Subject: Urgent: Bracken Cave bat colony needs your help
Dear Friends of Bracken Cave Reserve and BCI,
I¹m writing today to ask for urgent action to protect Bracken Cave Preserve
from imminent danger. Crescent Hills is a proposed 3800 home subdivision
along the Preserve¹s southern boundary.
This development is a threat to conservation, the local economy and public
health:
1. 10 million bats will fly directly over 10 thousand residents each
night, creating an unnecessary risk to pets and people from the contact with
sick or injured bats.
2. Security threats to the cave and reserve will dramatically
increase, as will the cost to guard against trespassers which could destroy
the colony with one careless or intentional act.
3. 3800 homes on 1500 acres are high density 14 acre lots on top of
important aquifer recharge zone.
4. This is known Golden-cheecked Warbler habitat and a sensitive karst
area.
If you live locally:
Please join us as Citizens to Be Heard to speak or just bear witness. On
Wednesday, May 22nd at 6: pm City Council has a B Session that includes
³Citizens to be Heard². This is an opportunity for individual citizens to
address the City Council. The meeting takes place at 100 Military Plaza,
San Antonio and starts at 6 p.m.
If you are coming, please notify the Mayor¹s Office and your Council
representative and ask that they stay to hear the people.
If you are interested in speaking, instructions for sign-up are: Citizens
must register between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on the day of the meeting in order
to speak. The link to register online
<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=3010357&msgid=377992&act=B3IY&c=4
31426&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sanantonio.gov%2Fyourcity%2Fmeetingappear
.aspx> becomes available on Wednesday at 8 a.m. at this website:
(http://www.sanantonio.gov/yourcity/meetingappear.aspx). Alternatively,
between 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., citizens can register in person at the
Registration Desk on the afternoon of the meeting. Citizens are given 3
minutes each to speak about their issue, and groups of 3 or more are given a
total of 9 minutes. You can yield your time, if you like, to someone who
may have a longer presentation.
If you cannot attend - Please contact the Mayor and your City Council
Representative
<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=3010357&msgid=377992&act=B3IY&c=4
31426&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sanantonio.gov%2Fcouncil> to voice your
concerns. (http://www.sanantonio.gov/council
<http://www.sanantonio.gov/council> )
Please write - help us reach out to the San Antonio Planning Commission and
City Council with your letters and emails. Ask them to:
Decrease density to 1-3 acres tracks which is compatible with surrounding
neighborhoods, or
prohibit residential development within a certain distance of the cave. (SA
City Council created a 3 mile no-residential development zone around the
Toyota plant.)
Please forward this to others
If you do not live locally, and if you do: BCI will be grateful for all
letters of support, expressing the importance of the Reserve, the cave and
the colony. We would also appreciate your suggestions and especially
contacts with anyone who may have influence in or on the City Council and/or
Mayor¹s office.
BCI will soon have add special webpage with more information about and
regular updates on the situation and what more you can do to help save, what
a National Geographic photographer has called, ³One of the world¹s top ten
wildlife spectacles, and the only one in the United States.²
www.batcon.org/Bracken <http://www.batcon.org/Bracken>
Sincere thanks,
James
James E. Eggers
Director of Education
jegg...@batcon.org <mailto:jegg...@batcon.org>
(512) 327-9721 ext. 12
<https://www.batcon.org/>
P.O. Box 162603, Austin, TX 78716-2603
500 Cap. of Texas Hwy. N., Austin, TX 78746-3302
(512) 327-9721 Fax(512) 327-9724
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