Though I chose to focus on vegetation ecology and conservation as an undergraduate, my subsequent work life and graduate career lead me into the field of wildlife biology through the study and management of bats and caves. I worked for the National Park Service as a cave management intern, bat survey field tech, and natural resource program manager for a total of five years before returning to graduate school. My research focuses on habitat selection in conjunction with underlying ecological theory to improve a population monitoring program of Townsend’s big-eared bats (Corynorhinus townsendii) in volcanic caves at Lava Beds National Monument. I am interested in the relationship between cave microclimate, cave morphology, and bat abundance as this may inform site selection, leading us to caves that are more likely to have high bat abundance in the winter. Population monitoring of bats presents many challenges, but is of utmost importance in determining the effects of White-Nose Syndrome in western bats.