by PYoungbaer » Aug 7, 2012 3:26 pm
Mudduck,
"Exploration" is just one of the many endorsed activities under the USFS/NSS MOU. If you want to go somewhere where no one has gone before, tell the Forest Service you want to go into one of their caves that has some leads and go do that. They'll probably want a trip report with your findings. This helps them understand the resource they are charged with managing.
"Monitoring" is another endorsed activity. We've had incidents (too many) of people violating the closure order and causing vandalism in federal caves, including the Forest Service's. Propose a monitoring trip to assess that cave. For the most part, this would be a "recreational" trip, but you'd be the eyes and ears of an agency that doesn't have enough boots under the ground to take care of its own resources. Again, file a trip report that says "all is well," or "graffiti in the big room," etc.
Education of the public to build an appreciation of caves and cave resources is another goal of the MOU. Why not propose a group trip for youth, scouts, camps, etc. that has an educational and safety component, and do it in a popular cave. You could monitor for vandalism along the way.
One of the big issues in some parts of the country is a lack of baseline date on bat usage (in the case of WNS problems). Agencies have been loathe to allow blanket access since they can't document use or non-use of caves by bats. What about proposing a surveillance project for a group of caves to find out? This could become the basis for opening some or many. Right now, the agencies themselves lack a lot of that data.
Bottom line, I encourage everyone to read these things inclusively, not exclusively, and not be timid about asking.