All,
I spoke to Jacque yesterday and she detailed to me, and here, as to what the statuts of the permit program is at Lincoln National Forest. I have been told the Carlsbad Caverns NP cave permit program is not affected. Thanks, Mark ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Ken Harrington <ken_harring...@hotmail.com> To: NM Cavers <nmca...@caver.net> Sent: Sat, February 6, 2010 5:15:31 PM Subject: [NMCAVER] FW: Lincoln Cave Program, Information round one Subject: Lincoln Cave Program, Information round one From: jabucha...@fs.fed.us Date: Sat, 6 Feb 2010 14:10:35 -0700 Hi folks, I just wanted to let all of you know that much of what you are hearing about the cave situation in Carlsbad is simply not true. Both my staff and I have been working on a plan for not only keeping the program going but to actually improve it from where it has been in the past. We are currently dealing with a turnover in staff there on the District but not to the degree that rumors seem to indicate. Deanna Younger, the Assistant District Rec Staff/Cave Program Manager left about 7 months ago to take a job at the BLM. We immediately flew that position and have back filled it with a gentleman from Florida so there has been NO decision to remove a position. The issue we do have is that we did not have any applicants with Cave experience that applied for the job so we are now in a position that we have to get this person trained up as quick as possible. We are looking at multiple options for his training as well as how to keep the program fully functional until he is trained. We are fortunate to have the NPS in proximity so we are exploring how we might be able to use the expertise they have to help us out. We still have the Rec Staff Officer in place there (Larry Paul) and considering that he has been overseeing the Rec program as well as supervising the Assistant Rec Staff/Cave manager for 7+ years I would expect the District to be able to keep up with a majority of the request coming in although we are going to have to prioritize the permits for approval. We are concerned with the oversight of the caves in regard to vandalism and we are trying hard to figure out what options we have for that. My District Ranger position at Carlsbad is also vacant at this time and we are working hard to have that position filled as soon as possible. Until the DR position is filled we will be handling some of the work from the Supervisors office here in Alamogordo. In regards to the Cave Tech position that keeps coming up, that is a position that I added to the org chart in 2009 in hopes of getting a second position in place at Carlsbad. To be clear, there has not been a Cave Tech in that office for over 7 years so not having it filled at this time has nothing to do with our commitment to the program. In fact, it shows my commitment to the program since I personally am the one who approved putting it back on the Organizational Chart. I fully recognize the importance of the Cave Program at Carlsbad and being a cave enthusiast myself I understand the concern that all of you have. I hope that from this point forward, each of you will help us make our Cave Program the best in the National Forest System. As a part of the opportunity we now have, I would very much like to offer all of you the chance to have input in how we move this program forward. I am trying to set up a meeting with the other agencies during the week of February 22 and I would like to meet with any of you that have an interest as well. Right now I am planning on being in Carlsbad on the 22 and 23 of February and I would like to set up a meeting at the District office for 600 pm on the evening of the 22nd to get input from the cave community. Please let me know if any of you are interested in meeting with me to discuss the program and options for the future. We will be sending out an information statement on Monday to all of you that captures most of what I stated above as well additional information on our current approach for processing permit applications. I encourage all of you take advantage of the opportunity to be a part of our future program in a productive manner. You have my personal commitment that the Lincoln fully recognizes the importance of the cave system we manage as well as the importance of serving the public that we work for. Please feel free to email or call me if you have questions or concerns. My cell phone number is 575-644-9768 and I am happy to visit with anyone that has a question. Please feel free to share this email or the information sheet we will send you Monday with anyone that is interested. Jacque Jacqueline Buchanan Forest Supervisor Lincoln National Forest 575/434-7306 jabucha...@fs.fed.us _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Powerful Free email with security by Microsoft. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/201469230/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ NMCAVER mailing list nmca...@caver.net http://caver.net/mailman/listinfo/nmcaver_caver.net
