texascavers Digest 2 Oct 2013 01:57:20 -0000 Issue 1855
texascavers Digest 2 Oct 2013 01:57:20 - Issue 1855 Topics (messages 22783 through 22785): Re: Concrete Arrows mark Transcontinental Air Mail Route 22783 by: John Greer Re: Locations of Several Air Main Concrete Arrows 22784 by: John Greer Article: Artificial Cave Built to Help Bats Survive WNS 22785 by: R D Milhollin Administrivia: To subscribe to the digest, e-mail: texascavers-digest-subscr...@texascavers.com To unsubscribe from the digest, e-mail: texascavers-digest-unsubscr...@texascavers.com To post to the list, e-mail: texascavers@texascavers.com -- ---BeginMessage--- Dwight Ronnie -- Since my email asking essentially the same questions was never answered, I am glad this was posted to the list and not privately. I am interested in running these things down in Wyoming, so if either of you (or anyone else!) comes up with something new, please let me know. In the meantime, I'll follow Dwight's suggestions, and Ronnie, if your brother finds out anything, please have him contact me. Thanks all! John Greer (archeologist etc) Casper jgr...@greerservices.com - Original Message - From: dirt...@comcast.net To: Cave Texas Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 5:17 PM Subject: [Texascavers] Concrete Arrows mark Transcontinental Air Mail Route Geez, Ronnie!!! That was 54 years ago. I'm thinking it was south of Highway 30. We were all over the place, but mostly some distance north (where they were not) in the Red Desert. As I recall the airport is south of the highway at Rock Springs, and I think one may have been west of the town but south of the highway, toward the Unintas (on the flight path to Salt Lake City). What airport were they flying into at Slat Lake City? There may have been another one between Rawlins and Rock Springs, possibly just north of Hwy 30. But I am not at all sure. If there was one between Rawlins and Rock Springs, it would have been fairly close to the highway - either north or south. Most likely gone by now. I checked with my buddy Al Zimer, and he reminded me that my memory is so good that it could have been somewhere NE of Laramie to the west of the mountains. There is a caver-pilot living in Saratoga who flys all along that route, so you might contact him. David Worthington. dwort...@union-tel.com. David is a good friend who has traveled with us to the Balkans and China, and helped build the addition to our squat in Terlingua. He's been down there (South Brewster) numerous times. You can tell him you chopped up my best, brand new, and barely afforded, Illiad Paddle killing a gar on one of our Lower Canyons trips in my C-2. Send him the original e-mail with the images and try to recruit him to assist your brother. I think he could be game. Have your brother talk to the County Surveyor. That's the best bet I can think of. Let me know the results of your effort. Dwight -- From: Ronald G Fieseler mana...@blancogw.org To: dirt...@comcast.net Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 9:08:54 AM Subject: RE: Concrete Arrows mark Transcontinental Air Mail Route Hi Dwight, Do you remember if they were north of I-80 and/or the railroad? Any other road names, etc. that you might recall? Wamsutter, Table Rock, Red Desert, etc? I am trying to use Google Earth to locate one or more. My brother lives in Rock Springs and I will also try to sic him on this search. Any clues or other old rusty memories will be helpful. Thanks! Fieseler From: dirt...@comcast.net [mailto:dirt...@comcast.net] Sent: Friday, September 27, 2013 10:43 PM To: lmcn...@austin.rr.com Cc: Denis Breining; Ron Fieseler; Ron Miller; Katherine McClure; Bill Elliott Subject: Re: Concrete Arrows mark Transcontinental Air Mail Route I saw two of them back in 1959 in the Red Desert when I was working on a seismograph crew out of Rawlins and Rock Springs, Wyo. None of us knew what they were at first, but our landman figured it out. DirtDoc -- From: Logan McNatt lmcn...@austin.rr.com To: Dwight Deal dirt...@comcast.net, Denis Breining dg...@att.net, Ron Fieseler mana...@blancocountygroundwater.org, Ron Miller rons...@yahoo.com, Katherine McClure katmccl...@me.com, Bill Elliott myo...@embarqmail.com Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 9:16:28 PM Subject: Concrete Arrows mark Transcontinental Air Mail Route So who among you already knew about this? Logan ---End Message--- ---BeginMessage--- This is great! Thanks for the data, and keep the new info coming if you hear of more. John (now I have yet one more project) - Original Message - From: Ronald G Fieseler To: 'John Greer' ;
[Texascavers] Quick Bacteria Video Caves
Hi All, PHDcomics.com is mostly academic humor but they do these short videos talking with experts in their field. So here's one about bacteria that gets into caves a little. Enjoy, Z http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1635
[Texascavers] Article: Artificial Cave Built to Help Bats Survive WNS
