Obviously, my confuser (computer) and i are not on speaking terms today. Soo... I have embedded the ltr in the email. Ken January 28, 2010 Congressman Harry Teague 102 East 4th Street Roswell, NM 88201 Dear Congressman Teague, I am writing about an issue that is evolving in Southeastern New Mexico that concerns the Guadalupe District (GD) of the Lincoln National Forest (LNF). The LNF is proposing to close all the caves in the GD to recreational caving due to their inability to fill a position for a cave specialist. Their alternative to closing the caves is to hire commercial guides to manage the caves. Neither of these courses of action is acceptable. The cave specialist position is charged with issuing permits and conducting guided tours of certain caves within the GD. This position has been vacant for several months since the last individual took a job with the BLM office in Carlsbad. The LNF is charged with managing the caves. The caves belong to the people and not to the Forest Service. The Forest Service is simply the steward of public property. The caves within the GD are world class limestone caves and many of them are heavily decorated and pristine in nature. They are visited annually by cavers from all over the world. Last summer alone I know of cavers from Japan, Australia, Great Britain and Germany that visited these caves. For New Mexico cavers these are the finest caves available for us to visit. I am the Chairman of the Southwestern Region (SWR) of the National Speleological Society (NSS). The SWR membership is comprised of cavers from New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Colorado. The SWR has contributed over ½ million dollars of volunteer hours to the LNF to conduct restoration and preservation activities in these caves. We are experienced cavers who have the best interests of the caves in mind. On a personal note I started my caving experiences in the caves of the GD almost 45 years ago. I was responsible for the discovery (or re-discovery) of some of these caves and even have one named after me. As you are probably aware there is a crisis concerning bats in the eastern United States called White Nosed Syndrome (WNS). This fungal infection is moving south and west as bats migrate between different geographic areas. We need to be able to enter these caves to monitor the various bat colonies for the presence of WNS in our caves. Experienced cavers are the best source of information on what bats roost in which caves and the conditions of these bats. Closing of the caves will prevent our being able to conduct these monitoring activities. We request you contact the leadership of the LNF and influence them to fund and fill the position of a cave specialist in the GD. Loss of access to these caves will mean loss of revenue to local businesses where cavers shop while visiting the Carlsbad area to go caving. It will keep also experienced cavers from enjoying visits to these wonderful world class caves. Thanks you for your attention to this issue. Please help us keep these caves open. I am available to talk to anyone concerning this issue and possible solutions. Ken Harrington NSS 9231 Chairman, Southwest Region, NSS Ph 575 234 1664 4509 King Road Carlsbad, NM 88220 [email protected] _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft’s powerful SPAM protection. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/196390706/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ NMCAVER mailing list [email protected] http://caver.net/mailman/listinfo/nmcaver_caver.net
