Carl, I also recall that the initial explorers that found the
Guadalupe Room went very carefully through the Sand Passage, each
stepping in only the footsteps of the person in front because the
"sand" was 6" or so deep. But after the Chamber of Commerce was
"allowed" to see the new discovery the path was 2 feet wide, with
trails going to each wall. All it took was one big trip without proper
instructions or guides.
- Pete
On Jan 11, 2012, at 4:32 PM, Carl Kunath wrote:
Good point Geary.
Our standards for cave conservation and "tread lightly" have changed
and evolved considerably in the past half century or so.
The book 50 Years of Texas Caving includes a chapter on conservation
and ethics that briefly traces some the changes in our collective
thinking. There are a couple of pictures that speak directly to the
issue of traffic control. Pictured (page 270) are two views of a
sandy-floored passage in the Guadalupe Room portion of Carlsbad
Caverns. This area was restricted to "experienced" cavers and yet it
can be seen that the original pathway doubled in width within a two
year period. It may be even wider by now.
We have come a very long way but there are certainly some horrendous
incidents in our past.
===Carl Kunath
-----Original Message-----
From: Geary Schindel
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 4:07 PM
Subject: RE: [Texascavers] How long is Punkin Cave?
You bring up an excellent point regarding damage to a cave and one
which has often bothered me. For example, I helped remap parts of
Turner Avenue in the Flint Ridge portion of Mammoth Cave, Kentucky in
the late 1980's. This was an almost pristine and incredible trunk
passage discovered in the late 50's or early 60's. The passage is
mostly 10 feet high and 20-30 foot wide, sand covered passage, that
runs for thousands of feet. The original explorers left a very narrow
trail in the very fine sediments in this passage. However, folks
considered the survey in the 60's not up to the standard in the 80's
so the passage was resurveyed. (Turner Avenue is well described in
the book The Longest Cave by Roger Brucker.) The trip leader for the
resurvey wanted the distance to the walls physically measured at each
station. This required walking out across the undisturbed sediments
which I wouldn't do. However, there were others on the trip that were
willing to do this. I tried to reason with them but they were on a
mission to survey the cave and were not going to be stopped, come
damage to the sediments or formations or not (common sense did not
prevail). Now, I could estimate the distance from the survey station
to the walls probably with an accuracy of a few feet. Using the scale
at which the cave map was to be drawn, this uncertainty was the width
of the pen used to draw the map. We forever disturbed these sediments
and in my opinion, greatly distracted from the aesthetics of the
cave. In addition, sediments (wall crusts, etc) have just as much
geologic and aesthetic value and importance as cave formations. Now
there are laser range finders that can very accurately measure that
distance without damaging the sediment.
This weekend, on a survey trip here in Texas, there were four or five
survey teams in the cave. The cave has an established trail from the
entrance to one of the major junctions in the cave. Over the last 5
plus years, great pains have been taken to keep new cavers on what I
call the trade route to minimize damage to formations and crusts.
Probably close to 500 people have visited this section of the cave
with very minimal damage and disturbance. However, some of the survey
teams had no problems with getting off the well established trail and
climbing over formations rather than using the trade route on the way
to their survey objectives. I don't think the trip leaders were trying
to damage the cave, they just weren't properly educated in Leave No
Trace ethics and on the proper conservation ethics and practices for
the cave.
Last Friday, I was doing a site evaluation of a ranch when we crawled
into a small cave entrance with the ranch owner's son. After about
100 meters of crawling, we popped up into a fine truck passage and
carefully walked down about 500 meters of very well decorated virgin
cave. We stopped in passage 20 feet high and 10 feet wide with a
large white formation across the passage. I convinced the owner's son
to wait until we can come back with some clean clothes and equipment
so we don't soil the formation. (we'll see if that happens).
So, while we complain about non-cavers doing damage to caves,
organized cavers can have just as big or bigger impact. Before we
start casting stones, I've broken my fair share of formations and
disturbed my fair share of sediments and then some. Maybe old age and
wisdom are starting to get the upper hand on my youth and enthusiasm
(about time).
Geary
