[Texascavers] Governor Perry Recognized Pollinator Week - June 22-28, 2008
Greetings, Governor Perry Recognized Pollinator Week Read details of how Betty Jensen spearheaded this recognition: http://heartwoodtmn.org/node/1039 Official Pollinator Week Proclamation (pdf 938 KB) http://heartwoodtmn.org/files/Pollinator%20Week.pdf Betty Jensen, Treasurer Texas Master Naturalist Heartwood Chapter The Woodlands, TX http://heartwoodtmn.org/ Thanks, Mike -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Mike Quinn Invertebrate Biologist Wildlife Diversity Program Texas Parks Wildlife * New Address Phone * M: 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, TX 78744 P: 512-389-8759 or 8758 (FAX) C: 512-577-0250 E: mailto:mike.qu...@tpwd.state.tx.us Texas Entomology http://TexasEnto.net - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
[Texascavers] Mexico's Cave of Crystals - Nat. Geo's 5th most viewed news pix of 2007
Giant Crystal Cave Comes to Light Crisscrossed with gems up to 36 feet (11 meters) long, Mexico's Cave of Crystals looks like nothing so much as Superman's Fortress of Solitude. That otherworldly appeal-which helped make the cave gallery our fifth most viewed of 2007-is a big reason we still get the occasional email accusing us of propagating a hoax. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/photogalleries/topten-pictures/photo6.html or: http://tinyurl.com/36wb27 -- Giant Crystal Cave's Mystery Solved It's the Sistine Chapel of crystals, says Juan Manuel García- Ruiz. The geologist announced this week that he and a team of researchers have unlocked the mystery of just how the minerals in Mexico's Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) achieved their monumental forms. Buried a thousand feet (300 meters) below Naica mountain in the Chihuahuan Desert, the cave was discovered by two miners excavating a new tunnel for the Industrias Peñoles company in 2000. The cave contains some of the largest natural crystals ever found: translucent gypsum beams measuring up to 36 feet (11 meters) long and weighing up to 55 tons. It's a natural marvel, said García-Ruiz, of the University of Granada in Spain. To learn how the crystals grew to such gigantic sizes, García-Ruiz studied tiny pockets of fluid trapped inside. The crystals, he said, thrived because they were submerged in mineral-rich water with a very narrow, stable temperature range-around 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius). At this temperature the mineral anhydrite, which was abundant in the water, dissolved into gypsum, a soft mineral that can take the form of the crystals in the Naica cave. snips There is no limit to the size a crystal can reach, García-Ruiz said. But, he said, for the Cave of Crystals to have grown such gigantic crystals, it must have been kept just below the anhydrite-gypsum transition temperature for many hundreds of thousands of years. s The caves containing larger crystals will be located in deeper levels with temperatures closer to, but no higher than, 58 degrees Celsius, he said. He has recommended to the mining company that the caves should be preserved. The only reason humans can get into the caves today, however, is because the mining company's pumping operations keep them clear of water. If the pumping is stopped, the caves will again be submerged and the crystals will start growing again, García-Ruiz said. So what happens if-or when-the mine is closed? That's an interesting question, García-Ruiz said. Should we continue to pump water to keep the cave available so future generations may admire the crystals? Or should we stop pumping and return the scenario to the natural origin, allowing the crystals to regrow? full text: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070406-giant-crystals.html or: http://tinyurl.com/39brt5 photo gallery: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/photogalleries/giant-crystals-cave/index.html or: http://tinyurl.com/2hzehg - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
[Texascavers] RE: butterfly in the twilight zone of a cave...
