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Safeguard Project
The United States initiated the Strategic Stockpile Program in 1951. This
program was designed to secure stockpiles of strategic ores throughout the
country. Manganese is a metal of high value, used for hardening steel alloys.
Shortly after the stockpiling program started, manganese began at several
locations in New Mexico, including the several mines southwest of Socorro which
were active through the early 1960s. Little did the miners and government
planners realize that they were also creating significant bat habitat near
Socorro, habitat which may help to secure the survival of at least one bat
species.
| In 1992, the New Mexico Abandoned Mine Land
Bureau began to inventory the abandoned manganese mines near Socorro,
discovering many open mine shafts and adits. At the Black Canyon and
Nancy Mines, the Bureau discovered significant bat use, including a
summer nursery and the largest recorded hibernating population of
Townsend's big-eared bats (Corynorhinus townsendii), a species in
decline. |
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The Bureau safeguarded eight shafts, six
adits, and nine stope openings in 1996, using six bat compatible
closures, three cable net closures, and three grated closures, all of
which allow for ventilation of the mine workings. Other openings were
not important for maintaining bat habitat and were safeguarded by
backfilling and construction of polyurethane foarn plugs and reinforced
concrete caps. To reduce the impact on the remaining bats, the Bureau
limited construction activities at most openings to periods between
winter bat hibernation and the summer nursery season. |
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The bat closures were designed using heavy
steel members. Columns were filled with concrete and crossbars
reinforced against cutting with internal stiffeners. Access roads to the
openings were closed by ripping, constructing earth berms and fencing,
and placing of large boulders across the roads. These closure methods
have weathered attempts at vandalism well. |
The protection offered by the bat closures and the subsequent reduction in
disturbance has led to dramatically increased populations. For the preservation
of habitat for the bat population, the State of New Mexico was presented the
1999 Office of Surface Mining's National Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Award.
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