Dr. Timothy C. Carter, Ph.D. received international recognition as the 2006 Community Partner of the Year from the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) for contributions to wildlife habitat conservation and environmental education at the Unimin Corporation’s Tamms/Elco Plant in southern Illinois. The Community Partner of the Year award goes to one organization or individual for making a significant contribution to a corporate site’s wildlife habitat enhancement programs.

A mutual interest in bat conservation made it easy for Dr. Carter to strike up a relationship with the Tamms/Elco’s wildlife restoration program in 1998 where the wildlife team had initiated a bat habitat restoration program. Dr. Carter has worked extensively on the federally endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) and helped to restore the abandoned mines at Tamms/Elco as habitats for the Indiana bat and other types of bats most notably at Unimin’s abandoned Magazine Mine. The ongoing effort at that mine has gained Dr. Carter widespread recognition for helping to restore populations of the Indiana bat.

Speaking about Dr. Carter, Rick Fox, head of the wildlife team says, “You need to get out of his way!” As a dedicated community partner, Tim has taken visitors into the Tamms/Elco mines, developed educational activities for a great variety of visiting groups and media, including the Chicago Tribune and Smithsonian magazine. His dedication to and enthusiasm for the Tamms/Elco wildlife restoration efforts is also evident through his facilitation of academic research. He has advised two Southern Illinois University graduate thesis projects and worked with groups from the University of Illinois, Humboldt State University and Indiana Bat Recovery Team on utilizing the mines for research.

Dr. Carter, an Assistant Professor at Indiana’s Ball State University, is an expert in his academic field of zoology and has published widely on bat conservation.