David, Two spread-winged skippers known as flats are frequently found within culverts and sometimes in caves... They range from south Texas to Costs Rica. Stallings' Flat (Celaenorrhinus stallingsi) Fritzgaertner's Flat (Celaenorrhinus fritzgaertneri) http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabast/fritzgaertneri.html Mike Quinn, TPWD, Austin -Original Message- From: David Locklear [mailto:dlocklea...@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 10:52 PM To: Texas Cavers Subject: [Texascavers] OT - the monarch butterfly and Mexico The monarch butterfly is in the news again. I think protecting the butterfly is in the best interest of cavers and caving. For example, I am almost certain that the migration path includes a pitstop for a day or 2 at Grutas de Carrizal in Nuevo Leon just east of the town of Candela. Maybe a caver could document that or some other karst area where they stop along the way to rest. I believe that the area around the Nacimiento de Rio Sabinas and high above there near the famous cave of Joya de Salas is most certainly another place. And high above the town of Gomez Farias there are probably areas where they are known to stop. Do bats eat them? If so, that could be another opportunity for a caver to do some investigating. I have never seen a butterfly in the twilight zone of a cave. Are they a speleo-phobic species? David Locklear - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
[Texascavers] OT: History Channel to air peak oil episode tonight - Nov 13
Note the conflicting listed air times... --- FYI --- History Channel Mega Disasters : Oil Apocalypse Airs on Tuesday November 13 11:00 PM The oil that our world runs on won't last forever. The gap between supply and demand is ever increasing. Will alternative energy save us or is it already too late? What would happen to the world as we know it when our oil dependent industries come to a grinding halt? A worldwide depression is a certainty but a power struggle for the basic necessities of life would be complete chaos. http://tinyurl.com/2m2krx -- On Tuesday night, November 13th, (at 9 p.m. EST/PST - 8 p.m. C), the History Channel will present Mega disasters: Oil Apocalypse, a documentary that Los Angeles-based filmmaker Martin Kent is calling a wake up call, about the world's energy crisis. We can no longer count on getting all the gasoline we need - and there's no plan B. Energy experts appearing on camera in Oil Apocalypse include authors Richard Heinberg, Matthew Simmons, David Goodstein, Kenneth Deffeyes, Michael Economides and Christine Woodside; Oppenheimer energy analyst Fadel Gheit, PFC Energy chairman J. Robinson West, RAND Corp.'s James Bartis and Congressman Roscoe Bartlett. - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
RE: [Texascavers] OT - recycling economics
Dr. David Goodstein, a physics professor at the California Institute of Technology and author of the best seller: Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil estimates that it would take 10,000 new nuclear power plants to replace the energy created by oil but even then the world's uranium would be gone in one or two decades.
RE: [Texascavers] OT - recycling economics
When was the last nuclear power plant built? When will the next singular plant produce power? When will we have 10,000 nuclear power plants of *any* kind? Given that some say the world is already past peak oil, I personally don't see how we're going to make it to 10,000 nukes... see PO article in last Monday's The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2196435,00.html Graphic Showing Oil Producing Countries Past Peak Oil... http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2007/10/25/oil-producing-countries-past-peak-oct-2007.png or: http://tinyurl.com/33ambo If we are past PO, then the likely ensuing hoarding will accentuate the problem... Mike Quinn, Austin -Original Message- From: Lyndon Tiu [mailto:l...@alumni.sfu.ca] Sent: Sun 10/28/2007 8:22 AM To: Texas Cavers Cc: Subject: Re: [Texascavers] OT - recycling economics Mike Quinn wrote: Dr. David Goodstein, a physics professor at the California Institute of Technology and author of the best seller: Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil estimates that it would take 10,000 new nuclear power plants to replace the energy created by oil but even then the world's uranium would be gone in one or two decades. That's assuming we are using 10,000 fission nuclear power plants. Uranium is a non-renewable resource. The supply of uranium will follow a depletion curve similar to that of oil. Fusion nuclear (as opposed to fission) holds more promise as it uses heavy water/regular water/hydrogen which is more abundant, but if I understand it correctly, current fusion nuclear technology is only good for WMD's and not for power generation. There is international work underway to develop fusion nuclear tech for power generation. If I remember it correctly, a reactor is being built in France for this. Try googling it. -- Lyndon Tiu
