Taylor, Daniel A.R., 1994. Conservation Initiatives Ensure Continued Progress . Across the United States and Canada, thousands of abandoned mines have been, and are being, closed for safety reasons without first assessing their importance to bats.
Evidence suggests that such closures have already resulted in the loss of millions of bats.
The bats of Millie Hill were more fortunate. Action was urgently needed to ensure that the reclamation of mines in this region also accounted for the critical needs of bats. Following the protection of Millie Hill, many federal and state natural resource managers throughout the Great Lakes Region expressed interest in learning how they too could maintain critical habitat for bats, while safeguarding the public from the hazards of abandoned mines. It quickly became apparent that such an undertaking not only required special skills and knowledge, but also the cooperation and coordination of many individuals, agencies, organizations, and the mining industry itself. To expedite the process and provide the necessary information, BCI offered to help by developing a special training workshop to address bat habitat and abandoned-mine problems in the Great Lakes Region.