Jeez, Steve, and here I was going to sign that petition just to feel like I was doing *something* to stop the CBD from controlling the situation. Dunham, whoever he is, says that CBD is petitioning the White House themselves to close all caves. If so, they are pissing in the wind as well, according to your view. However, if they get the upper hand by THEIR petition and we as cavers do nothing to stop their petition or at least counteract it with one of our own, then we're the ones who got pissed on downwind, not them. As a friend of a friend once said, don't get any on ya'…. This is sure a political hot button for everyone, no matter which side of the WNS and cave closure issue you come down on. Signing it, despite all its defects and whether it is effective or not, can't hurt and at least gives some of us the opportunity to voice an equally strong opinion about *not* closing down caves en masse. With all the money that some of the private commercial cave owners have (Luray, Howe, etc), it is highly unlikely that CBD will be able to close down all caves, no matter who owns them. You can stop the supposed human vector, as yet unproved, and leave it to the bats to do the spreading all by themselves as they seem to be doing a fine job of already. Alas, WNS was confirmed in Maine earlier this year and there are no commercial caves in our state and virtually no cavers to spread it. In fact, it showed up in mines, not caves and most cavers don't do mines anyway.
Having said all that, I was very frustrated in trying to find a way to sign the damned thing as it was. I signed in but could never get back to the petition to sign it and couldn't find it anywhere once I was signed in. It's a conspiracy!!! It's those damned liberals….. Wait, I'm one of them. Yikes!!! Peter On Apr 13, 2012, at 1:44 PM, Stephen Fleming wrote: > Total waste of time. > > CBD does not care one whit about public opinion. They are driven by the fact > that they can reap millions in litigation. > > This is all about money, lots of it, and nothing more. > > Furthermore, whoever this guy Dunham is, he continues the misinformation by > repeating (helpfully, to the CBD cause) that humans are a vector. That has > never been demonstrated with any scientific evidence, after 6+ years of it > being endlessly repeated as fact. > > Until the agencies grow a set and tell the CBD to go eff itself, nothing is > going to change. > > Everything about the petition is 'feel good' and appealing to > emotion/caver-logic viewpoint, and the pleas contained therein are of no > interest to the politicos or litigants. Money talks; cavers are not even a > blip on the money screen. > > Anyone who thinks the White House really thinks your opinion is important on > any petition of this sort only needs to view prior petitions on any topic of > your choosing to see how they pretty much all turn out. This is pissing in > the wind. > > > On 04/13/2012 12:31, Kathy Peerman wrote: >> >> Begin forwarded message: >>> Subject: Petition to keep public caves open to the public >>> >>> As you may know, the CBD is petitioning the White House to close all >>> public caves and fine private landowners who keep their caves open. >>> This is a serious threat to the caves, which are often vandalized when >>> responsible visitation is removed, and does nothing to protect the >>> bats since WNS is spread bat-to-bat. Human contributions to spread can >>> be effectively controlled with decon, assuming a human vector ever >>> existed. Closing publicly owned caves to the public is a threat to >>> conservation, a limitation of freedom, and is based on bad science, >>> and I am tired of not standing up to say that. If you support this >>> cause, please sign this counter petition to keep the caves open. >>> >>> https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/support-conservation-recreation-science-and-personal-freedom-mandating-public-access-caves-public/YX8Bjp3F >>> >>> Sincerely, >>> John Dunham > > _______________________________________________ > SWR mailing list > s...@caver.net > http://caver.net/mailman/listinfo/swr_caver.net
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