WNS National Plan

[PYoungbaer]

From the USFWS website:

Current news

Federal and state biologists are meeting March 16-18 to work on a national implementation plan for white-nose syndrome. The plan development builds on the draft framework for a national plan (September 2009) and will guide future activities responding to the WNS crisis.

Note: Neither the NSS, BCI, nor academic scientists working on WNS were invited.

[Evan G]

Gee the public sector ignoring the input of the the private sector, there is a surprise *sarcasm* ... good old tax dollars at work.

[Scott McCrea]

Note: Neither the NSS, BCI, nor academic scientists working on WNS were invited.

[sarcasm] I'm sure it will great. [/sarcasm]

[batrotter]

The obvious has been stated. WNS is now/will be/going to be, a federally controlled/manipulated/influenced issue. It is a political issue!
When are we going to get political?

[Billy]

Does anybody know where this meeting is? I find it a little odd because I know David Blehert (USGS, and definitely one of the main federal scientists involved) is giving two talks on Thursday evening and Friday morning at the University of Illinois. He must have a heckuva busy schedule this week.

[wyandottecaver]

ohh, I think this will be a case where the Federal biologists (USFWS) are telling the state biologists what the party line is. They can either spout the USFWS "wisdom" or get cutoff from the USFWS money tree. Inviting academics and private groups is not necessary in that scenario.

[BrianC]

Peter Y., I layman's terms, can you tell us what was said at this meeting? It appears to me that they are looking for input from cavers to determine how some issues will be decided.

[PYoungbaer]

Brian - No, I can't. I wasn't there, and so far, have seen nothing coming out of the meeting.

[wyandottecaver]

Apparently no Indiana DNR folks went because the governor wouldn't approve out of state travel even though private money was available to fund it.......

[PYoungbaer]

My guess is that this was mostly federal agency personnel. Most states are under budget crunches and out-of-state travel bans are common, as wyandottecaver indicated is the case in Indiana.

[JD]

Cave management policy is way too important to leave to biologists alone. Their myopic view of caves means they are clueless as to the suite of resources and values caves have. They see caves very narrowly, and have little knowledge or expertise outside the narrow area of their mission. This especially true for USFWS and TNC.

Many of these people see caves primarily as biological, especially bat, habitats. Well they are. But they are a lot more than that. They are also vital recreational and educational spaces, they hold important paleontogical resources. They are irreplaceable depositories of archaeological, historical, and other cultural resources, they have other biota dependent on them, they have commercial value, etc.

Cave are too important to leave policy and cave management to biologists. These other values and resource must be acknowledged and protected. All I get is blank stares when I tell them this.

Remember the story of the blind men and the elephant - each feeling a part of the beast and making their narrow conclusions, but none of them getting the overall picture. Thus it is with caves, an elephant with many parts and resources.

USFWS are the blind men.