PINEDALE — Local youth were treated to a fun and educational talk about the importance of bats in the ecosystem. Raegin Akhtar, an education specialist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, hosted a talk with local kids and their families about the role played by bats in the ecosystem. Wind River Gardens donated two bat houses and Pinedale Lumber donated all the materials necessary to install them — one in front of the Pinedale Library and the other at Boyd Skinner Park along the library’s story stroll route.

Following Akhtar’s presentation, the kids went inside the library’s story-time room where they created wooden bat ornaments to take home. Some participants, like Teagan Cook, opted to decorate their wooden bats with multicolored jewels, while other library patrons took a more traditional approach by making black bats.