RE: [Texascavers] OT - recycling economics
If you mean corn, the energy input/output ration is quite small (if positive at all)... Plus, using a high percentage of our arable land to use for filling our SUV's vs. feeding people is perhaps not the best way forward. As for help from the gov, FEMA, Uncle Sam, etc., I suggest developing self reliant contingency plans. Conservation will make more energy available quicker than any other route, but we can't all move closer to our jobs and shifting to more economical vehicles will take a decade or more. An increase in telecomuting would be great. Mike -Original Message- From: John P. Brooks [mailto:jpbrook...@sbcglobal.net] Sent: Sun 10/28/2007 10:15 AM To: Mike Quinn; Lyndon Tiu; Texas Cavers Cc: Subject: Re: [Texascavers] OT - recycling economics President Shrub thinks we will just switch to bio-fuels..that will surely save the world On 10/28/07 8:53 AM, Mike Quinn mike.qu...@tpwd.state.tx.us wrote: When was the last nuclear power plant built? When will the next singular plant produce power? When will we have 10,000 nuclear power plants of *any* kind? Given that some say the world is already past peak oil, I personally don't see how we're going to make it to 10,000 nukes... see PO article in last Monday's The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2196435,00.html Graphic Showing Oil Producing Countries Past Peak Oil... http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2007/10/25/oil-producing-countries-past-peak-oc t-2007.png or: http://tinyurl.com/33ambo If we are past PO, then the likely ensuing hoarding will accentuate the problem... Mike Quinn, Austin -Original Message- From: Lyndon Tiu [mailto:l...@alumni.sfu.ca] Sent: Sun 10/28/2007 8:22 AM To: Texas Cavers Cc: Subject: Re: [Texascavers] OT - recycling economics Mike Quinn wrote: Dr. David Goodstein, a physics professor at the California Institute of Technology and author of the best seller: Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil estimates that it would take 10,000 new nuclear power plants to replace the energy created by oil but even then the world's uranium would be gone in one or two decades. That's assuming we are using 10,000 fission nuclear power plants. Uranium is a non-renewable resource. The supply of uranium will follow a depletion curve similar to that of oil. Fusion nuclear (as opposed to fission) holds more promise as it uses heavy water/regular water/hydrogen which is more abundant, but if I understand it correctly, current fusion nuclear technology is only good for WMD's and not for power generation. There is international work underway to develop fusion nuclear tech for power generation. If I remember it correctly, a reactor is being built in France for this. Try googling it. -- Lyndon Tiu
RE: [Texascavers] OT - recycling economics
The world's enery availability is rapidly peaking... Mexico, our number two supplier, is running out: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109sid=aQP1F89dAOs8refer=home# http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109sid=aQP1F89dAOs8refer=home# or: http://tinyurl.com/2a9e59 -Original Message- From: Lyndon Tiu [mailto:l...@alumni.sfu.ca] Sent: Sun 10/28/2007 5:10 PM To: Texas Cavers Cc: Subject: Re: [Texascavers] OT - recycling economics ... energy is cheap and still widely available. -- Lyndon Tiu
RE: [Texascavers] Sept National Geographic
Here's the primary link to the caver article featuring Jean Krejca: http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0709/new-troglobites/new-troglobi tes.html or: http://tinyurl.com/2b7cf7 Mike Quinn, Austin -Original Message- From: Robert Albach [mailto:ralb...@austin.rr.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 10:34 PM To: texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: [Texascavers] Sept National Geographic We just got the September National Geographic with story on the troglodytes / troglophiles found in Sequoia National Park. While I've no doubt this contributes greatly to science for me its the wide eyed look of my kids when I tell them that the lady who did this lives right here in Austin (and I think spoke at one of the few grotto meetings I managed to break their bed time curfew for). My 10 year old daughter wants it autographed! -Robert Albach - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
[Texascavers] OT: PEMEX announcement...
