Ask Cavers: Is the U.S. Government Shutdown Affecting Cavers?
October 2, 2013
NPS Office Closed Due to Government Shutdown. Photo by Jim Stratton/NPCA
With the shutdown of the The United States federal government earlier on Tuesday, “non-essential” services across the country have been suspended.
Affected services include all National Parks as well as federal entities tasked with approving cave permits such as the Bureau of Land Management and the Forestry Service.
For this week’s ask cavers question, we want to hear how the shutdown is affecting cavers in across the U.S.
Are you a federal employee suddenly with more free time to go caving, or is your expedition cancelled?
Let us know in the comments below.
Comments (5)
Yes. I had a trip canceled.
It has drastically affected the search for a missing person believed to be in a cave in Craters of the Moon national Monument. The Silver Sage Grotto is continuing the effort working with a skeleton crew of park officials. We are managing all cavers who volunteer and searching the hundreds of cave shelters, mainly lava blisters and tubes.
http://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/cave-group-solicits-experienced-volunteers-to-search-for-dr-jo/article_6ea94fc2-2c8d-11e3-b0d3-0019bb2963f4.html
In Southern WA the Ranger station hold keys for gated caves that can be checked out by cavers. becuse of the shut down we no longer have access to those caves.
The Fort Stanton Cave Study Project, already severely restricted in planned
activities, was forced to shut down halfway through the recent week-long
expedition due to lack of access to Ft. Stanton Cave caused by the govt.
shutdown.
All of the state and federally owned caves in the TAG Region have pretty much been closed for the last several years, due to WNS, anyway. We aren’t slowing down our caving!
Comment