A flyer distributed at OTR describes the application for a 190 acre limestone quarry on Pond Lick Mountain and describes the possible consequences of this quarry on caves and the local habitat. The Shavers Fork Coalition and the residents of Faulkner request your help in writing letters to the WV DEP.

Due to recent spamming and evidence of data mining I am making several policy changes on this site, effective immediately.

1. E-mail addresses will no longer be live links. I know this is more work for the visitor, but spammers have perfected engines for stealing e-mail addresses from web sites, and it have become obvious that they have stolen addresses from here. E-mail addresses will still be provided, but not as live links, and the remaining text has been coded so as to hinder these e-mail spiders. It will take a little while to change every link on the entire site.



2. The VAR Bulletin Board has been removed. It was rarely used by cavers, and has lately been inundated with ads and other spam.

I am sorry for any inconvenience these changes cause to our viewers, but they are even more of an inconvenience to the dedicated cavers who organized and promote various caving events in the Virginia Region. - Jim McConkey, VAR Webmaster, April 2004.

As many of you are aware, Geraldine Freeman passed away this winter. Since that time, the cave has a new owner and rents the house out. There have been a number of incidents at the cave over the last month involving various groups of cavers, which has caused a lot of friction between the tenant and the caving community. In some cases, cavers should know better, in some cases, there is no way the cavers could know better, and in some cases, they just may not be true. Also, it is important to know that there is a renter on the property that also has needs that are different from what we've all known in the past.

Until we can sit down face to face with the owner and discuss the issues, please avoid caving in McClungs from Geraldine's entrance. The Lightners entrance is open and you can get to most parts of the cave from it in three hours or less. The parking area is now posted with No Parking signs and unless you have specific permission from the owner, the tenant says he will call the police. Let's try and keep this cave off the Closed Cave list by avoiding it until the issues have been worked out. WVCC has some contact going on with the owner about these topics, and will keep the caving community posted on developments.

The first Region mapping project is off to a strong start. Cavers from all over the Virginia Region are remapping Grand Caverns, and other caves on the park property. Right now we are concentrating on mapping the tourist trail in Grand Caverns before tourist season starts again, and locating all caves on the property in preparation for a surface survey. Surveyors of all interests and abilities are needed. Outstanding sketchers are especially in demand. Contact Carol Tiderman (ctider@us.ibm.com) for more info or if you are interested in helping out. Carol asks that all cavers planning to show up for the next month's survey please let her know. We have primitive camping at the Grand Caverns campground, with most of the amenities of home.

Volunteer grottos are always needed to host future VAR meetings. If your grotto is or may be interested, check out our new on-line VAR Field Meet Hosting Guide

Thanks to FROG Grotto for staging another successful VAR and to BATS for stepping in with the Sunday breakfast. Despite some pretty foul weather Saturday (and what else is new for a meeting of cavers?), everyone had a great time.

Thanks also to Joey Fagan for organizing the service project, a cleanup of Nelly's Cave in Blacksburg, and to all who showed up to help.

I guess there was one sour note, though. Not enough grottoes were present at the business meeting Sunday to form a quorum. Especially after the cancelation of the business meeting at Spring VAR due to The Great Flood, this really hampers the business of the VAR, including funding grants for cave conservation and research.

This problem is exacerbated by some of the organizations who seldom if ever come to the VAR business meetings. To help alleviate this recurring problem, a motion was entered at the meeting. The motion is to change the bylaws to add a section stating:

"Any grotto or other organization qualified to vote at VAR meetings that is not represented at three successive regular VAR meetings shall have its voting privileges suspended and shall not be included for purposes of a quorum count at subsequent meetings.

Such grotto or organization shall be automatically and immediately reinstated by providing representation at one of the subsequent three meetings.

Any such grotto or organization not represented at six consecutive regular VAR meetings shall be automatically dropped from the roll of voting grottoes or organizations.

Any grotto or organization dropped from the roll under the conditions of this section may be reinstated by re-applying for voting status without prejudice under the standing rules for admitting new member organizations."

The motion was of course tabled for lack of a quorum and will be voted on at the next VAR meeting that achieves a quorum (hopefully next Spring).

The motion is intended to help with the problems we've had achieving quorums at the business meetings and is in no way intended to be punitive or coercive. Six consecutive regular meetings means (at least) three years and it is reasonable to conclude the organization is no longer a functioning member organization of the VAR.

-- Walt Pirie

Letters are needed to help avoid a potentially disasterous outcome at Pigeon Mountain, Georgia, due to expansion of mining activities on the mountain. Read all about the letter writing campaign and please help out.

The National Speleological Society (NSS) is offering a reward) to anyone providing information leading to the legal conviction of vandalism directly related to caves anywhere in the United States. The NSS pays a reward of $250 to $1,000 for information leading to the conviction of any person (or persons) convicted of vandalizing, damaging, or destroying caves, cave wildlife, cave gates, cave artifacts, etc. Many southeastern caves, have suffered attacks by vandals. The NSS encourages all cavers to report vandals and acts of vandalism so that they can be prosecuted under the Virginia Cave Protection Law.

Despite many pleas, some of the information in the Virginia Region Limited Access Cave List is very old. It may still be accurate, but it is hard to have confidence in information that is up to 15 years old. If you are familiar with the access status of any of the caves in the list, please send Bob Hoke (Bob@Hoke.net) a quick message and let him know if the listed information is still accurate, or to supply updates. Someone wanting to visit a cave will feel a lot more confident about its status if the listing is reasonably current.