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News: White Nose Syndrome Information Page
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Back part of Copperhead Cave during bat collecting trip. Originally attributed to Graham Ward but later to Frank Mielcarek, Volume 5, Number 12, December 1957.
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WNS presentation: Nearly 30 people attended a special presentation given by Greg Turner of the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Aura Stauffer of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources on Thursday, April 30 at the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve at Saint Vincent College, Latrobe. Kim Metzgar of the Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy arranged the presentation. Among those attending were MAKC board members John Long, chairman; Mike Schirato; Mike Kern; Andrea Gillis and Carl Pierce, secretary. Other cavers spotted in the crowd included Tom and Kim Metzgar, Caleb Hammond, Mike Wolf, Johnny Motto, Jeff Dunn, Dennis Melko, Katie Walden and her husband, Stephanie Wolf and Lisa Hall, director of cave studies at Laurel Caverns. Turner and Stauffer provided a valuable update, and stayed for nearly three hours to inform those attending about the latest research and the spread of White Nose Syndrome in Pennsylvania.
MAKC response to WNS.In light of the situation with massive and rapidly progressing bat mortality due to WNS, Mark Lancaster makes a motion that the MAKC formally recognize the USFWS caving moratorium. In doing so, the MAKC will temporarily suspend visitation to all of the caves on properties owned or leased effective May 2, 2009. This closure will be examined and re-evaluated on a quarterly basis, in accordance with the latest research from the scientific community. The board will examine exceptions for scientific purposes on a case by case basis. Paul Damon Jr. seconds. 8 in favor, 0 oppose, 3 ain. The motion carries.
MAKC Hosted Program
Thursday, April 30, 2009, on White Nose Syndrome
The Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy, Pennsylvania Game Commission and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources hosted a program on White Nose Syndrome, which is killing hundreds of thousands of hibernating bats in the northeastern United States. It will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 30, at the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve, Saint Vincent College, Latrobe. The program was free and open to the public.
Lisa Hall, the Director of Cave Studies at Laurel Caverns, Fayette County, attended to discuss how the caverns management will be handling visitation for 2009.
White Nose Syndrome was first reported in Albany, New York, three years ago, and has spread to northeastern and central Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and other states. The mortality rate is more than 90 percent. The syndrome causes bats to wake during hibernation, when there are no food sources available, and as a result, the bats use up their energy stores and die. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services has recommended that persons not visit wild caves in the affected states, even during non-hibernation periods, until further notice. Show caves, such as Laurel Caverns and Lincoln Caverns and Whisper Rocks (Huntingdon County), are not impacted by the moratorium.
The DCNR and the PGC manage four caves in Westmoreland (Coon Cave, Lemon Hole), Fayette (Barton Cave) and Indiana (Strangford Cave) counties for nongame species. All of those caves have been gated. The Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy owns caves in Huntingdon County, Pa., Pocahontas County, WV, and leases and manages more than three dozen caves in Westmoreland County that are privately owned, including Bear Cave. Due to the USFS advisory, none of the cave preserves will open as scheduled this spring. The closures are not meant to be permanent.
"Members of the Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy wholeheartedly support this research into finding the cause, and potentially a solution, to this devastating syndrome which is impacting our bats,” said spokeswoman Kim Metzgar. “Our members are ready and willing to assist researchers working on these projects in any way we can. Persons interested in visiting our preserves should check our web page, www.karst.org, for the most up-to-date information on access."
Metzgar added that “there are nine show caves operating in Pennsylvania which will remain open to tourists. The caving community encourages persons to visit these caves rather than wild caves until more can be learned about White Nose Syndrome. Links to these caves can be found at www.pacaves.com."
Hall reported that Laurel Caverns will still be open for three hour wild cave trips. “We are however, closely following the recommendations set forth by the USFWS ,” she added. “We are asking that anyone coming to the cave to visit the exploratory section wear clean, never-been-in-a-cave-before, clothes. Even if your cave cloths are washed, please don't wear them. This also includes all cave gear, packs, boots, and helmets. The caverns management will provide helmets.”
Additionally, she noted that everyone entering and exiting the cave for the exploratory tours will need to walk through a shoe bath also which consists of a 10 percent bleach solution.
Turner, currently a Wildlife Biologist with the Wildlife Diversity Section of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, has been assisting with all the major WNS investigators performing work in Pennsylvania. He is also a principle investigator on several projects. Hired in May 2004 as the Endangered Mammal Specialist, his primary focus is to survey, monitor, and manage the state’s protected mammals.
A native of Dallas, Pennsylvania, he received his B.S. in Biology at Wilkes University and then moved on to receive a M.S. of Wildlife and Fisheries Biology degree in 2001 from Frostburg State University, Maryland. His current research priorities focus on investigations on White Nose Syndrome. Examples include the multi-state investigation of the arousal patterns of hibernating bats in WNS affected and clean sites, following the migration and summer survival of WNS affected bats, investigating the reproductive changes in WNS affected bats, and a pilot study examining the effects of a fungal inhibitor on hibernating bats affected by WNS.
Stauffer has been a wildlife biologist with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry since 2002. She works primarily with non-game species.
Stauffer has B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Pennsylvania State University in Wildlife and Fisheries Science. She has worked with the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Wetlands and Waterways in Washington, DC, and for the Audubon Society at the Audubon Camp in Maine as a marine biology instructor. More recently, she worked as an environmental consultant for Gannett Fleming Engineers in Harrisburg, and as the County Inventory Coordinator for The Nature Conservancy, PA Science Office in Middletown, PA.
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Donate to MAKC, P.O. Box 52, Blairsville, PA 15717.
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