the year without even really thinking about doing this kind of work. As a supervisor I was able to bring on six field crews and 1 project manager just completely dedicated to doing the inventory work and
managing three different stimulus projects," BLM Supervisor Genivieve Rasmussen said.
 
The tunnels attract bats, who are essential to controlling insect populations. It provides a valuable home for them, and it's up to the BLM to try to decide what kind of procedure will be put in place in order to allow the bats to get in and out. Contractors are limited to when they can install the bat doors so they don't disrupt hibernation or reproduction cycles of the bats. Most work will be done in the late summer or fall.