texascavers Digest 18 Nov 2012 00:35:07 -0000 Issue 1665
Topics (messages 21025 through 21034):
Rolling Oaks Work Day Thanks! (TCMA)
21025 by: ellie watson
21026 by: Mark Minton
21027 by: ellie watson
Book Review
21028 by: R D Milhollin
21029 by: Andy Gluesenkamp
TSA Meeting Minutes
21030 by: Denise P
Underground in Arabia
21031 by: Mixon Bill
USFS Region 2 WNS UIpdate
21032 by: NSS Announcements
Big Manhole Cave: last minute reminder!
21033 by: George Veni
Texas Parks and Wildlife Job Posting: Bat Conservation Specialist
21034 by: R D Milhollin
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Cavers,
Huge thanks to the 17 volunteers who came out this weekend to continue the
dig in Niche Cave on the Texas Cave Management Association (TCMA) Rolling
Oaks cave preserve in Northwest San Antonio. (Not to be confused with the
Rolling Oaks in Wimberly.) Volunteers trimmed trees, cut dead trees around
the property, and removed approximately 1 1/2 cubic yards of trash and
debris from Niche Cave. Bob Cowell also found a small dig on the property
that I named "Old Man Cowell Sink".
Most of the trash in Niche Cave was whole glass bottles with about a 4:1
ratio of bottles to dirt and rocks. Volunteers were full of excitement as
they hauled out bucket after bucket of trash. They first opened up a crawl
that had been discovered in the 80's but was completely covered when we
started the dig on February 2012. Towards the end of the day, volunteers
opened up a passage under all the trash on the floor of the entrance. Tom
first noticed the void when his rock bar nearly fell through the floor. The
newly opened area is too unstable to enter but is about 4 feet deep and can
be opened with more digging.
Thanks to: Ron Ralph, Rick Corbell, Galen Falgout, Don Arburn, Tom Florer,
Allan Cobb, Linda Palit, Fran Hutchins, Bob Cowell, Chris Murray, Jessica
Snider, Robert Davis, Juline-Amanda ViTapay, Mat Zappitello, Saj
Zappitello, Tom Rogers
We ended the day at 2pm with a good lead to greet us for the next work day
in the Spring, date to be determined.
Photos from 11.10.12:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151136038709506.446051.507449505&type=1&l=2676ee6a9b
Thank you for your support of TCMA and cave management,
Ellie Watson
Rolling Oaks Preserve Manager
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Ellie,
All I get is a blank Facebook page. Does this only work for
Facebook members, which I'm not? Please post a public link. Thanks!
Mark
At 01:31 AM 11/15/2012, ellie watson wrote:
Cavers,
Photos from 11.10.12:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151136038709506.446051.507449505&type=1&l=2676ee6a9b
Please reply to [email protected]
Permanent email address is [email protected]
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I will post a public link when I am at my computer next, could be a couple
weeks.
Ellie
On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 9:27 AM, Mark Minton <[email protected]> wrote:
> Ellie,
>
> All I get is a blank Facebook page. Does this only work for
> Facebook members, which I'm not? Please post a public link. Thanks!
>
> Mark
>
> At 01:31 AM 11/15/2012, ellie watson wrote:
>
>> Cavers,
>>
>>
>> Photos from 11.10.12: https://www.facebook.com/**media/set/?set=a.**
>> 10151136038709506.446051.**507449505&type=1&l=2676ee6a9b<https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151136038709506.446051.507449505&type=1&l=2676ee6a9b>
>>
>
> Please reply to [email protected]
> Permanent email address is [email protected]
>
> ------------------------------**------------------------------**---------
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UNDERGROUND IN ARABIA John Pint
2012, Selwa Press 978-0-97011-575-1 $12.95 PB
(from Saudi Aramco World Sep/Oct 2012)
"What happens when an American English teacher finds his way into Saudi
Arabia's "underground"? This is the story John Pint tells in a witty, engaging
and thoroughly entertaining record of his caving adventures during working
stints in the kingdom beginning in 1981. Pint originally traded teaching and
(caving) in France for a job at what is now King Fahd University of Petroleum
and Minerals in Dhahran and resumed his hobby almost immediately. Soon, he and
fellow explorers landed a big find near Ma'aqala, north of Riyadh, in an area
rich with dahls, a term that means "a natural pit that... might provide access
to water," Pint notes. Exploration revealed natural formations like stalactites
and gypsum flowers, previously undocumented in Saudi caves. This was just the
beginning of Pint's quarter-century of spelunking in the kingdom, his finds
enthralling and paving the way for academics to study a beautiful world beneath
Saudi Arabia's often-forbidding
surface.
-Caitlin Clark
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I received a copy of this book as a gift (family friends with the publisher).
Pint's highly descriptive writing style and humorous, down-to-earth view of the
world makes this book a fun read. The caves he describes are simply amazing
and he makes it clear throughout that there is much, much more yet to be
discovered under the sands.
Andrew G. Gluesenkamp, Ph.D.
