Cavechat.org

Maquoketa Caves State Park to shield its bats
Sheri Melvold | Posted: Friday, February 17, 2012 10:36 pm |
The Quad-City Times

MAQUOKETA, Iowa — Anyone who is planning to explore the caves at Maquoketa Caves State Park will have to be screened before they begin their exploring this spring.
The state Department of Natural Resources has issued a new policy that will require the screening in an attempt to prevent white nose syndrome, a fungus that affects bats.
The caves portion of the state park has been closed for two years because the DNR wanted to limit exposure of the bats to the fungus.

Applause lines: [Sen. Tod] Bowman [D-Maquoketa] said no confirmed cases of the white-nosed fungus have been found in Iowa. He said research has shown the fungus is transmitted bat-to-bat and not by human contact.

Read on: http://www.qctimes.com/news/local/maquo ... z1nRM7o7iu

http://rhtrav.com/wordpress/iowa-to-reo ... -april-15/

Nothing actually "new" here...mostly an augmented rewrite, but I pulled Peter's response from the "comments" on the news article, and incorporated it into mine. Then, of course, posted the link to FB and Twitter, too.

Just stirring the pot....

Just heard the news this morning! The closest caves to my house (less than an hour) will reopen for business on April 14th.



edit-

"If you've been to the caves in the past five years rangers will ask you to disinfect any clothes or gear before you go in and you'll get a wrist band after you've taken 5–10 minute course."

All my stuff is already disinfected and ready to go.