WNS - Petition to close all Caves and Mines on federal land

[CaverStretch]

This is a forward that I got that might interest the group. Robert

A national organization, the Center for Biological Diversity, has filed
emergency petitions that would radically affect access to caves and mines in the
continental United States, and more. In the press release are links to their
formal petitions. Please take the time to fully read the petitions,
especially the first, which deals most directly with cave access.

In brief, they have petitioned the federal government to close all caves and
mines on federal lands within the continental U.S., designating all caves and
mines on federal land within the continental United States as "significant",
promulgate a new rule defining "taking" under the Endangered Species Act that
would ban traveling between any caves on public or private land, making both
cavers and landowners legally liable; and adding two bat species - Eastern
Small-footed, and Northern Long-eared - to the federal Endangered Species
list. They cite White Nose Syndrome (WNS) as the reason for doing all of
this.

_http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/bats-01-21-2010.html_

(http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/n...1-21-2010.html)


As the WNS Liaison for the NSS, I believe this is an extremely serious threat
from a well-funded and litigious organization, and should be responded to at
all levels, including by cave conservancies as organizations. I shudder to
think of the possible conservation ramifications: sealing of caves by
blasting, bulldozing, refilling sinkholes with rubbish that we worked so
hard to pull out, groundwater pollution, vandalism, long-established
collaborative relationships with landowners and agencies, and ironically, the
destruction of cave habitat.

I strongly suggest a prompt and professional response, sending any
correspondence to pertinent parties at the Center for Biological Diversity and
IMPORTANTLY to the federal officials to whom they sent petitions. Those
federal officials are listed within the petitions. The key CBD personnel are
:

Mollie Matteson, Conservation Advocate, author of the material:
_mmatteson@biologicaldiversity.org_
(mailto:mmatteson@biologicaldiversity.org)

Kieran Suckling, Executive Director and founder:
_ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org_ (mailto:ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org)

[Kao]

Thanks for this info. I am forwarding it to all concerning parties in AZ

[Stuart]

Good thing congress has already passed several bills to close all the mines on federal land in the U.S...Lets just add another one to the top of the pile.

Fortunately as scary as this bill sounds I believe it is much too far encompassing and frankly too expensive to be taken seriously by the Gov't at this time. I still believe it is a good idea to be on the defensive and contact the officials mentioned that bottom of the post. If not this petition some other petition may actually end up achieving the same end goal and leaving us all topside for a while.

Funny how ridiculous it is combat the threat of WNS by destroying ALL the bat habitat, I guess it makes sense. No more bats no more WNS.

While on the topic of WNS, has anyone seen any infected bats lately? I have seen many healthy bats hibernating so far this month, mostly big eared townsends. Saw several dozen of the little guys sleeping in a mine a couple weeks ago, all healthy.

[Mark1955]

I read some time ago that this was only affecting bats in the eastern USA. Now this may have changed in the last year or so but I have not seen any bats infected out in this area. Although to be oiniest I haven't seen as many bats as I used to see.

Mark

[rhartill]

Thanks for the update Robert. The CBD seems to feel they can invoke the Cave Resources Protection Act to CLOSE caves. The Act was designed to protect and preserve CAVES from closure. But the CBD feels that the ONLY cave resource worth protecting are the BATS within caves, and not the caves themselves. Strange logic. I don't think the DOI will jump to do everything the CBD is asking, but it is nevertheless disconcerting to see their demands in print. An answer to this petition with a petition of our own is very appropriate...

[ExpUt]

Ask the claim owners and private property owners in Death Valley how they feel about the CBD and the fact the old road into town is now off limits to any motorized traffic. They won't stop... period.

[Dawn_CL]

I havent seen any bats at all out around my area... in any of the mines i visited.

Dawn

[one_bad_rover]

It would probably be a good idea to get all parties against this, and go to the governor of Utah first. See if he is willing to push it up. Then add to this some of the senators. Most likely, if there is no opposition, it will get signed in. And we all know how much the cavers are able to organize. Hell, they cant even share information within their own groups and they lose people in their own "restricted" caves. If anyone is going to do something its going to be the mining community. On the opposite foot, it might be easier to close caves than mines. Caves are usually public. Mines are private and for extraction, the BCD would have some lawsuits on their hands if they attempted closure of valid current mining claims!