Friends of Wakulla Org circulating E-mail

[aw]

Check your inbox if you've ever been a "friends of Wakulla" member. I just received it today as a mass mail-out. There's an anti-diving wakulla e-mail going around that's asking for supporters of this one-sided position. I'd repost it here, but i'm sure there's some 11th commandment not to do so.

In the e-mail it said "There are numerous reasons for not allowing diving and no legitimate ones to support it." I was so tempted to reply to all saying, "I can give you 20 good reasons to allow it right now, but I don't think you're open to anything other than feedback for your own position." Of course, I know I'd be breaking the 12th commandment also. So I didn't.

I'm sure I've already violated the 13th commandment by mentioning where the e-mail came from. So, moderators, do what you must. But if we're going to make the right moves, we also need to know what the opponents are doing.

[Caver95]

Yes, this has been happening for a few weeks. check out the facebook page divers for wakulla.

[Benderr]

There is a form letter to Sec. Vinyard and the Wakulla County Commission on the facebook page: "Divers For Wakulla Springs"

More discussion here as well: http://www.cavediver.net/forum/showt...ngs-State-Park

[aw]

If I had thought through this post more before I posted, I should have just added a comment onto the last discussion of this matter, rather than starting another thread. Mainly just wanted to point out a new development that a different letter has now gone out to Friends of Wakulla as of this morning.

[Benderr]

would you be willing to share the text of the new letter?

[RN]

Dear Panhandle Archaeological Society at Tallahassee List Recipients:

At our last meeting, on February 1, 2011, the Board of Directors was alerted to the possibility of
Wakulla Springs State Park being opened to scuba diving by the general public. Given the
tremendous research potential for this area, which has remained relatively protected since the
early 1930s, the Board opposes such a move to open this area to recreational diving. The
potential short-term, financial gain of an influx of divers does not come close to the loss of
irreplaceable resources, and therefore knowledge, that may well occur. The Wakulla Springs
State Park was purchased by the people of the State of Florida, for all of the people of the State
of Florida, in order to preserve these unique resources. The Board asks that you write a letter to
the new Director of the Department of Environmental Protection, asking that the Springs NOT
be opened to recreational diving. The following information has been compiled concerning this
issue:

The oldest human occupation level of the Wakulla Springs Lodge site (WA329) has recently
been radiometrically dated to a minimum of 13,500 calendar years old. This was a time during
the late Pleistocene when several now extinct animals, such as the American Mastodon, still
roamed the land. It and two other North Florida sites are the oldest, well dated sites in Florida
with evidence of human activity. Additionally, they are some of the oldest sites in the Americas.
Wakulla Springs has been the location of at least four, and possibly five, mastodon skeleton
recoveries, the last being recovered in 1930 by the Florida Geological Survey. The occurrence of
bone preservation in late Pleistocene sites is infrequent east of the Mississippi River, yet Wakulla
Springs and the headsprings area around the spring vent have yielded abundant late Pleistocene
and Holocene animal remains. Recently the remains of another mastodon have been identified in
the spring basin and potentially have great scientific significance should they prove to be part of
a Paleoindian kill-butcher site.

Since the 1950s, when the first SCUBA divers accessed Wakulla Springs cave, its “Bone Room”
has been recognized as a major site of Late Pleistocene animal remains and prehistoric artifacts.
In the 1950s SCUBA divers explored the Bone Room with little documentation other than dive
logs indicating they collected artifacts and bones. In the late 1990s, one of the first divers, the
late Mr. Wally Jenkins, displayed the artifacts he collected from the Bone Room in the late 1950.
The collection consisted of several hundred artifacts. Several of the artifacts were diagnostic and
are related to prehistoric human occupations 10,000 calendar years old or older. After Mr.
Jenkins death his collection and its value as a voucher of prehistoric evidence was lost. Artifacts
from the Bone Room are often exposed on the cave floor. It is too easy for anyone who finds
them to collect them.

There has never been a thorough investigation of the submerged area in the Wakulla Springs
basin or cave yet it is the area with the greatest scientific potential. It offers bone and other
organic preservation not commonly found in eastern North America. One geologist who dove in
Wakulla Springs cave noted the occurrence of water eroded benches in the limestone walls of the
cave. He speculated they were formed in the Pleistocene during a time of dramatically lower
inland water tables. Was Wakulla Springs once a Pleistocene oasis, a watering hole and hunting
grounds? Research questions with no answers.

To open Wakulla Springs to unrestricted SCUBA diving would not only counter the 2007 park
management plan, it would seriously expose the archaeological, geological, and paleontological
resources to unnecessary adverse effects. As non-renewable resources, their damage or loss
would be permanent.

Please mail your letters to the attention of:

Mr. Herschel Vinyard
Secretary-FDEP
3900 Commonwealth Blvd.
MS 10
Tallahassee, FL 32399-3000

The PAST Board of Directors thanks you for your support in this matter!

[tomhauburn]

Rob
And others who are interested in this not being kept to only a select few divers, how would you counter the way this letter is written to allow diving to occur? It seems most of the good fossil have already been removed and its using the past to prevent the future diving in this area. Not that I am probably ever going to be able to dive it but I would like it to be where qualified divers could dive it.
Tom

[Tegg]

It will also be difficult since there have been divers in the spring for years and apparently he/she is stating that no scientific investigation has come from them regarding her subject matter. Has the WKPP attempted to manage or assist in scientific research in the basin and cavern part of the cave or have they been to focused on the "back" of the cave and where that goes...?

It will be a lot more helpful to counter the points in the letter above with evidence to the contrary.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

The way I understand it, the WKPP does help with the archeology projects in the basin and cavern. However, I heard, second hand that the WKPP has told the archeological groups they would no longer help them if Wakulla Springs is open to recreational diving. Honestly, it seems the WKPP loses interest very fast in any site as soon as they no longer have any sort of special treatment and exclusive access...

[Tegg]

The way I understand it, the WKPP does help with the archeology projects in the basin and cavern. However, I heard, second hand that the WKPP has told the archeological groups they would no longer help them if Wakulla Springs is open to recreational diving. Honestly, it seems the WKPP loses interest very fast in any site as soon as they no longer have any sort of special treatment and exclusive access...

If the above statement is true, "WKPP has told the archeological groups they would no longer help them if Wakulla Springs is open to recreational diving", then it seems that the WKPP is not a pro-divers group and obviously does not care about anyone other then themselves. Can anyone verify this statement?

Give me the contacts to the groups and I will be glad to investigate that issue.

I think maybe those groups should be informed of the list of accomplished archaeological divers that are NOT WKPP members and as such they could get much more evidence and better research data from a wider selection of divers.