April Fools? Andrew G. Gluesenkamp, Ph.D.
700 Billie Brooks Drive Driftwood, Texas 78619 (512) 799-1095 [email protected] --- On Wed, 4/1/09, Pete Lindsley <[email protected]> wrote: From: Pete Lindsley <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Re-survey of Mammoth Cave To: "Texascavers" <[email protected]> Cc: "Bill Steele" <[email protected]>, "John Brooks" <[email protected]>, "John Corcoran" <[email protected]>, "Jim Hardy" <[email protected]> List-Post: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, April 1, 2009, 12:26 PM John, the area of survey we did was at least the 4th survey... 1. National Geographic did a precise contour map using a plane table and drafted onto mylar in the cave 2. Tom Rohr did a precision theodolite / precision level survey 3. The Guadalupe Cave Survey group did a tripod-mounted Brunton survey in the mid 1960's, closing the survey (on a home-brew "CAVE-16" FORTRAN program running on an IBM-360 mainframe) with the in-cave brass caps and "Rohr points" 4. Later caving groups repeated the survey yet again (and again?) using hand-held Suuntos and laser range-finders (note the angular precision dropped, but the distance precision improved - not exactly what you want for an optimum "precision" survey) I bet John Corcoran and Jim Hardy can add other iterations to the above list. That last survey that you mentioned may have been the time we were instructed by the NPS "people" to not tie in to old stations and to remove any that we saw. I guess that proves that you can have Fools (us included) in any month, not just in April. Our precision and to some extent our sketching seem to be headed in the wrong direction. - Pete On Apr 1, 2009, at 11:53 AM, John Brooks wrote: "CaCa" started a similar program years ago....some areas have been resurveyed at least 3 or 4 times. I was with Pete Lindsley on a survey in the lower cave, a few years ago....when he announced...."hey....we resurveyed this 30 years ago"! We were even using the same stations....but with different numbers.....and we had Pete label the flagging....so the lettering matched the old station markers..... Sent from my iPhone On Apr 1, 2009, at 7:00 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: >From TagNet this morning: Re-survey of Mammoth Cave by: Mike Rogers (Knoxville, Tennessee) Saw this on a park listserv and thought I'd share with the group. -Mike National Park Service to Recommend Re-Survey of Mammoth Cave (Cave City,Kentucky) In an effort to conserve paper and promote the "greening" of the organization, the National Park Service has recommended that Mammoth Cave be re-surveyed due to the voluminous amount of paper it takes to print all the surveyors names on a single map. Park Ranger Norman McPeebles reports that since the 1954 "C3" (Collin's Crystal Cave) expedition, 26,452 individuals have participated in mapping Mammoth Cave. The amount of paper required to legibly print these names would exceed current park efficiency standards. Because of this, the park recommends a complete re-survey of the cave using no more than 50 individuals. "It is a shame that the work of so many individuals over the years has to go to waste, but we believe it is for the greater good of the environment and, ultimately, for Mammoth Cave," McPeebles reports. "It is certainly much more conservation-minded to print 50 names on a map than 26,452 names." McPeebles notes that the park service is willing to make certain concessions on the maximum number of surveyors. "If two or more individuals share the exact same name, then the park service is willing to allow those individuals mapping privileges in the cave, since we can make efficient use of their names by printing only one on the map," McPeebles said. McPeebles also noted that individuals with shorter names would be given higher priority. "We are especially looking for your typical Joe, Sue, Al, and so forth. We are also recruiting some Brazilian cavers since they typically are known by a single name." The park service hopes to have the re-survey project completed by April 1, 2020. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
