Guanophiles, This will be the last email about the Guano Gathering. Please save it, print it, read it, carry it with you, and pass it along to anyone else with Guano Gathering (GG) questions.
This year's Guano Gathering at BCI's Bracken Bat Cave will be held Sunday 8 February. We'll start at 11:00 in the morning in order to give those folks who live away from the Center of the Caving Universe more of a chance to arrive. I suspect that if it goes much like the previous years, we will be manning the bucket brigade for a couple of hours, and then give everyone a chance to go into the cave to poke around. We'll kick everyone out of the property by 3:00 or so. The Annual Guano Gathering is now in it's 10th year, and attracts as many as 50-60 cavers and their friends. There was a nice little article in the January 2007 issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine which you can find at http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2007/jan/scout3/ <http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2007/jan/scout3/> . The GG is an event sponsored solely by myself as a favor to my caver friends and others who may want their own bat guano for their gardens, orchards, herbs, etc. Because I am an employee of Bat Conservation International (BCI) and because the cave is owned by BCI, everyone attending must sign a liability waiver and follow certain rules. Waivers will be on site when you arrive. No commercial guano extraction will be permitted during the event. Here's what to do if you are interested. Show up at the cave NO EARLIER than 10:30 and NO LATER than 11:00 on Sunday, February 8. To get to the cave, turn off Interstate 35 on Ranch Road 3009, which is also called Natural Bridge Caverns Road. Just before you get to the big curve in 3009 at the entrance drive to Natural Bridge Caverns, you will see a gate on the west side of the road with a couple of orange traffic cones. Turn in there. There will be some kind of carabiner on a chain amongst a large number of padlocks. Go through the gate, replacing the chain and carabiner exactly like you found it (gate closed). Drive a couple of hundred yards west, crossing a dry creekbed. When the major (smooth) road veers to the right, stay to the left (straight). There will be another gate in a high wildlife fence. Open it, drive through, and close it behind you exactly as you found it. Continue down the dirt road to a T near a windmill and stock tank. Turn right here. Hopefully we will have some signs up at the two tricky spots. Continue driving (about 2 miles total from 3009) on the ranch road to the second cave sign. Park here outside the fence, look for Jim, and sign the release. Bring plastic five-gallon buckets if you have them. We'll line up down the natural entrance to the cave and do a bucket brigade, a la Caverns of Sonora Restoration (for those of you who have been around long enough to remember those!). And bring something in which to take the guano home. Trash cans with lids are ideal. Big Rubbermaid tubs with lids work OK. Actually, any bucket with a tight-fitting lid works OK. Trash bags, even heavy-duty contractor bags or trash compactor bags, are a pain in the neck for us and we won't fill them, so please don't ask.. Basically, our motto is that if you bring an appropriate container, we will fill it. Folks have taken home trailers full of guano, and Walt Olenick usually fills the bed of his truck (previously lined with plastic). Keep in mind that the guano is dry and powdery, so it needs to be enclosed in something or it will filter out or blow all over on your way home. Also keep in mind that this guano, while old, still smells like guano. You don't want it in the backseat of your car. I also strongly recommend you wear OLD clothes and bring a complete change of clothes, including shoes, so you can change before heading home and not stink up your vehicle. And don't forget a trash bag for the stinky, dirty clothes. We'll keep up the bucket brigade until all surface containers are filled, then continue passing up the full buckets until they are filled as well. You might also want to bring a gallon of water, old towels, and Wet Wipes to clean up with afterwards. As usual, a bunch of us head to Caparelli's for dinner (Italian) on our way home. But you may want a snack or light lunch and some drinks to get you through the day. I know I will. There will only be 2 or 3 people at the head of the line filling buckets. I'll decide who that will be that day. I only want to see FIVE-GALLON plastic buckets in the Line. No six-gallon or four-gallon plastic buckets, no square kitty-litter buckets, no 3-gallon detergent buckets, just 5-gallon buckets. It makes it so-o-o-o much easier to pass buckets back down the line when we can stack them. Myself and another person will be at the tail of the line dumping guano into containers and sending empty buckets back down the line. Everyone else will be spaced evenly down the line. No shovels or other tools are needed, so leave them all at home. You may want gloves and a headlight, particularly if you are towards the digging end of the line or going in the cave later. Now for the standard disclaimer: This is a major bat cave, folks! That means that it is not only dirty and stinky, but there is also a potential (small in my opinion), of contracting histoplasmosis from fungal spores in the cave. Yes, histo has been recorded from Bracken. If you feel that you are susceptible and that this is an unnecessary risk, then either stay home or bring and wear a properly-fitted respirator with a P-100 filter (look it up). Dust masks, bandanas over your face, and so on will NOT prevent you from breathing in the spores and contracting the disease. However, out of the several dozen trips I have made into the cave, the hundreds of people attending past GGs, and the thousands of people visiting Bracken Bat Cave to watch the summer emergence flights, I can't recall hearing about anyone getting histo. Most cavers already have a pretty strong immunity from previous exposures, but remember that we'll be stirring up a fair amount of dust in our activities. My PERSONAL OPINION is that no one has anything at all to worry about, but I am not a medical professional. Caveat emptor. I won't be wearing a mask. The bats will be gone (except for a very small number) at this time of year, so the air quality and dermestid level in the cave will be about as good as it gets. That allows us a pretty nice trip into the cave after our efforts. Our guano harvest is a sustainable activity. We'll pull out no more than a couple of tons of guano, which is pretty minor compared to the 100+ tons removed by the commercial operation that occurs every winter or so. You are welcome to come and help even if you do not need or want any guano for yourself. If you want to know what to do with guano once you get it home, there is a great article from BCI's magazine BATS archived at http://tinyurl.com/chhwqc <http://tinyurl.com/chhwqc> . This will be the only detailed announcement about the trip, so print and save this email. And pass it along to others in your grotto, cavers not on CaveTex, and close personal friends interested in a little free organic fertilizer in exchange for some minor labor. I'll send out at least one more reminder before the trip. Please do not RSVP me to let me know if you will be there. Just show up. Friends are invited if they are cool, dogs are not, even if they are. Kids are welcome only if they can lift and swing buckets of bat droppings for a couple of hours. Everyone, no exceptions, that shows up should be prepared to be a part of the bucket brigade and WORK. We have no space for sightseers. Contact me offlist only if you have specific questions I can answer. So let's hope the weather holds, and we see LOTS of people with buckets. More people on the line makes the work easier and faster. It's a good time and a lot of fun. Really! Please pass this along to others at grotto meetings and caver functions. -- Crash Confidentiality Note: This email and any attachment to it are confidential and protected by law and intended for the use of the individual(s) or entity named on the email. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination or distribution of this communication is prohibited. 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