Hi Texas Cavers! I am forwarding this WNS meeting report for informational purposes, I know this is somewhat Indiana specific, but this does have a lot of good info and addresses many of the problems that many states are facing with this. Have a great weekend! Ron
To all concerned, After talking with many cavers since the White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) meeting last Thursday night (5/21) I have put together this summary of the meeting and the perspectives of some of the cavers. The function of this letter is twofold, to inform cavers about the meeting and WNS in general, and to summarize caver views and give feedback in writing to the officials involved. The IDNR and USFW informational meeting was well represented by several concerned state and federal officials. DNR Deputy Director John Davis, who made the decision to close all State owned cave resources, was there in person to face all those impacted. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologists Andrew King and Scott Johnson, both out of Bloomington, IN presented info from their side. They did a good job of inviting grottos, outdoor clubs, miners, loggers and other stakeholders from Indiana and surrounding states. They all stayed late until all questions were answered! The Presentation The first portion of the meeting was a video presentation showing the investigation of bat fatalities in a Vermont cave. It was devastating to see the huge amounts of little brown bats dead and dying from the effects of this thing. A lot of them just froze by going to colder spots outside to try to slow down their metabolisms in a desperate attempt to use as little energy as possible. The scientists studying the carnage were the same folks who have spent the last 40 or whatever years of their lives trying (successfully) to boost the populations of these very animals. You could see the devastation written all over their faces. The History Even though I thought I was well informed, there were several points that I learned from the informational portion of the meeting. WNS was first documented in a commercial cave (Howe Caverns) in New York State. Also further background info stated that a similar looking fungus has been documented on bats seen in Europe. The statement was also made that Europe does not have significant numbers of bats with colonies of 50 or less seen at the most populous areas, and I got the impression that for the amount of caves there are in Europe, there should be a lot more bats. Cavers in Europe have seen a similar fungus on an occasional bat and considered it normal for what they have seen over the years. A photo showed a single bat with fungus growing on its nose within a small cluster, and it was the only one in the cluster that had it. The European fungus is currently being compared to the US version to see if it is the same organism. If positive, the case could be made that WNS was brought here by people who visited a cave in Europe and then came to the US and visited Howe Caverns. The Migration Patterns After the video, several charts were put on the screen that showed the migration and interaction routes of the bats as documented by tagging bats and seeing how they migrate. The interaction patterns showed the bats mingling down a main path from New York that paralleled the East Coast south through the Virginias and then west into Kentucky. This was the main traffic route with auxiliary routes going south to Tennessee and further and other auxiliary routes coming up to Indiana from Kentucky. Sadly, Southern Indiana is not very far from the main route going east / west through Kentucky. The Spread The next charts showed where WNS was known in 2006, 2007, and 2008. The progress of the spread followed right along that main traffic pattern shown on the charts. And while human transmission has been possibly documented in a couple caves, WNS seems to be spreading rapidly right along the main migration and interaction route that has been determined by research over the years. If human transmission were a major factor, WNS should have shown up at several places off of the main migration routes. Also, by looking at the distance it has traveled since 2006, one could easily see that it could be in our state as early as 2009 - 2010 hibernation period (this winter!), or almost certainly the season after that. Not much time to do something about it! Indiana Populations Other charts showed info about the bat populations in Indiana, which are around 250,000 total (2007 estimate). Roughly 95% of our cave bats are the endangered Indiana bats, and roughly 95% of those bats are in 30 caves in Indiana. And a large portion of those bats (98%) are in 9 of those caves, with the other 21 caves containing 1000 or less each. Basically, our bats are mostly concentrated in 9 caves... A comment was made during the slides that the Indiana bat was not hit by WNS as quickly as the little browns. I was relieved to hear this, but I asked about this after the meeting and was told that they are at just as much risk as the other species, which left me a bit confused. After viewing all the information presented and then hearing a discussion about the government response of "risk management", there seemed to be some contradictions within their responses. This is not a criticism, they do care about the bats, the cavers, and are trying to balance everyone's concerns and interests and make the right decisions. Their initial decision to close caves was made quickly even though Indiana is outside the 17 state impacted / buffer zone that the USFWS has asked for voluntary cooperation. The officials want feedback from all concerned to help make informed decisions moving forward. The caver perceived contradictions are listed as follows: (1) The first place WNS was documented was a commercial cave, and with Mammoth cave being right in the center of the main migration route, and with Kentucky having way more bats than most states, one would think that officials would close all state and federal commercial tours until some kind of decontamination protocol could be found and implemented. These closures would greatly speed the process of getting decon procedures in place. The need for decon protocol was discussed but no decon action has been implemented yet, we were told this is forthcoming. They also discussed the intent to recommend decon procedures for privately owned commercial caves. Based on the info, my impression is that commercial caves are ground zero for the possibility of human transmission. I believe that Mammoth Cave National Park is visited by more folks than any other NP