Cavechat.org

My reply to his reply:
_______________

Dennis,

I'd like to very sincerely thank you for taking the time to read and
address my comments. I realize that you're not able to engage every
comment fired your way, and expect that those comments are numerous. I
would like to make this brief additional reply.

The intent you outline -- authorized "caving with a purpose" with the
goal of furthering cave resource management -- is exactly what our
working group is aiming to establish on the Monongahela National
Forest.

However, I wish to point out that the MNF's Closure Order No.
09-21-13-13 also exempts "persons with permit specifically authorizing
the otherwise prohibited act". This verbiage only addresses the
problem in theory. In practice, the MNF has no policy in place to
issue such authorization, which means that 5 years have passed without
a single authorized cave trip on that Forest. I fear the same
procedural roadblock for your R8 Forests, with the added friction of a
region-level closure order rather than a forest-level one. Please
ensure that "caving with a purpose" may actually take place on the R8
Forests, in practice, not just on paper.

Again, thank you for taking the time to personally respond to my
comments. As I mentioned, I'd be more than happy to assist in any way
given my experience in working with the MNF, and I'll also give a
personal recommendation for Cindy Sandeno of the MNF, who can provide
documents and experience in working toward similar ends on the MNF.

- DR

Today is 2014 May 20, exactly one year after the most recent R8 "emergency closure", Order 01-2013. According to that closure order, all the not-otherwise-closed R8 caves become officially open again at the stroke of midnight. The Forest Service has typically issued these orders at the last minute, but this one especially so... I can't find a renewed closure order yet, has anyone else seen one?

Anyone have caving plans for midnight tonight?

They did it. The bas&^rds...

In another wonderful display of bureaucracy vs. science and common sense, the US Forest Service in Arkansas has closed almost all of its caves to the public in hopes of curbing WNS. The closures run until 2019, according to an article in the July 2 USA TODAY.
This might have seemed a good idea in 2007 when we didn’t know anything about WNS. I still haven’t seen a shred of evidence that humans are the vector. I do hope USFS has some tiny little gates to keep out infected bats and other animals.

Yes, Arkansas is part of Region 8.

I guess I forgot to post this here, here is the closure notice.
http://caves.org/WNS/signed%20decision% ... losure.pdf

The USFS will be at Convention on Tuesday for a panel discussion on WNS and will discuss the closure.

Will there be a transcript made of that panel? Someone should look into doing that- or taking a video of it if it is allowed. It would be nice to have that in the NSS records.