Cavechat.org

definitely a step in the right direction.
Hard to forget that six years ago the CBD was ready to shut all caves on private and public property by force if necessary, and then summarily execute all cavers.

graveleye wrote:definitely a step in the right direction.
Hard to forget that six years ago the CBD was ready to shut all caves on private and public property by force if necessary, and then summarily execute all cavers.

Who says they have given up. Crazies are usually crazy for life.

For what it's worth to those who care, lol...........I mostly cave in a very small area of central PA. All project caves dug open by myself and my honorable caving brethren. They are privately owned. I personally know the landowners well and they like us. Nothing will change that but death amongst us lol. When I do the occasional trip elsewhere my gear is just as clean as it is when I cave in central PA. I don't and have never caved in TAG, out west, or very far from my stomping grounds and probably never will. I can't see driving past thousands of caves to do a cave lol. So I just stay in one place and work the caves for more booty. Since we've been fairly successful at it I can't see us changing our habits.

So no worries on Brother Mud contaminating y'alls caves elsewhere lol!

Re: the CBD - they're still pushing. See this article on the Washington WNS bat situation (good information from the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, by the way):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/washington-white-nose-syndrome-bat_us_57004994e4b0a06d5805e09a

NWHC has determined that the bat is a Northwestern one, not a transplant; still undetermined on the genetics of the fungus itself (North American strain; European strain; Asian strain; or something else.....).

Statement from the article:
“We knew it was coming [to the West], but we didn’t know it would be so soon,” Matteson said.

What a crock of bat poo. If this bat disease was spread by humans, it would have gotten out West within a year
or two of the New York infection (2006), don't you think? Obviously, humans didn't spread it or it would have arrived
years ago, because humans can and do travel anywhere in the world in one day. The original infection in New York was
first detected in 2006. That was 10 years ago. I can see it taking bats that long to spread WNS that far, but not humans.
It is so obvious that humans are not the vector. What amazes me is that WNS isn't in Florida caves yet. Lots of Florida
cavers cave in TAG where WNS has been for several years, yet WNS is still not in Florida that I am aware of. The CBD
seems to have their heads in the dark.