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On Jun 2, 2008, at 10:52 PM, Lee H. Skinner wrote:
Lee, Stephen Carter, the main person behind this group, is a volunteer for BLM. He changes the combos on the locks in the cave, and with the assistance of the youth groups that he sponsors "Ecoservants", he does some trail maintenance and cleanup in the cave. There is a good deal of controversy as to whether his group is a positive asset to the cave. At the Memorial Day Regional, the region voted to send a letter of concern to the BLM with reference to this group. Here is the letter: May 26, 2008 Linda Rundell, New Mexico State Director, Bureau of Land Management 1474 Rodeo Road PO Box 27115 Santa Fe, NM 87502-0115 Ms. Rundell, On Friday, May 2, 2008 several Southwestern Region (SWR) members attended a presentation on “the Caves of Lincoln County”, given by Mr. Stephen Carter and Mr. John Terrell at the Capitan, NM city hall. As part of their presentation they announced that their organization “EcoServants” was now providing commercial cave tours of Fort Stanton Cave, under a permit from the BLM. They even had a brochure, a copy of which is attached to this letter. The presentation itself was somewhat disturbing, full of inaccurate and misleading statements about Fort Stanton Cave and caves in general. For example, dimensions of parts of Fort Stanton Cave were given inaccurately: Hell Hole given as 3000 feet long (in reality, 1600 feet), the cave itself currently supposedly surveyed at 15 miles (actually around 12 miles or so, at this point), the Keyhole was said to be 3 miles into the cave (more like 2 miles, at best), etc. They also used the term “speleotherm” instead of “speleothem” to identify cave formations and talked about “spittites”, a term that has never been used by anyone else (to our knowledge) to describe any cave formations. These are only a few of the misstatements that were made. (One of the attendees was Donald Davis, an internationally recognized cave scientist. He was profoundly disturbed by the amount of erroneous information given by Mr. Carter and Mr. Terrell.) The point is that Mr. Carter and Mr. Terrell do not seem to be adequately informed about caves, caving and Fort Stanton Cave itself. Mr. Carter also commented during the presentation that they had taken 30 5th graders to the Trophy room earlier that day. This again calls into question the competency and judgment of these individuals, as sound caving practice would not promote taking a group this size and age range that far into the cave. The brochure is also disturbing, in that it alludes to a close relationship between the EcoServants organization and the BLM, a relationship we do not believe actually exists. We do not believe that anyone in the EcoServants organization is “certified” in any way by the BLM, nor do we believe that the BLM endorses the EcoServants organization in any way. As a cooperative organization with the BLM on issues of cave management we feel it necessary to express our concern about this particular commercial tour outfitter. The quality of the presentation and the nature of the brochure calls into question the competency of this outfitter. As a result of these developments and part of our concern for all aspects of cave management and our specific concern for the protection of Fort Stanton Cave, we would like to find out some information about this commercial tour operator and commercial operations at Fort Stanton Cave in general. We would appreciate, at your earliest convenience, copies of the following: • the permit for the EcoServants commercial tour operation • their operating plan • record of decision for the environmental document authorizing the issuance of the permit. • monitoring documentation for compliance with their permit • a record of the commercial usage of Fort Stanton Cave, relative to recreational usage. At the May 24, 2008 meeting of the SWR, it was moved by the membership of the region that this letter be composed and sent to you by a committee of concerned members. You may respond with written correspondence to my mailing address below, or by e-mail to swrch...@gmail.com. We (the SWR) remain very concerned about cave management within the BLM and would appreciate being informed about continuing developments regarding this operation and any other commercial operations in caves managed by the BLM. Thank you for your assistance in this matter. (signed) Robert Allen Wright, Chair, Southwestern Region of the National Speleological Society. 528 N. Melendres Las Cruces, NM 88005 Committee members: Stephen Fleming, casto...@gmail.com, cc. Doug Burger, District Manager, Pecos District, BLM. doug_bur...@blm.gov Eddie Bateson, Field Manager, Roswell Field Office, BLM, eddie_bate...@blm.gov Bill Murry, Outdoor Recreation Planner, BLM, bill_mu...@blm.gov The brochure is attached as well: |
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Steve Peerman "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in you sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." attributed to Mark Twain, but no record exists of his having written this. |
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