by John Lovaas » Jul 26, 2011 7:01 pm
I haven't had much time to review the document, as I was travelling to and from Convention, and really didn't feel like ruining my vacation. A member of the MSS' Save The Bats group sent me a quick hit list of items to review- perhaps this will be of some use to folks here:
PG 8 – transmission Cave-to-bat, cave-to-equipment, equipment-to-cave
PG 8 – long distance jumps of WNS due to people.
Pg 8 – proof that Gd lives in cave soils
Pg 12 – Science advisory group consists of DNR staffers and people appointed by the Bureau of Endangered Resources.
Pg 13 – DNR staff member leads stakeholder group
PG 32 – modifying cave or min to make unsuitable for Gd
Pg 33 – WHEN cave closures become the sole means of preventing the spread of Gd
Pg 34 – no distinction of caves with bats or without bats. All treated the same
Pg 35 – all visitors to commercial caves must do foot decontamination
Pg 35 – any cave or mine is a potential reservoir of Gd
Pg 38 – close cave to bats that are at risk of carrying Gd
Pg 38 – remove Gd infected bats from caves
Pg 38 – remove all bats from location and used as test bats or euthanized.
Pg 39- kill neighbors of Gd infected bats
Pg 39 kill entire colony mid winter to prevent from emerging in spring
Pg 39 exclusion of bats from caves
Pg 39 exclude bats from commercial caves
Pg 40 – environmental changes to cave/mine
At the moment, the first lie I can identify is on pg. 8, regarding Gd living in cave soils. There is no evidence to support any suggestion that Gd grows vegetatively, or produces fruiting bodies, in cave soils- it is merely speculation that is currently unsupported by any existing science. My reference source is an email correspondence I had with David Blehert of the USGS' Madison wildlife lab.
Muddyface- I should point out that the WIDNR will choose who sits on their committees. In light of the fact that, outside of Wisconsin cave owners, only one Wisconsin caver with Wisconsin residency bothered to send in an email comment during last fall's public review period, I rather doubt that WIDNR is interested in listening to anyone with an opinion or critical thinking skills. Nevermind the fact that in the last year, 4 current and former WSS board members have been hired by the DNR.
imbecile sheepherder.