in the US! The commercial caves remain open with no decon protocol in place. One could argue that with all the privately owned caves around MCNP, closing the park caves does not make sense, but this emphasizes the great need for some kind of decon procedure to be in place at the park and strongly suggested to the private operations. (2) The one group which has implemented decon procedures is the organized cavers. It is possible that cavers unknowingly spread WNS early on, but now that this is known, the cavers as a group have taken the most action in determining how to decontaminate, not using gear or clothes used in WNS states in other areas, closing caves with major bat populations, changing the focus of caving events all across the USA to protect bats, and many of those caves with major bat populations were already protected from other risks by organized cavers. Most of the data available about caves, bats, cave maps, cave locations was supplied by volunteer groups of organized cavers. And when the blanket closure policy was questioned, the officials even admitted that the caving groups represented in the room were not the major concern, it was those who are less in the know about WNS who visit caves who are considered the risk for human transmission. The organized cavers are the group doing the most to prevent the spread. (3) "Risk management" is basically an attempt to avoid human transmission to keep from speeding the transmission rate that the bats will do on their own, to theoretically buy time to find a treatment. In our state this could be feasible since the bats are so concentrated, but all admit that a human introduced "cure" may be a long shot. One could assume that assessing the risks would start with an estimate of how much time it will take for the bats to bring the fungus to any particular region and then work backwards from there. A time estimate for WNS spreading to Indiana was not mentioned, I had to ask for a time estimate based on the known transmission rate. This topic was so depressing that it was grudgingly addressed, and their best guess was in the next 1 or 2 seasons it will be here. This is such a short amount of time that bat transmission may work just as quickly as human transmission would at this point in our state. I think that many cavers in the room felt the following actions are appropriate: (1) closing the state and federally owned bat caves, (2)contacting the owners of the remaining of the 30 prominent bat caves, (3) an education program to teach the public about the great risk to our bat populations, the effects wiped out bat populations will have on our eco system, and how important bats are to the chain of life, would all be more effective than blanket closures. This would promote awareness and compliance, while blanket closures would keep out the most informed (the organized cavers) and the least informed (independent sport cavers and spelunkers) would still be caving. Bats have had a bad rap in the public eye for many, many years; a PR program could really help the public understand that bats should be protected. (4) Since the Daniels Administration was elected Governor in Indiana, logging in our State Forests has greatly increased (as much as ten fold). The amount of land being timbered increased and also the amount and variety of wood taken in those tracts increased. This does have a negative impact on the bats. Bart Nott had recently seen some freshly logged tracts above the caves and was disturbed by the amount of cutting done. He asked if suspending such logging has been considered and the response was a flat out no. This seemed inconsistent with an all out policy to protect bats, but it does open another can of political worms, groups do not like environmental restrictions that block profits from natural resources and land development. State officials have to juggle all of these groups. It is much easier to just tell cavers they cannot go to any caves... (5) The biologists on the panel were concerned greatly about the 20 privately owned of the 30 notable bat caves and are in communication with those owners regarding this issue. The cavers were very supportive of this stance. It was obvious that the state and federal officials had not yet hammered out a solid policy of how to handle the few thousand other privately owned caves in Indiana. The bat biologists seemed to think that only the major bat cave owners should be contacted, but others on the panel felt that press releases should be made to ask all cave owners to close their caves. The cavers felt like this would be very bad for many sensitive relationships developed with cave owners over decades and that the single bat or 2 in isolated caves should not be grouped with the populated bat caves when assessing the risk. The amount of time it would take for someone's cousin from New York to infect a single cave with 1 bat and then the amount of time it would take for that bat to spread this to the major bat populations is a much longer process than the obvious bat to bat transmission timeline will be. I know this is some conjecture on my part, but so is risk management in general. Here again, cavers felt that benefits of education would far outweigh voluntary compliance to voluntary blanket closures that would create uncertainty in landowner relations for possibly decades into the future. In conclusion, after talking with several of the cavers present at the meeting, the organized cavers are very concerned and want to do everything in their power to prevent the spread of this devastating disease. I think that most of the cavers feel that we are the backbone of everything that is known about caves, bats, and karst in this country, and no one is paying us for this stuff; it’s because we love caves and bats. The majority of cavers feel that a blanket closure of state, private, and federal caves in the Eastern United States is a prohibition that is unrealistic and not the best solution to the WNS problem. They feel that identifying the major bat caves, protecting them, minimizing the possibility of human transmission by cave tours with decontamination, minimizing the possibility of human transmission by cavers with decontamination and travel restrictions, and education of the public for (1) awareness of how to prevent human transmission, (2) for awareness of how important and beneficial bats are to our environment, (3) and to communicate the need for funding for research; are the most effective ways to move forward. Thanks very much, Ron Adams, NSS # 41114 Chairman, Central Indiana Grotto Member, Indiana Karst Conservancy, Indiana Cave Survey