All, PEMEX announced last Friday that they will probably be out of oil in seven years--out of oil, not just beginning to decline. This came out on Friday afternoon which, of course, is when you issue a press release for a story you want to bury Mike == Mexican Company Predicts End of Oil Mexico, Jul 27 (Prensa Latina) Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) announced that oil reserves may run out in seven years. Supplies of this economically exploitable resource are running out, informed a report sent by the state owned company to the United States stock market. Until December 31, 2005 the report says proven reserves were about 8.978 billion barrels, while yearly production was 1.322 billion tons. If this rhythm continues oil will run out in the time stipulated.. El Universal newspaper reports that experts of the PFC Energy Advisory company based in Washington pointed out that investments for PEMEX exploration is also running out of time. Even if heavy investments were made now, new oil fields would take from six to eight years to be ready and, consequently, Mexico may have to import oil to satisfy the internal market, it warned. The newspaper quotes Carlos Ramirez, PEMEX spokesman as saying that if necessary investments were made, this would provide another 2.9 more years to what is foreseen with the proven developed reserves. The director of the state owned company, Jesus Reyes, insisted that these are difficult moments due to a reduction of production in Cantarell, the main oil field in the country. http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BF1F8B8FE-DA99-4717-8FBD-2B3C4 F90FBA3%7D%29language=EN http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BF1F8B8FE-DA99-4717-8FBD-2B3C 4F90FBA3%7D%29language=EN or: http://tinyurl.com/254xde
[Texascavers] OT: PEMEX announcement...
All, Prensa Latina comes out of Cuba Looking around I don't see any similar quite so dire articles, in fact here's one that's pretty much the opposite: http://www.petroleumworld.com/story07070513.htm How's that go? 'We report, you decide'... Mike == Mexican Company Predicts End of Oil Mexico, Jul 27 (Prensa Latina)
RE: [Texascavers] misnaned bugs (UNCLASSIFIED)
Mas escarabajo Tejas info aqui: http://texasento.net/beetles.htm Mike _ From: Pekins, Charles E CIV DPW ENV (PKI) [mailto:charles.pek...@us.army.mil] Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 8:01 AM To: Texas cavers list Subject: RE: [Texascavers] misnaned bugs (UNCLASSIFIED) Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: NONE They are native scarab beetles, the genus is Cotinus. The brown scarab beetles are in the genus Phyllophaga. Have you ever dug in the soil and found large, fat, C-shaped, grubs? They are the larvae of scarabs. As far as taxonomy is concerned, beetles are the most diverse group of creatures on the earth (over 500,000 known species and growing). But I bet the microbes outnumber them...just aren't a whole lot of people studying them to classify them. _ From: Scott [mailto:back2scool...@hotmail.com] Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2007 12:24 PM To: Texas cavers list Subject: Re: [Texascavers] misnaned bugs I think the green shinny ones are Japaneese Beetles arent they? - Original Message - From: Wayne Hutchinson mailto:m4w8...@yahoo.com To: Texas cavers list mailto:texascavers@texascavers.com Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2007 10:35 AM Subject: [Texascavers] misnaned bugs The brown beetles we call Junebugs here are correctly called May Beetles. June bugs are green shiny and about twice the size.
[Texascavers] WFU study finds that moths mimic sounds to survive
Wake Forest University WFU study finds that moths mimic sounds to survive May 29, 2007 In a night sky filled with hungry bats, good-tasting moths increase their chances of survival by mimicking the sounds of their bad-tasting cousins, according to a new Wake Forest University study. To be published in the May 29 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study is the first to definitively show how an animal species uses acoustic mimicry as a defensive strategy. The research was conducted by Jesse Barber, a doctoral student in biology at Wake Forest. William E. Conner, professor of biology at Wake Forest, co-authored the study. In response to the sonar that bats use to locate prey, the tiger moths make ultrasonic clicks of their own. They broadcast the clicks from a paired set of structures called tymbals. Many species of tiger moth use the tymbals to make specific sounds that warn the bat of their bad taste. Other species make sounds that closely mimic those high-frequency sounds. We found that the bats do not eat the good-tasting moths that make the similar sounds, said Barber, who has worked on this research for four years. In the study, other types of moths that were similar in size to the sound-emitting moths, but did not make sounds, were gobbled up by the bats. The