To all:
Having read the petition: By the time the lawyers line up, litigation takes
place, etc. the disease will either have already spread to the west, or we'll
have learned correctly that this petition is one of extremism, and that the
spread of WNS cannot be stopped by the blanket closure of caves. External
quarantine of cavers is easy. You cannot quarantine the bats living in the
caves. Why is it, that these "scientists" cannot understand this? Bats move,
just like people do, to better digs when they want to, incredibly, without the
aid of any humans including lawyers or scientists with as yet unproven theories.
Perhaps all who advocate the closure of caves without proving that it is spread
by cavers should, to paraphrase the expression, "Wake Up, and Smell The Guano".
This does include all BLM, Forest Service, and NPS officials who advocate only
some cave closures (God forbid Carlsbad is EVER closed as $$$ are involved
here), and the extremist scientists and litigation lawyers who advocate blanket
closures and wrote the petition listed below.
The petition does not show one bit of supportive scientific data regarding the
spread by humans. To date during all of the posting on SWR about WNS, there has
not been one bit of data, i.e. a study or otherwise, presented to conclusively
and without a doubt, show that WNS is indeed spread by human traffic into
caves. This would involve studying caves were there has not been any human
traffic, i.e. a control group or subject.
First, it would involve making an observation, that there is WNS in caves,
which has been done, then asking a question; how is is spreading?, which has
also been done. A hypothesis is then formed, in this case, that further
infection of caves by WNS could be spread by humans. This is the last step that
has been taken to my knowledge so far. The next step is to do an experiment,
using a control and a study group. At this point, everything falls flat. To my
knowledge, there has not been one valid experiment to conclusively show that
WNS is spread by humans. Further, after the experiment is done, the conclusions
presented must be able to be duplicated with the same results. This again, has
not been done to my knowledge. It is only after all of these steps are taken,
in exact order, that conclusions and valid, supported decisions can be made
regarding cave closures.
As such, without the use of and adherence to scientific method to prove or
disprove that humans are in part, spreading WNS, the closure of any cave is
invalid.
To be very blunt to all those who advocate the closure of caves, either put up,
or shut up. Prove the point, using valid scientific method. Until then the
petition listed below is extremist, unsupported by any accompanying
scientific data to prove or disprove that human traffic into caves is partially
spreading WNS throughout U.S. caves.
The unsupported petition in printed form is useful, but only for a camping
colonic emergency.
If the statements presented above are wrong, then prove them wrong, with
valid, duplicated, supportive scientific data, here, on the SWR website.
Carl.....
On May 27, 2011, at 7:06 PM, aaronjst...@hotmail.com wrote:
> I might be behind the times on this but this was brought to my attention
> today. Looks like the efforts put forth by the BLM that most cavers disagreed
> with were still not enough for the Center for Biological Diversity. Their
> website also specifically sites BLM's unwillingness to institute a blanket
> closure.
>
> http://www.caves.org/WNS/CBD%20Bat_APA_Petition_NOI_5-25-11.pdf
>
> Aaron
> Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
> _______________________________________________
> SWR mailing list
> s...@caver.net
> http://caver.net/mailman/listinfo/swr_caver.net
_______________________________________________
SWR mailing list
s...@caver.net
http://caver.net/mailman/listinfo/swr_caver.net
