texascavers Digest 15 Dec 2011 20:59:06 -0000 Issue 1455
Topics (messages 19195 through 19202):
Lost Oasis workday reminder
19195 by: Jim Kennedy
TSS worksession tomorrow --- CANCELLED
19196 by: Jim Kennedy
Paging William from Midland...
19197 by: Mark Alman
19198 by: Bill Bentley
19200 by: Mark Alman
Re: Prepare to have your opinion about bats changed forever.
19199 by: Louise Power
The Expendability of Bulgaria's Bats
19201 by: Lee H. Skinner
2012 cave and karst conferences: Bats, Artificial Cavities, and Ghost-Rock Karst
19202 by: George Veni
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--- Begin Message ---
REMINDER!
The Texas Cave Management Association (TCMA) will be having a work day
Sunday 18 December to clean up one of our properties, the Lost Oasis
Cave Preserve in Travis County (south Austin). We plan to prune limbs,
cut weeds, bag trash, and just generally make the property more
attractive. We need people, saws, loppers, weed eaters, gloves, and
even a chain saw. Bring your own drinks and snacks for the work. TCMA
will provide bottled water. The cave preserve is across the street from
Bailey Middle School, 4020 Lost Oasis Hollow, in the West Shady Hollow
subdivision. All visitors to the Preserve will be asked to sign a
liability waiver. Park along the street, and meet at the chain link
fence surrounding the cave at 10:00 am. We should be finished with the
work by noon. Preserve Manager Ron Ralph will open the cave gate then
if anyone wishes to enter the cave. Bring your own cave gear. Ron can
be reached at 512-797-3817 (cell) in case any one gets lost, or if you
would like coordinate more details with him. I also have a map that I
can send if necessary, since CaveTex doesn't do attachments. Contact me
off list for the map if needed, but no need to RSVP if you are
attending. Just show up!
Thanks for your support of TCMA and cave management.
Jim "Crash" Kennedy
TCMA Preserves Chair
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Cavers, due to the approaching holidays and the fact that some of the
principal TSS Directors responsible for opening the office and
organizing the monthly work sessions will be unavailable tomorrow, we
are cancelling the December work session at the TSS office, scheduled to
be held tomorrow evening. Please take this extra time to write up some
trip reports, draft some maps, and organize your cave pictures so that
we have even more to archive the next time we meet in January.
Cavey Holidays!
Jim "Crash" Kennedy
TSS Office Manager
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
I have a 50th TC for you.
Thanks,
Mark
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Which William?
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Alman
To: texascavers@texascavers.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 5:57 PM
Subject: [Texascavers] Paging William from Midland...
I have a 50th TC for you.
Thanks,
Mark
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
I guess that would be important, huh, Bill!?
William Payne, to be exact.
Thanks,
Mark
________________________________
From: Bill Bentley <ca...@caver.net>
To: Mark Alman <texascav...@yahoo.com>; texascavers@texascavers.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 5:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Paging William from Midland...
Which William?
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Alman
>To: texascavers@texascavers.com
>Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 5:57 PM
>Subject: [Texascavers] Paging William from Midland...
>
>
>
>
>I have a 50th TC for you.
>
>
>
>Thanks,
>
>Mark
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Hi Julia,
I was going to send in a link today for Li'l Drac. I saw him last nite on
cuteoverload.com I was very impressed with their ability to simulate feeding
and caring for the li'l guy. I wonder what they fed him...bat formula or
something? Maybe whirled fruit.
Louise
To: Texascavers@texascavers.com
From: germa...@aol.com
List-Post: texascavers@texascavers.com
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:35:35 -0500
Subject: [Texascavers] Prepare to have your opinion about bats changed forever.
Great story with wonderful 4 min video about the rescue of an orphaned bat:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/10/lil-drac-orphaned-bat_n_1141191.html?ref=mostpopular
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Expendable, adjective, (1) open to sacrifice in the interests of gaining
an objective, especially a military one.
