Southwestern Cavers,
I am writing to you as a Southwestern Region member and as acaver who leads and participates in exploration, survey and cartographyprojects as well as scientific projects and recreational caving on BLM managedlands. I want to express my disappointment in both the Southwestern Region officerssubmitting a FOIA request to the BLM and the manner in which it was submittedwithout consulting with the SWR membership until after the FOIA had beensubmitted. I believe that the FOIA request is a bad idea for the followingreasons: I don’t think that this FOIA will result in any change ofmanagement or closures of BLM caves. Reviewing the hundreds to thousands of BLMWNS related emails and correspondence will probably take tens to hundreds ofhours and will probably not reveal anything that we don’t already know. Even ifwe do learn something new, I doubt that it will be substantive enough torequire the BLM to make any significant changes in cave management policies. Submitting a FOIA request to the BLM is the same tactic thatthe Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) used with the BLM. I don’t agree withthe CBD’s tactics in dealing with WNS and federal agencies and in particulardon’t want to see the SWR emulating the CBD’s tactics. I have heard SWR members and officers complain about the CBD tactics indealing with WNS and am surprised that we are now following in their footsteps. Responding to this FOIA will take BLM cave managers awayfrom their duties of managing caves and will mean that our tax dollars spendmore time on responding to a frivolous FOIA request rather than managing cavesand karst. The SWR has a long history of cooperating and working withthe BLM. While we certainly don’t always agree with everything that the BLM hasdone, I think that this FOIA request will damage the SWR BLM relationship andcause more harm than good. I don’t believe that the FOIA request will furtherthe goals of the SWR. I am also disappointed with the SWR officers in notconsulting with the membership before creating a new Federal Liaison positionand submitting a FOIA to the BLM. It appears that a false sense of urgency wascreated in order to rush the process along without consulting the membership. Iwould also hope that a SWR Federal Liaison would work to maintain and build theSWR/BLM relationship rather than damaging our relationship. I think that the SWR officers have made a mistake increating and filling a Federal liaison position without consulting with themembership and that submitting a SWR FOIA request to the BLM without consultingwith the membership was also a mistake. I’m hopeful that the SWR’s past recordof excellent cooperation with the BLM in cave management, science, survey, batmonitoring, exploration, cartography, education, photography, restoration andrecreational caving will help us maintain a good working relationship with theBLM in the future despite this recent blunder. Thank you for considering my concerns and good caving to allof you. Stan Allison
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