More to discuss at the next PBSS meeting.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SWR] Background on the FOIA request to BLM
Date: Thu, 22 May 2014 13:51:50 -0600
From: Steve Peerman <gypca...@comcast.net>
To: Mailing List for SWR <s...@caver.net>
All,
On Tuesday, May 20, 2014, our SWR Vice-Chair, Jim Evatt notified the
membership in the SWR, through the SWR mailing list, that a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request had been filed by the SWR for information
related to the BLM's management of the threat of White Nose Syndrome
(WNS). This act, arguably the most significant act taken by the SWR
for a generation, is the result of a string of events over the last
several years. I want to give the membership some of the background
that led up to this request.
As most everyone knows, WNS is a debilitating condition that has
affected hibernating bats, primarily in the eastern United States and
Canada, causing very high mortality rates in the bat colonies from the
fungus that causes it. /(P. destructans)./ The first evidence of WNS
came from Howe Caverns, a commercial cave in New York, in 2007. An
initial thought was that perhaps a caver from Europe possibly brought
this fungus to the United States by visiting the cave with clothes that
were contaminated with the fungus. As more and more evidence
accumulated of the devastating effects of WNS to bats, the US Fish and
Wlldlife Service developed guidelines for the various cave management
agencies to use regarding the potential spread of WNS. These guidelines
included recommendations to close caves and abandoned mines to human
entry because of the possibility that humans may be a significant vector
to the transmission of the condition.
In January of 2011, the NM BLM published a Federal Register Notice of
Temporary Closure of 28 caves in New Mexico known to have significant
bat populations, probably as a direct result of a report of an infected
bat in the neighboring state of Oklahoma. That Temporary Closure was
for 2 years only and expired in January of 2013. At the 2012 Winter
Tech, Ms. Marikay Ramsey (BLM bat biologist) announced the intent of
the BLM to renew the closure. In January of 2013, at a special meeting
in Albuquerque, Jim Goodbar, National BLM Cave Program lead, again
discussed that intent, and also mentioned that 3 of the caves previously
closed would be re-opened. The BLM revealed that it was delegating the
management of caving activities under the threat of WNS to a state-wide
Cave Management Team.
Cavers waited for the announcement that the Temporary Closure was being
renewed, or that a new Temporary Closure was being instituted. This
didn't happen (and hasn't happened to date). Instead, the BLM merely
said that the caves are "closed". Cavers inquiring about the "closure"
were told that BLM didn't need to have a Federal Register Temporary
Closure because the cave specialists could merely refuse to issue permits.
This management plan, if it can be called that, for the BLM caves that
were previously closed by Federal Register Notice persisted for another
year, as cavers became increasingly dissatisfied with how the caves were
being managed. Meanwhile more research was being done on WNS; research
that demonstrated that bats were very good at transmitting WNS from one
to another, but that humans ere not very good at spreading the fungus.
In fact, we know of no credible evidence that WNS has been spread from
one cave to another by humans.
At the spring SWR regional on April 12, 2014 there was a significant
discussion of the BLM's continuing stand that they could close the caves
by just saying they are closed and what to do about it. One idea was
to ask for permits for some of the closed caves in order to bring the
issue to the forefront. This was done by several folks, including Dave
Belski and Stephen Fleming, who both requested recreational permits to
Fort Stanton Cave. Both were denied.
On May 6, 2014 the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation
announced that the previous report of a WNS bat in Oklahoma was a false
report, and that no WNS infected bats had been detected in New Mexico.
On May 9, BLM's Chief of Communications issued this statement to the
SWR mailing list:
*
*
*BLM New Mexico White-Nose Syndrome Closure Strategy Update*
*May 2014*
BLM New Mexico is evaluating the new information released by the
National Wildlife Health Center about the Woodward County, Oklahoma bat
originally tested in 2010 being now reclassified as negative
for/Pseudogymnoascus (/formerly /Geomyces) destructans /and White-nose
syndrome (WNS).
At this time, we are sustaining our WNS cave and abandoned mine
closure strategy. The BLMs team of biologists, cave specialists, and
managers will work internally, as well as with our NM interagency
partners, to consider the new Oklahoma findings.
The BLM is the responsible party for managing hundreds of New Mexico
caves and abandoned mines and their resources. We will continue to do
so by using the best available science and by following laws,
regulations, and national BLM guidance to minimize risk and impacts to
these resources.
Moving forward, we will consider WNSs significant movement westward in
the past four years, the number of caves open for recreation vs. those
closed on public lands in New Mexico (about 1,000 open to 25 closed),
and the fact that even our closed caves have managed access for
scientific and administrative purposes.
We will proceed thoughtfully and scientifically to determine the future
of our WNS strategy. We are committed to keeping cavers and the general
public advised of any changes to our policy.
Many cavers, including myself, sent e-mails to various responsible folks
in BLM management encouraging a dialog on the topic of the continuing
management of these caves. To my knowledge NONE of those e-mails were
responded to, not even by a courtesy reply.
Meanwhile, cavers and SWR members Dave Belski and Stephen Fleming
considered their options regarding the denial of their recreational
permit requests. They were formulating a response that would attempt to
elicit the reasons why these caves were closed. As they formulated the
questions, it became obvious that what was really necessary was a FOIA
request. Fleming, a retired BLM law enforcement officer, wrote the
request, initially as his own request as a private citizen. After
getting the majority of the request written, he shared it with others,
including me. After reading the request, I realized that this FOIA
request reflects the interests and concerns of the caving community at
large and should be a request of the caving community. I petitioned the
SWR leadership, the executive committee of Peg Sorensen (chair), Jim
Evatt (vice-chair), Dave Belski (secretary) and Blake Jordan (treasurer)
to name Fleming as a special representative of the SWR and allow him to
file this FOIA request on behalf of the SWR. They agreed that this was
in the best interests of the region and named him the Federal Liaison.
On Monday morning, May 18 the FOIA request on behalf of the SWR was
filed with the BLM's FOIA coordinator at the state office, with copies
to several BLM management folks.
As I said earlier, this is probably the most significant action taken by
the SWR in this generation. It is an action not taken lightly, and is
not intended to discredit or demean the cave management efforts of the
BLM, but to bring those efforts to the light of day so that all may
understand how decisions were made. If the scientific evidence exists
that closure of the caves is effective in preventing the spread of WNS
then we want to see it. If the evidence exists that WNS is moving
rapidly towards New Mexico, we want to see it.
This should be an opportunity to clean the slate of recent cave
management practices by the BLM in New Mexico. When the evidence is
there for us to examine, can we proceed with a plan, incorporating the
scientific evidence now available, that appropriately protects our bats,
but also provides appropriate access to the caves that the BLM has
closed? I encourage everyone to comment and/or voice your concerns or
approval of the action that the SWR leadership has taken. They have
done this on your behalf. If you agree with it, let them that they have
done the right thing.
Steve Peerman
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away
from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover."
attributed to Mark Twain, but no record exists of his having
written this.
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