In early September, Bulgaria's capital dusted the dirt off its shoulders
to welcome the star-studded cast of the Hollywood action movie "The
Expendables 2".
To demonstrate Bulgaria's pride over the fact that it is providing the
filming locations for the blockbuster, an exclusively macho delegation
consisting of Prime Minister Borisov, Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov,
and, unsurprisingly, football star Hristo Stoichkov, rushed to meet and
greet the celebrities.
Gripped by the collective exaltation at the high-profile visit,
Bulgaria's Ministry of Environment and Water gave the green light to
shooting at the Devetashka Cave, a natural landmark of national and
international importance and a home to 13 protected bat species, two of
them considered globally endangered.
The permission to shoot was granted despite the fact that domestic
legislation only allows for activities related to tourism or scientific
research to take place at the site.
After the Hollywood legends left the set, an inspection conducted by
environmentalists revealed the heavy toll on the natural habitat.
The experts reported that the bats had been woken from hibernation and
were facing death by exhaustion or starvation.
Even if they could go back into hibernation, biologists said, the flying
mammals' chances of making it until summer would be severely reduced
because their energy reserves would be prematurely depleted due to the
uncustomary activity.
However, the disturbed bats might not be able to re-hibernate because
their home turned into a noisy top-notch tourist attraction after "The
Expendables 2" rebuilt the bridge leading to the Devetashka Cave and
left it as a "gift" for the country.
The inspection conducted by environmental experts showed that the cave
was inhabited by as little as 10 400 bats, while in the winter of 2010
they had been over 35 000.
The biologists found dead bats from three species which had fallen from
the cave ceiling, their carcasses bearing easily discernible signs of
exhaustion.
The check showed that the movie crew had violated the terms of the
permit, entering the dark part of the cave and engaging in a variety of
particularly noisy activities.
The European Commission and a number of global environmental
organizations filed inquiries as to why the situation had been allowed
to unfold.
Bulgaria's Ministry of Environment and Waters responded with its
habitual one-liner: There will be fines!
What does the story go to show?
The story goes to show that Bulgaria's bats are expendable.
It also shows that the Ministry of Environment and Water is more of a
Ministry for Selling Environment and Water.
The irony of it all is that this is happening in 2011, The Year of the
Bat, as declared by the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and
The Agreement on the Conservation of Populations of European Bats
(EUROBATS).
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Dear Friends,
This week I have received notices of some interesting cave and karst related
conferences that will be held in 2012. Information on them is included
below. If you have questions, contact the people or organizations listed,
and please distribute this message to anyone you think might be interested.
George
--------------------------------------
SPELEOBATS
CAVE-ROOSTING BATS
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
20-23. September 2012.
Miskolc - Bükk Mountains
Hungary
The conference will pay special attention to the legislative and practical
conservation of the bats and their cave habitat, to the effects of cave
tourism on bats, and to research on the WNS and other bat diseases; but any
paper related to cave-roosting bats are welcome. The program of the
conference includes a field-trip to the Bükk Mountains.
Detailed information will be available in the First Circular, as well as on
the website: www.barlang.hu and at e-mail: m...@t-online.hu in February
2012. For smooth organization, potential participants are kindly requested
to send a notice of interest by 2012 January 20 to either of the following
addresses:
Magyar Karszt- és Barlangkutató Társulat
1025 Budapest, Pusztaszeri út 35.
Hungary
or
m...@t-online.hu
--------------------------------------
International Workshop on Speleology in Artificial Cavities
"Classification of the typologies of artificial cavities in the world"
Dates: 18-20 May 2012
Location: Torino (Piedmont Region, Italy)
Organized by: - Commissione Nazionale Cavità Artificiali SSI
- UIS Artificial Cavities Commission
Chairman: Mario Parise m.par...@ba.irpi.cnr.it
Secretary: Carla Galeazzi carla.galeaz...@alice.it
UIS Commission on Artificial Cavities
President: Mario Parise (Italy) - m.par...@ba.irpi.cnr.it
Vice President: Joep Orbons (Netherlands) -
<mailto:j.orb...@xs4all.nl> j.orb...@xs4all.nl
Secretary: Carla Galeazzi (Italy) -
carla.galeaz...@alice.it
Members: Roberto Bixio (Italy)
Martin Dixon (Great Britain)
Hakan Eğilmez (Turchia)
Jean Francois Garnier (France)
Jérôme Triolet (France)
Laurent Triolet (France)
Luc Stevens (Belgium)
What's the purpose of the Cadastre of Artificial Cavities?
The purpose of the Cadastre of Artificial Cavities (AC) is:
- the inventory and the cataloguing of the AC in accordance with
procedures established and accepted at an international level;
- geographical documentation of each territory and its peculiarity;
- support and coordination during scientific research and
exploration;
- to contribute in developing proper land management, integrating
the tools and codes of the local governments;
- the protection and enhancement of the urban environment and the
cultural heritage.
As an example of existing Cadastre of Artificial Cavities, link to the
Italian website: <http://catastoartificiali.speleo.it/applications/1.0/>
http://catastoartificiali.speleo.it/applications/1.0/
Why do we need to compare typologies?
The variety of underground man-made architecture is extremely wide and
diverse. It is very frequent that different uses of the same cavity are
overlapped in different epochs of time. The Commission on Artificial
Cavities of the Italian Speleological Society (SSI) started several years
ago the cataloguing and inventory of the underground man-made structures
throughout the country. In the '90 of the last century, to obtain consistent
statistical data at the international level, criteria were defined for
conventional codification of the typologies and of the ages of realization
of each structure. Since then, other explorations led to the discovery of
further typologies of artificial cavities, and to a "critical reading" of
others. After 20 years, we think it is important to establish a new
opportunity of comparison at the international level, in order to define a
classification of the Artificial Cavities.
How will be the workshop organized?
The idea is to put together for the first time the members of the new UIS
Commission, in order to share the respective experiences and to compare the
different ways to inventory and cataloguing Artificial Cavities. Some
keynote lectures will be presented by renown experts in the field, and large
space will be given to open discussion (in a quite informal way) to allow
the best opportunity to share experiences and working practices. The
presence of UIS delegates would be particularly welcome, to give a good
start to the Commission, as well as to include in the best way the
activities of the UIS Artificial Cavities Commission within the larger
framework of the UIS programs for the next years. For any further
information, and for being included in the mailing list with the second
circular of the workshop, please contact Mario Parise
m.par...@ba.irpi.cnr.it
--------------------------------------
Ghost-Rock Karst Symposium
Different points of view on karstogenesis
Fundamental and applied aspects
Han-sur-Lesse, Belgium
>From 7 to 11 October 2012
http://sites.google.com/site/ghostrockkarstsymposium/
In the paleokarsts from Hainaut (Belgium), you can find weathering features
similar to soil features: an "in situ" limestone weathering with residual
weathered-rock ("ghost-rock") that keeps its initial volume. Geological
features like chert beds, stratification, and joints filled with calcite
veins, remain although they present higher porosity. The weathering follows
the joints and moves laterally by weathering fronts which can isolate intact
blocks. We have given the name of "ghost-rock" to those features. The
morphological expressions of ghost-rocks consist in corridors situated on
vertical joints which have conducted aggressive water in a quiet phreatic
zone and pseudoendokarstic features totally inserted in the unweathered
bedrock.
***************************
George Veni, Ph.D.
Executive Director
National Cave and Karst Research Institute
400-1 Cascades Avenue
Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220-6215 USA
Office: 575-887-5517
Mobile: 210-863-5919
Fax: 413-383-2276
gv...@nckri.org
www.nckri.org
--- End Message ---
