Y’all need to stop treating this guy like Voldemort and say his name. Also has anyone notified FWC or the local law enforcement about him deliberatley desroying caves? (Assuming the accusations are true) If this guy is half as bad as whats out here, people should be made aware of it. I don’t think that publicly condemning a person is wrong if it’s true. If anything it shows that this behavior isn’t accepted in the community.
Last edited by IlikeScuba; 05-18-2018 at 01:26 PM. Reason: Spelling
Me tooOriginally Posted by rddvet
It was for Tracy and I, too. And it was well worth it! Even if I had never done another mix dive, Indian was worth it. It did make me with I had a bigger light, though. I'd love to get in there again.
Mike
This is terrible! I always thought the access regime for the Diepolders was way weird, but I could also understand the desire of the boy-scouts to reduce the risks of accidents near kids campgrounds. But closing the caves for all is way too extreme! Did anyone threaten to sue the boyscouts for libel/discrimination/etc for them to take such drastic measure? Hard to imagine any other way in which the actions of an individual could provoke a nuclear response against an entire community.
Any update on the efforts to reopen the place?
Ken Sallot
There's precisely zero reason for the BSA to permit cave diving on its property. All it does is create risk and has no advantages.
Is it really that shocking that someone drawing attention to cave diving on the property caused a conservative reaction?
Given the current law, it's not surprising that landowners ban divers sooner or later. What is quite disturbing is that actually the law allows private parties to deny access to such scare and unique resources like the Diepolders.
Why? Here is one well understood public access precedent:
Beaches are a relatively scarce commodity. Therefore in most countries and states, there are laws which protect the interests of the general public of enjoyment of the beach side by requiring beach-side property owners to provide reasonable free access to the beach to the general public. Granted, some visitors will inevitably drown, create ugly disturbances, be loud, disrespectful, or leave destructive marks. Understandably most beach-side landowners are annoyed with people walking on their beach and disturbing their piece-and-quiet. Yet there is no legal ground to deny beach access in most states. Also, the law exempts the beach property owners from any liability arising from providing access to the beach. Thanks goodness that beach access is a public right in all but a couple states.
Why shouldn't the same legal principle be applied to caves? Perhaps the problem is the lack of understanding and appreciation of the resource that these caves are in the eyes of the lawmakers.
My point: Unless some sort of legal framework to balance out the interests of all sides gets implemented, one can expect that over time mostly all caves on private land will be closed down permanently. Like you pointed out, as it is the land owners have very little incentive to permit cave divers on their property.
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