Cavers, Despite it being the Easter weekend, there will indeed be a regular TSA Project trip to Colorado Bend State Park this weekend. In fact, since many people have Friday off, I asked the Park superintendent if we could make the weekend a day longer, and arrive Thursday evening, and he said yes. We are going to spend much of Friday working on projects around the new Caver Camp, including setting stepping stones to the outhouse and cleaning up from the recent prescribed burn near camp. So plan on cutting and hauling firewood, dragging brush, moving stones, and generally tidying up the place. If you have a chainsaw or mower you want to bring, great! Other hand tools like loppers, bow saws, shovels, and mattocks will also be useful for the other projects. I'll have an assortment of tools also. Later that day, people can head off to their own cave-digging projects, or even an evening trip to Gorman Cave. On Saturday we will break up into the usual teams and head out to do more cave inventory work. All trips will leave camp by 10:00 at the LATEST, so if you are not coming up until Saturday morning, plan to arrive well before 10. Remember that camp is primitive, so bring your own water, tent, food, and anything else you need for the weekend. There is also a $2 project fee that will be collected when you sign the Park release form. Due to the heightened concerns about White Nose Syndrome (WNS), a mysterious malady killing tens of thousands of bats in the Northeast (so far), we are stepping up our requirements for clean cave gear. ALL clothing and cave equipment must either be new, never worn outside of Texas, or disinfected following the decontamination protocols listed on the Northeast Region US Fish and Wildlife website (http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html). Basically you can wash your clothing in bleach, and disinfect your vertical gear, boots, and electronics with a quaternary ammonium compound such as found in Lysol brand antibacterial cleaner. Look up quaternary ammonium compounds in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Quaternary_ammonium_compounds) if you are not sure if your particular product has the right stuff. When you are sure your helmet, headlamp, boots, clothes, pack, gloves, camera, and everything else is clean, put them in a clean storage container and don't let them come into contact with any other gear or clothing. Anyone showing up with dirty or even suspicious gear will NOT be allowed underground. WNS is too scary for us to be taking a lax attitude. We like our bats and what they do for us. Any questions or comments should be sent to me off list. Do NOT respond just to tell me you are coming. Just show up. Jim "Crash" Kennedy TSA-CBSP Project Coordinator
