US FWS Recommends suspending caving activities

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Re: US FWS Recommends suspending caving activities

Postby NZcaver » Mar 30, 2009 4:53 pm

Cavemud wrote:
erebus wrote:
Cavemud wrote:Guess I'm a speeeelunker now! :laughing:

Well, don't look for the cavers to rescue you, because they aren't allowed in caves anymore. :bananabat:

:roll: Who says? I don't recall reading anywhere we're not allowed. The moratorium is VOLUNTARY...and I'm not volunteering! :waving:

If called upon for a cave rescue, I have absolutely no qualms about entering any cave to do the job regardless of the bat situation. I would expect most of us to feel the same way. At least I'll try to show up wearing clean caving gear, but I don't expect the fashion police will be on duty at a rescue.

And as Todd so rightly pointed out, this massive moritorium is completely voluntary. You may interpret the recommendations of the USFWS as you see fit.
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Re: US FWS Recommends suspending caving activities

Postby wyandottecaver » Mar 30, 2009 6:40 pm

Erebus,

the USFWS announcement and accompanying Q&A talked about Show caves.

Others,

It is my opinion that this moratorium is primarily a device. They certainly hope some cavers some places follow it. But the real audience are cave owners not users. The USFWS explicitly states in it that they expect States, Agencies, and other owners to close caves/restric access to stop/slow WNS. The Q&A elaborates a little further. In short, the USFWS has said to the people who actually OWN the caves that they should close them. Implied is that if they do NOT do that and WNS subsequently shows up, then they could be held accountable because they have failed to follow the USFWS "recommendations".

States receive millions of dollars in USFWS money, and I assure you as a past State employee that the USFWS use that as a very big stick to get their way. If you own/manage a cave with protected species then the noose is even tighter. Many state cave conservancies own caves with endangered species.
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Re: US FWS Recommends suspending caving activities

Postby Cody JW » Mar 30, 2009 8:16 pm

I think this is just another example of knee jerk government overreaction. This is just another example of Big Brother with his nose in your tent. Get used to it , it is going to get MUCH worse.My gut feeling tells me human influnce has nothing to due with this.Cave On.
It only takes one person to surrender a dog to a kill shelter ,but it takes many to rescue it.
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Re: US FWS Recommends suspending caving activities

Postby ek » Mar 30, 2009 9:23 pm

If "my gut feeling..." is an argument for "cave on"...well, I'd just like to say explicitly that that's not a very good argument.
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Re: US FWS Recommends suspending caving activities

Postby wyandottecaver » Mar 31, 2009 4:53 pm

Just heard that the Daniel Boone NF in KY may soon be closing it's caves. I'll try to follow up.
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