HARRISBURG-State closes caves to help bats

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HARRISBURG-State closes caves to help bats

Postby Evan G » Sep 14, 2006 9:12 pm

Thursday, September 14, 2006

HARRISBURG — In its ongoing effort to protect Pennsylvania’s varied and valuable bat populations, the state Bureau of Forestry next month will begin limiting public access to three caves in Fayette and Westmoreland counties where bats hibernate in large numbers.

The caves, harboring some of the largest and most vulnerable bat populations in the state, will be closed to all visitors, Oct. 1 through May 30. Specially-constructed locking gates are being installed at Coon and Lemon Hole caves, southeast of Blairsville, Westmoreland County, and Barton Cave, near Uniontown, Fayette County.


Link:http://www.standard-journal.com/articles/2006/09/14/news/news10.txt
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Postby driggs » Sep 14, 2006 10:41 pm

Full article (vs. subscription site above) linked to from original forum thread: Bat Hibernating Sites Off-Limits In Forbes State Forest

The caves, harboring some of the largest and most vulnerable bat populations in the state, will be closed to all visitors, beginning Oct. 1, 2006, through May 30, 2007. Specially-constructed locking gates are being installed at Coon and Lemon Hole caves, southeast of Blairsville, Westmoreland County, and Barton Cave, near Uniontown, Fayette County.
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Postby Evan G » Sep 15, 2006 9:13 am

Thanks Riggs :-) . Didn't even notice :doh: !
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Postby driggs » Sep 15, 2006 12:11 pm

This is bad news for us (the West Virginia University Student Grotto) as Barton Cave is the closest easily-accessible beginner cave to Morgantown WV. We just took some first-timers there about two weeks ago. Barton Cave is about a 40 minute drive, the next nearest park-at-the-entrance cave is about 2 hours south (Bowden Cave, Randolph County WV).

Time for some new local dig projects!
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Postby Evan G » Sep 17, 2006 10:10 am

Here are a few more articles that are on the net:

[center]Image[/center]
[center]Gates to keep people out and keep cave-dwelling bats safe[/center]
[center]State makes three more caves off-limits to let residents hang out safely in winter[/center]
[center]Sunday, September 17, 2006 by Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette[/center]

UNIONTOWN -- An Eastern pipistrelle bat was hanging out all alone on the low limestone ceiling, 50 yards into cool, dark-as-the-inside-of-your-coffin Barton Cave.

Smaller than a computer mouse and with red forearms and light brown belly fur, the bat was asleep just for the day. But several hundred other pipistrelles, along with little brown and big brown bats, will soon join him for a more prolonged stay, attaching themselves to the cave roof to hibernate until spring.

For the first time, their winter nap will not be interrupted by human visitors.

Barton Cave, in Fayette County, along with Coon and Lemon Hole caves in Westmoreland County, have been outfitted with specially constructed, heavy metal and concrete locking gates, with bars far enough apart to let bats in but small enough to keep cavers out. The three caves, which are in the Forbes State Forest, along the Laurel Ridge, will be closed from the beginning of October through the end of May.

The gated caves are the latest additions to a bat conservation program that, since the mid-1980s, has locked up and limited public access to more than 20 caves and twice as many abandoned mines around the state, said Aura Stauffer, a wildlife biologist and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' resident bat expert. The caves are known bat hibernaculums, places where bats gather in colonies and hibernate through the late fall, winter and early spring.

[center]Image[/center]
[center]This gate at the entrance of a
popular Fayette County cave will
protect hibernating bats from cavers,
who interrupt their winter sleep,
says wildlife biologist Aura Stauffer,
of the Pennsylvania Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources.
[/center]

[center]<a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06260/722515-85.stm">Link for the rest of the Article</a>[/center]

[center] :bat sticker: :bat sticker: :bat sticker: :bat sticker: :bat sticker: :bat sticker: :bat sticker: :bat sticker: :bat sticker: :bat sticker: :bat sticker: [/center]

[center]Commission takes swing at protecting bats[/center]
[center]By Bob Frye TRIBUNE-REVIEW OUTDOORS EDITOR
Sunday, September 17, 2006 [/center]

The state bureau of forestry is, for the first time, going to try to protect hibernating bats.

At the urging of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the bureau placed gates across the entrances to three caves -- Barton Cave on Chestnut Ridge in Fayette County and Lemon Hole and Coon caves on Derry Ridge in Westmoreland County -- located on Forbes State Forest last week.

The gates are not meant to keep people who like exploring caves out completely, said Ed Callahan, district forester for the Forbes. Rather, they are meant to keep people out of the caves between mid-October and April, when bats are hibernating.

"We've posted signs at each site explaining what we're trying to accomplish, so, hopefully, people will understand," Callahan said. "We're not just closing them off to recreation."

Barton Cave, located near Laurel Caverns, is the most popular with people. Coon Cave is the hardest to find and tough to navigate, since both of its entrances lead to a water-filled passage that can be knee to waist deep, depending on the season. Lemon Hole gets explored, but only by those able to rope their way down the 38-foot drop that marks its entrance.

All three caves hold bats. Counts done this past winter found 500 bats hibernating in Barton Cave, 1,300 in Coon Cave and 1,500 in Lemon Hole Cave, said Cal Butchkoski, a wildlife biologist who works with bats for the Game Commission.

The majority of bats found at each site were common little brown bats. But each cave has the potential to hold more bats overall and attract rarer species, like the Indiana bat, if given protection, Butchkoski said.

Keeping people out of the caves when bats are hibernating is critical, however.

"The insects they eat are gone in the winter time. They're surviving on stored fat reserves," Butchkoski said. "And every time they are disturbed and wake up, they're using 20 days worth of stored food, or maybe more, depending on the temperature."

Serious cavers already know to avoid caves during the winter when bats are hibernating, said Tom Metzger, who owns Bear Cave, near Lemon Hole and Coon, and is a member of several caving organizations, including the Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy and Loyalhanna Grotto. They support the conservation of caves, he said.

Still, he and other cavers would like to have seen the state try something less intrusive than gates.

"From a purists' viewpoint, we don't like to see it. It's sort of akin to putting a big fence around a waterfall. It kind of takes away from the beauty of it," Metzger said.

"This should at least be a good test to see how physical barriers will work."

The bureau of forestry has never gated any caves before this, but the practice has worked in other places, Butchkoski said. It just takes time.

"Things are not going to change substantially in one or two years," Butchkoski said. "It could take as long as 10 years because these things have such a low reproductive rate. A lot of these species only have one pup a year.

"But I think we're on the road to recovery."


[center]<a href="http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/outdoors/s_470928.html">Link for the rest of the Article</a>[/center]
Evan G
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