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John Lovaas wrote:boogercaver71 wrote:I know for a fact that the upper echelon at Mammoth are taking them seriously.
As someone who caves regularly at Mammoth, ran a CRF expedition two months ago, currently sits on the CRF BoD, and counts some of the 'upper echelon' at Mammoth as good friends-
I'm not aware of any facts that would support your statement 'the upper echelon at Mammoth are taking them(CBD) seriously.'
Project cavers are still caving there, wild cave tours are still running, tourists walk across a biomat. Not so bad.
boogercaver71 wrote:As the Director of the Mammoth Cave Restoration Project, my contacts (who I will not name) told me this directly that they are worried about the CBD lawsuits, and are taking a proactive approach to WNS public education and decon procedures of us CRF, wild cave tours,, and regular tours.
John Lovaas wrote:boogercaver71 wrote:As the Director of the Mammoth Cave Restoration Project, my contacts (who I will not name) told me this directly that they are worried about the CBD lawsuits, and are taking a proactive approach to WNS public education and decon procedures of us CRF, wild cave tours,, and regular tours.
Yes, Mammoth Cave NP is taking a proactive approach- which they laid out in their WNS management plan, signed by the Superintendent 5 months ago. Some of the plan content was authored as much as 10 months ago. I don't think the Intent To Sue letter influenced the process.
For Immediate Release, January 21, 2010
Contact: Mollie Matteson, Center for Biological Diversity, (802) 434-2388 (office), (802) 318-1487 (cell)
Emergency Petitions Filed to Close Caves and Save Bats From Extinction
WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity today filed two emergency petitions with the federal government in an effort to stop the spread of a deadly bat disease and step up government action to save two rare bat species from extinction. The first petition asks federal agencies to close all caves under their jurisdiction and asks Interior Secretary Salazar to pass regulations banning travel between caves under any jurisdiction. The second petition asks for the eastern small-footed bat and the northern long-eared bat, both hit hard by the newly emergent disease known as white-nose syndrome, to be protected as endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act.
“White-nose syndrome has decimated bats in the Northeast and is quickly spreading to other regions,” said Mollie Matteson, a conservation advocate with the Center. “Our government needs to increase its response by an order of magnitude to offer any hope for bats in the eastern United States and to ensure that the disease does not spread across the country.”
The Center’s actions come as scientists and wildlife agencies brace themselves for a fourth winter of bat deaths across the eastern United States. Since white-nose syndrome was first documented in caves in the Albany, New York area in early 2007, the disease – since confirmed as a previously unknown fungus – has spread to bat populations in a total of nine states. Biologists believe it will show up in new areas this winter, and may reach some of the densest and most diverse bat populations in the world, in the South and Midwest, within the next year or two. Thus far, over a million bats are dead from the syndrome.
“This is the worst wildlife catastrophe the country has seen since the extinction of the passenger pigeon,” said Matteson. “Bats eat millions of insects every year, meaning their loss could have far-reaching consequences for people and for crops.”
The Center is requesting that the secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, and Defense close all bat-inhabited caves and mines on federal lands throughout the continental United States to prevent the possible human transmission of the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome and to ban travel between caves with bats under any jurisdiction. Scientists suspect that people are partially responsible for the fungus’ spread and may even have introduced it to North America. A recent genetic analysis of a white fungus found on a bat in France confirmed that it is identical to the disease-causing fungus in the United States. However, European bats do not appear to become ill from the fungus.
“Closing access to caves is a necessary precaution until white-nose syndrome is better understood and it can be determined that entering caves is safe,” said Matteson.
The two bat species the Center is petitioning to have listed as endangered were already rare prior to the appearance of white-nose syndrome and are now at grave risk of extinction.
“Without aggressive efforts to secure their habitat and stem further losses from all causes, including human transmission of the new bat disease, these bats may soon join the sad list of American species we know only from textbooks and museums,” said Matteson.
LukeM wrote:Scott McCrea wrote:The CBD has a website where you can sign a form letter supporting their efforts that will be sent to the USFS. I signed one.
What!
Calm down. I signed it "Don't Close Caves." and "Bats spread WNS" and "Closures Don't work" and "Support WNS research"
Scott, I thought about doing the same, but then I realized that if the Forest Service is getting hundreds or thousands of form letters like this all with the subject line "Protect Bats From White-Nose Syndrome, Close Caves", whatever we may say in the contents may get overlooked and just lumped into the rest of the "close caves" messages. Be careful.
bigredfoote wrote:As some of you know, in addition to being a NMBWG co-chair, I am currently on the NSS Board of Directors. I want to reassure you all that the NSS disapproves of lawsuits that will waste government resources that should be going towards WNS research and management. For 70 years, the NSS has been dedicated to the scientific study of caves and karst as well as protecting caves and their natural contents. We plan to continue working together with agencies, academics, and other NGOs to find a solution to WNS and really "save our bats".
Jennifer Foote
wyandottecaver wrote:noble in thought. The reality is that there is almost certainly no "solution" to WNS to be had at this point......for any price..... so stop wasting money on research and use it to secure caver access to caves.
WNS will kill every bat susceptible to it either physically or by virtue of their environment (hot states, or those with milder winters might blunt WNS)...period. Hopefully that won't be every single bat of some species...but then again it might mean we lose several species entirely.
with regards to WNS, saving our bats just isn't our choice anymore.
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