Interesting article posted on a Western US NSS Task Force list: Artificial Bat Cave: A Radical Idea to Save America’s Bats by Paul Kingsbury To fight white nose syndrome, an epidemic that is causing catastrophic die-offs in America’s cave bat populations, The Nature Conservancy in Tennessee has embarked on a radical idea – building an artificial cave next to an existing natural bat cave in Tennessee. The artificial cave can be disinfected of the white fungus that causes white nose syndrome, thus creating a healthier haven for bats. Following expert scientific review of the building plans, The Nature Conservancy began construction on the artificial cave in August 2012 and finished construction in early October to allow bats to take up residence that winter. Nature.org talked with Cory Holliday, director of the Cave Karst Program for The Nature Conservancy in Tennessee. Holliday said the reason for building an artificial cave is that, “White nose syndrome has been devastating to cave-hibernating bats since it was discovered in New York state in 2006. We’ve lost more than 5 million bats in 19 states, and we still haven’t identified any way to control bat mortality rates or the fungus that causes those deaths. Up to this point we have simply had no tools to employ to keep bats from dying. And a loss of bat species could have serious consequences for people. Bats are the number-one predator of night-flying insects. One million bats can eat 694 tons of insects per year. A recent study estimated the value of bats to Tennessee agriculture at over $313 million annually. “In June 2010, I attended a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-sponsored workshop with cave and bat experts on keeping and breeding bats in captivity to protect them from white nose syndrome. The idea came out of a small working group session. And these bat experts thought it might have the potential to save large numbers of bats. “The artificial cave will be long and rectangular – about as big as a single-wide house trailer, only taller with 11 foot ceilings. That’s 78 feet long. And the structure will be buried in a hillside near an existing natural bat cave. Initially we thought we would build this cave out of spray-on Shot-crete and have it all formed in a single unit. But we recently found a much more affordable design, adapting huge rectangular waterway culvert pieces that we will attach together like building blocks. This modular design will save us money and construction time. And it will be easier for other groups to replicate it elsewhere. Nature.org asked, “How do you entice the bats into the cave?” Cory explained, “Bats move from cave to cave, tree to tree, always looking for new places that meet their needs for roosting and hibernating. It’s a little like that Field of Dreams movie: If you build it, they will come. Past experience shows that bats are constantly seeking new habitats.” “It’s all in the design. In order for a cave like this to work it has to be a cold air trap. It has to be underground. The ceiling has to be farther below ground than any entrance to create that cold air trap. It has to have air flow through two entrances, and the entrances have to be at differing levels, because the flow of air is much like the thermodynamics of flowing water. Using a specially structured ventilation damper, we can adjust that air flow to fine-tune the climate. “Keep in mind that this artificial cave is located very close to an existing bat cave that has hundreds of thousands of bats. It’s within a few hundred feet of the existing cave. Historically about 40,000 to 50,000 bats used the natural cave on the site. After The Nature Conservancy bought it in 2006 and fenced it to keep out vandals, the numbers have skyrocketed. In 2010, we counted 160,000 using thermal imaging and computers. This summer we counted 265,000. “Unfortunately, we found white nose syndrome in gray bats at that cave this past winter. If the disease follows the typical trend, then we could see 90 percent mortality at that cave in three years. So the clock is ticking on us. Nature.org asked, “What happens if the bats don’t go in the cave?” Holliday replied, “The bats should go in as long as we get the temperature and humidity right. We believe they will. If they don’t go in, then we must have done something wrong, and we would make any adjustments we can. In addition, we plan to play recordings of ultra-sonic bat calls at the artificial cave when it first opens to entice bats to check it out. “But if the bats just wouldn’t go in, then we could use the cave as an on-site laboratory to study bats that we brought in. Unfortunately, the gray bats of the natural cave we plan to build next to are a federally listed endangered species, and we probably would not be allowed to move gray bats without a permit. “Or we could work on toxicity trials with anti-fungal agents and test them on cave micro-organisms that we would bring in. The thing
