Near-natural or semi-natural forests such as relatively undisturbed and old deciduous or mixed woodland are considered worth protecting and ecologically valuable habitats for bat conservation. In contrast, mono-specific forest plantations are considered ecologically less valuable; thus, decision-makers recommend these plantations as suitable locations for wind power stations and therefore want to further expand wind turbines in these habitats. This is expected to have a strong negative impact on the landscape because forests would be cleared for wind turbine pads and access roads and wind turbines rise above the trees with adverse impacts for bats. Therefore, we argue that, in light of bat conservation, the suitability of forest plantations for wind energy development is not, per se, warranted and that implications of wind power stations, even in mono-specific forest plantations, should be assessed and evaluated. We conducted long-term bat activity monitoring and recorded bat echolocation calls above the canopies of different forest sites (coniferous monoculture plantations and semi-natural mixed deciduous forests) in Germany and compared different forest types in terms of species richness, total bat activity, activity of the three bat species groups and species composition. Generalised linear models revealed that forest type and the amount of forest biotopes did not enhance bat activity. Ordination showed that species composition was not affected by forest type, location and connectivity. Mono-specific forest plantations can harbour a diverse bat fauna with high species activity and are, therefore, valuable bat habitats just as near-natural or semi-natural woodlands are. Environmental impact assessment and mitigation measures are vital in all forest types before and after planning for wind energy turbines. In particular, future planning and approval processes must consider the importance of mono-specific forest plantations for bat species protection.

近自然或半自然森林（如相对未受干扰的落叶和混合林地）被认为值得保护，并具有生态价值，可保护蝙蝠。相比之下，单种人工林被认为在生态上价值较低。因此，决策者将这些人工林推荐为风力发电站的合适地点，因此希望进一步扩大这些栖息地中的风力涡轮机。预计这将对景观产生严重的负面影响，因为将清除森林中的风力涡轮机垫层和道路，并且风力涡轮机会升至树木上方，并对蝙蝠产生不利影响。因此，我们认为，鉴于蝙蝠的养护，本质上没有必要保证人工林适合风能开发，并且风力发电站的影响，即使在单一的人工林中，也应进行评估。我们进行了长期的蝙蝠活动监测，并记录了德国不同森林场所（针叶单种人工林和半天然混合落叶林）的树冠上方的蝙蝠回声定位，并比较了不同森林类型的物种丰富度，总蝙蝠活动，活动三个蝙蝠物种组和物种组成。广义线性模型表明，森林类型和森林生物群落的数量并未增强蝙蝠的活动。整理表明，物种组成不受森林类型，位置和连通性的影响。特定于单一森林的人工林可以容纳种类繁多的蝙蝠动物，具有很高的物种活动性，因此，它们是接近自然或半自然林地的宝贵蝙蝠栖息地。在规划风能涡轮机之前和之后，环境影响评估和缓解措施对于所有森林类型都是至关重要的。特别是，未来的计划和批准流程必须考虑单一种类的人工林对蝙蝠物种保护的重要性。