researcher trained free-flying bats to hunt moths in view of two high-speed infrared video cameras to record predator-prey interactions that occur in fractions of a second. He also recorded the sounds emitted from each moth, as well as the sounds made by the bats. All the bats quickly learned to avoid the noxious moths first offered to them, associating the warning sounds with bad taste. They then avoided a second sound-producing species even though it was not chemically protected. This is similar to the way birds avoid butterflies that look like the bad-tasting Monarch. The two species of bats used were big brown bats and red bats. Barber raised the bats in the lab so behavior learned in the wild would not influence the results of the experiment. Barber said anecdotal observations have suggested that animals such as snakes, owls and bees use acoustic mimicry. This study takes the next step and provides the definitive experimental evidence for how mimicking sounds helps an animal survive. http://www.wfu.edu/news/release/2007.05.29.a.php - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
[Texascavers] High Cost of Nitrogen Calls For ... use of poultry litter
Can a return to guano mining be far behind??? Mike PS: Predictions are for $4/gal gas this summer... http://agnews.tamu.edu/index.htm April 16, 2007 High Cost of Nitrogen Calls For New Farming Strategies Writer: Robert Burns, 903-834-6191,rd-bu...@tamu.edu Contacts: Dr. Jason Cleere, , (979) 845-6931,jjcle...@ag.tamu.edu Dr. Ray Smith, 903-834-6191,g-sm...@tamu.edu Dr. Lloyd Nelson, 903-834-6191,lr-nel...@tamu.edu Dr. Gerald Evers, 903-834-6191,g-ev...@tamu.edu Dr. Vincent Haby, 903-834-6191,v-h...@tamu.edu Dr. Monte Rouquette, 903-834-6191,m-rouque...@tamu.edu Dr. David D. Baltensperger, 979-845-3041,dbaltensper...@tamu.edu OVERTON - Farmers can expect nitrogen fertilizer costs to be more than 50 cents per pound of nitrogen this year, said Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and Texas Cooperative Extension experts. What's driving the fertilizer costs higher? Several things, said Dr. David D. Baltensperger, head of the Texas AM University department of soil and crop sciences. There are a lot of factors that always go into fertilizer prices, Baltensperger said. Since the majority of our nitrogen fertilizer at least comes from petroleum products, the price of petroleum drives nitrogen fertilizer prices rather directly. Baltensperger said that with fossil fuel prices remaining high relative to what was seen two or three years ago, it's reasonable to expect higher nitrogen prices this year. Another factor is the price of corn, and the record number of acres being planted to supply grain for new ethanol plants. Corn acreage ... is one of our big nitrogen users, he said. And consequently we'd expect to be paying the highest prices we've ever paid for nitrogen on a national basis this coming spring. Not all types of nitrogen fertilizer will be in the 50-cent-plus range, Baltensperger said, but the ones most commonly used by East Texas livestock operations will. Anhydrous (ammonia) will probably still be the cheapest source where it is practical to use, but in many cases we have to use ammonium sulfate or ammonia nitrate, he said. Probably all of the last three are going to be in the 50-cent-plus category coming this year per pound of nitrogen. With nitrogen costing this much, how can producers maintain production without going in the red? In East Texas, the most critical economic crops are improved summer forages, which require high rates of nitrogen for good production. Experts from Extension and the Experiment Station - one beef specialist, four forage researchers and a soils scientist - gave suggestions on how to lower input costs and maintain profitable production levels. We talk about in the future, coming up, how we are experiencing high fertilizer prices now and what challenges it's going to have for the cow/calf producer, said Dr. Jason Cleere, Extension beef specialist. ... I think that one thing we have to evaluate ... is the stocking rate on these pastures. We may not be able to be where we have been in the past. We may have to adjust those stocking rates ... and think more on a basis of per unit of land rather than producing as many calves as we can produce. Dr. Ray Smith, Experiment Station legume breeder and developer of Apache arrowleaf clover, said winter legumes, because they fix nitrogen from the air, can be part of the answer. The legumes require careful management, however. One thing we can do to deal with the really high cost of nitrogen in the future is we can add clover and other forage legumes into our pasture systems, Smith said. We do this generally by planting in the fall and summer, but we need to make plans now in the spring and summer to both soil test and to add lime into these systems so that we are ready for fall planning. Properly managed, clovers can add from 80 to 