700 Billie Brooks Drive
Driftwood, Texas 78619
(512) 799-1095
[email protected]
________________________________
From: R D Milhollin <[email protected]>
To: Texascavers List <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 1:51 PM
Subject: [Texascavers] Book Review
UNDERGROUND IN ARABIA John Pint
2012, Selwa Press 978-0-97011-575-1 $12.95 PB
(from Saudi Aramco World Sep/Oct 2012)
"What happens when an American English teacher finds his way into Saudi
Arabia's "underground"? This is the story John Pint tells in a witty, engaging
and thoroughly entertaining record of his caving adventures during working
stints in the kingdom beginning in 1981. Pint originally traded teaching and
(caving) in France for a job at what is now King Fahd University of Petroleum
and Minerals in Dhahran and resumed his hobby almost immediately. Soon, he and
fellow explorers landed a big find near Ma'aqala, north of Riyadh, in an area
rich with dahls, a term that means "a natural pit that... might provide access
to water," Pint notes. Exploration revealed natural formations like stalactites
and gypsum flowers, previously undocumented in Saudi caves. This was just the
beginning of Pint's quarter-century of spelunking in the kingdom, his finds
enthralling and paving the way for academics to study a beautiful world beneath
Saudi Arabia's often-forbidding
surface.
-Caitlin Clark
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Hello - The minutes from the October meeting are posted on the TSA web site.
http://cavetexas.org/TSA/meetingminutes.html
http://cavetexas.org/index.html
http://cavetexas.org/PDF/TSA/Minutes-2012-10-21.pdf
Thanks,
Denise Prendergast
TSA Secretary
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Here's a repeat of the review of Underground in Arabia that I posted
(I think) back in July.
--Mixon
Underground in Arabia. John Pint. Selwa Press; 2012. ISBN
978-097011525-1. 5 by 8 inches, 150 pages. Softbound $14.95
according to the bar code, but $12.95 according to Amazon; Kindle
edition $4.99.
A nice little book of tales about the author's adventures exploring
caves in Saudi Arabia, both well-decorated limestone caves and large
lava tubes with lots of archaeological and paleontological
potential. It is clear that there is a lot more to be discovered
underground in Arabia, but the logistics and officialdom would
likely be difficult. Much of Pint's work was done while he was a
consultant to the Saudi Geological Survey. Local guides are
essential, and the interactions with the locals make for at least as
interesting reading as the caving.
The book is clearly meant to be just an entertaining read, which it
is. There are no index, no bibliography, no cave maps, and only
scattered small black-and-white photographs. For a very nice coffee-
table book of color photographs, see Pint's The Desert Caves of
Saudi Arabia, ISBN 1-900988-48-8, still in the Amazon catalog for
only a bit more than twice the price of this new book. An extensive
bibliography is at www.saudicaves.com. The same web site also has a
long list of links to trip reports from the country. For maps, see
the Saudi Geological Survey reports at www.saudicaves.com/spspubs
[sic]; warning: very slow server.—Bill Mixon
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A chicken is the egg's way of making another egg.
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USFS Region 2 - WNS Environmental Assessment
The U.S. Forest Service, Region 2, announced yesterday the beginning
of the Environmental Assessment process with the intention of adopting
an "adaptive management plan" for WNS. A 30-day public comment
period will end on December 17th.
Details on the plan and public comment process can be found here:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r2/home/?cid=stelprdb5319926
Peter Youngbaer
White Nose Syndrome Liaison
National Speleological Society
(802) 272-3802
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If you'll be in the Carlsbad area this weekend or can be, this is a last
minute reminder that NCKRI is working with the SWR on a geophysical study of
Big Manhole Cave. The purpose is to refine the work that has been previously
been done and try to develop a better idea of where and how to connect
Manhole to the passages that must exist beyond and are the source of its
airflow.
Part of the reason for this last minute reminder is because there were some
last minute cancelations and a couple of extra hands would be really helpful
tomorrow and Sunday. If you can make it, meet at NCKRI HQ in Carlsbad
tomorrow and/or Sunday at 7:30 a.m. MST. For directions:
http://nckri.org/about_nckri/contact_nckri.htm. If you know how to get to
Manhole and prefer to meet there, feel free to head to the well pad at the
start of last rough patch of road before the cave. Lewis Land will be
leading tomorrow's effort and will be up there around 8:30 a.m., and then he
will continue on and drive to the cave. I'll join him on Sunday.
Today Bonny Armstrong and Michael Queen joined Lewis and me in laying out
3.5 of the 6 geophysical transects we plan to run this weekend. My many
thanks to them for a great day's work! I'll present the results of this
weekend's survey at Winter Tech in Albuquerque.
George
***************************
George Veni, Ph.D.
Executive Director
National Cave and Karst Research Institute
400-1 Cascades Avenue
Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220-6215 USA
Office: 575-887-5517
Mobile: 210-863-5919
Fax: 575-887-5523
[email protected]
www.nckri.org
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Sure wish I qualified for this position.
Go to website:
http://agency.governmentjobs.com/tpwd/default.cfm
Look for CURRENT POSTINGS in box on left of page
The Job # is 13-00228
If put this number in the search: ENTER KEYWORDS blank at the bottom of the
"search criteria" box you will be taken right to the job description.
Having Jim Kennedy as a reference might help a caver land this job. Good luck.
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