Closing Caves to the Public?

[ARY]

Is there a research proving that visitors stimulate the disease spread?

Many Federal dry caves w/bats are already fenced AFAIK at least down here in FL long time ago and I believe even before RNS became an issue. If that PIA organization is so powerful and well funded they should sponsor or conduct the research on RNS not to close caves.

There are habitats for bats in Peacock so it may fall under the same category as dry caves however it is not Federal land. I hope FL legislators will be smarter as in many other issues they are than feds.

Something whispers in my head that it is a conspiracy to simply make caves only accessible for "special research project" and "guided caving".

[DA Aquamaster]

Yes - the most dangerous animal in the world is an unelected bureaucrat with the power to promulgate and enforce regulations!

Not that the elected ones are much better, by and large, but at least we get a chance to get rid of them periodically. Getting rid of a career bureaucrat is like trying to treat a multi-drug resistant infection.

Mike

I just got out of a staff meeting discussing the upcoming re-authorization of an existing law, where I was simultaneously one of two people in the room with any significant amount of field experience, and the only person looking at the issue with any degree of reason or consideration of the cumulative impact on people/taxpayers.

It was kind of a twilight zone moment where I was trapped in a room with a bunch of overzealous advocates hell bent on changing the law to prevent anyone from making a mistake and mis-applying the provision, with the potential that someone might be negatively impacted. But in total disregard of the reality that the other 99.9% of the people who benefit from the provision would be totally denied that benefit and would be stuck in a far worse position than the .001% that might not receive maximum benefit from the provision.

Logic, reason and actual experience, of course, totally fail to stem that tide when it comes in.

So...yes, I see the potential for an undesired lose-lose outcome with the whole bat cave closure issue.

[hunterj]

Concur. Having worked for or around the federal government all of my adult life, if someone in the "chain" decides to interpret this as "all" caves all of us will be digging into our pockets to help pay the legal fees to take on the army of Washington DC lawyers working for the feds. While common sense says that there are no bats in Little River, common sense has never been a strong point when it comes to federal intervention.

[curtschu]

The Center for Biological Diversity works through science, law, and creative media to secure a future for all species, great or small, hovering on the brink of extinction.


The part about Creative Media scares me. This is the kind of group that believes under no circumstances is human activity to affect other creatures.

[Cindy]

Ok, I'll bite..what water filled caves are we talking about that are currently open on Federal lands that might be closed? My minds a blank.

[Line Squirrel]

The part about Creative Media scares me. This is the kind of group that believes under no circumstances is human activity to affect other creatures.

Yea, I seem to remember groups like this were, probably still are, trying to deem huge areas of land as "Biospheres" were no humans will be allowed to tread.

[rchrds]

I'll just throw this out there, but had dinner with the director of Bat Conservation International the other night, and this came up- CBD has shot themselves in the foot with this proposal- apparently since publishing this, many significant investors have begun distancing themselves, apparently aware of the extremity of the position they are proposing. Not wanting to be associated with such a drastic proposal, we will see how far it goes. Just a heads up.

Jason