100 pounds of nitrogen per acre to the soils, he said. Dr. Lloyd Nelson, Experiment Station small grains breeder, has been bullish about using over-seeding of annual ryegrass and other small grains to offset the cost of buying hay and supplemental feeds in the past. With current nitrogen prices, he's more reserved, he said. Whenever we do this (over-seed), we are going to have to put on quite a bit of nitrogen to make them very productive. I think cattlemen are going to have to look at that very closely and manage these small grains and ryegrass so they can get the most forage out of them without putting on too much nitrogen. It's going to be too expensive. Dr. Vincent Haby, soil scientist with the Experiment Station, says the easiest, cheapest cost saving management strategy is one that is often overlooked. In fertilizing any forage grass, regardless of the prices of fertilizer, a soil test is always advisable to have, he said. Fertilize based on that soil test. Also there are some crops that do not require nitrogen. One of these crops that do not require nitrogen is alfalfa. It was once
CaveTex: Cricket watchers say caves may need expanded buffer
From San Antonio's newspaper... Mike Quinn, Austin Cricket watchers say caves may need expanded buffer Web Posted: 09/11/2005 12:00 AM CDT Jerry Needham Express-News Staff Writer After staying cooped up in a dark cave all day, crickets are willing to travel far and wide for a good meal. Cave crickets that share living quarters north of San Antonio with more than a dozen other creatures that have landed on the nation's endangered species list - spiders, beetles, psuedoscorpions and daddy long-legs - go twice as far as thought looking for food, according to a new study. And that, the scientist who tracked them says, could require that even more land be set aside to protect those endangered species. A team of researchers led by Steven Taylor, an entomologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, found that the little brown-and-white hoppers travel up to 350 feet from the cave entrance in their nightly search for food. Previous research had indicated that most crickets stay within 164 feet of their cave openings to feed on fruit, dead animals, insects or animal droppings. The crickets - often found by the thousands in Central Texas caves - are important sources of food for their roommates. Their droppings, eggs and dead bodies provide nutrients for the other creatures. Just how did the scientists keep up with crickets in the dark? They caught more than 2,000 of them as they came out of a cave at Fort Hood, marked them with water-based fluorescent paint and let them go. Over the course of 17 nights, they located the marked crickets using portable black lights. Although half of the marked crickets were found within 130 feet of the cave entrance and 90 percent within 236 feet, a few hungry critters were found up to 350 feet away, the researchers reported. That's quite a journey for a creature hardly more than an inch long. Our findings suggest that a relatively large area may be needed to protect the crickets' foraging area and to shield them from fire ants, Taylor said. Based on the foraging range we saw, we believe that cave resource managers may wish to create buffers around the footprint of a cave - not just the entrance. His findings on Ceuthophilus secretus were published this week in the journal American Midland Naturalist. But Bob Pine, supervisor of the Austin office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the findings probably wouldn't change how the agency goes about protecting Central Texas caves that contain endangered species. He said that besides the crickets' eating habits, the wildlife service takes into account a number of factors in determining the area that needs to be left undisturbed around a cave opening. Those include the vegetation, the surface and underground drainage patterns and the underground footprint of the cave. Vegetation is more of a determiner for the area of the buffer than the crickets' foraging, Pine said, noting that the buffer around protected caves in Bexar County is 40 acres. The vegetated surface area is what provides the nutrients that go into the cave, said Sybil Vosler, a biologist with the federal wildlife service. Bare earth or concrete is not going to provide any nutrients. Pine said knowledge of the crickets' needs would help in drafting future agreements written to protect cave habitats. Some of the things that might be influenced by these findings are fire ant control and pesticide usage around caves, he said. --- original text http://tinyurl.com/7qcl4 Use following to bypass login: come...@yahoo.com 123456 http://bugmenot.com/ To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to mailto:majord...@cavetex.net with the following message--unsubscribe cavetex. For help and information go to www.cavetex.net. List administrator: mailto:jswh...@cavetex.net
