NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Explore on Four Meeting Room

The Triangle Troglodytes monthly meeting started at about 7:38 PM. Matthew B (Vice Chair) led the meeting, and for introductions asked “How many caving trips will you go on this year?” or alternatively, how many different caves? Numbers ranged from around zero to possibly dozens. Also in attendance were Stephan F (Treasurer), Matthew W (Editor), Jacob G (Editor), Mark D, John P, Emily, Chris T, Ken, Taylor O, Alexa, Nathan, Peter H, Eva, Sam, Alan O, and Zeke (Secretary) recording the meeting minutes. Joining online were Lisa, Mike Y, Piotr, Joe S, Matthew L, John B, and special guest Mollie.

Getting into business items, Jacob pointed out that only one trip report has been posted recently, and it was actually from several years ago. There is now an incentive for posting reports to the website. There will be an Inner Mountain Outfitters gift certificate for $50 given to the winner of a raffle at this year’s end, and the raffle tickets will be awarded one for every unique cave trip report posted to our website. The other incentive announced is that after a few other posts appear, Zeke will publish a second report from several years ago.

The scouting event at Camp Durant in Carthage is the second weekend in May, and needs input from the grotto. Mark is organizing the TriTrogs for this, and we have to figure out what we can do/make.

The museum is holding another Social in the Shire on May 15, and Ken indicated that we’re supposed to respond. After some questions and answers, Zeke said he could do the event, Taylor said he could be the organizer, other people could be interested, and we will respond positively to the museum.

Zeke had one last order of business, and that was to establish a Bylaws Committee. A committee may be established at any general meeting of the grotto, and be open to any interested members. The text of the Constitution and Bylaws needs to be looked at this year, and maybe other things, but that’s for the committee. Zeke is interested, and Lisa is interested and has experience in these processes. Mark and Zeke agreed that the Bylaws ought to be voted on by the grotto at some point, if just to have them reaffirmed. 

To begin trip reports, Ken, Emily, Mark, Piotr, and Zeke covered their reconnaissance and planning trip to Low Moor ahead of the May 2nd cleanup effort. Information is posted about the upcoming event at var.caves.org. Emily expressed that there is a lot of graffiti and much work to be done. Upon entering the ladder room and crossing the new ladder, it was discovered that the old ladder had returned, or perhaps never actually left? But yes, it had been removed and then brought back to the room and put on display, and only two days before our expedition, as it turned out. Our removal of the old ladder wasn’t considered a nuisance, but the rusty ladder was deemed historic and will remain. (“Return of the Iron Ladder” can be found here.)

Matthew W, Jacob, and John went to Low Moor Cave and Mine on the way to Bone-Norman, to check out an “orphaned” section of cave, and Matthew said plenty of bats were seen. The next day, they went in the Bone entrance and out Norman on an epic through-trip. It was characterized as mazy and amazing. They found the Great White Way and spent 3 hours there. Matthew forgot that there was a waterfall, even though he had been there on a photo trip some years earlier, as Ken reminded him. (A great report has been posted for this trip, with pictures.)

Upcoming Trips/Events include:
May 2 weekend – Low Moor cleanup
May 8-10 Spring VAR
May 8-10 Scout Leader Expo
May 15 (Fri) – Social @ Museum
July 6-10 – NSS Convention 
July 11 – Maxwell/Bone-Norman
Sept 18-20 (date tentative) Annual Grotto Trip, destination unknown 
not mentioned: May 12 (Tue) – Executive Committee meeting (all members welcome)

We took a short break.

The special presentation was given by Mollie Byrne, who is a wildlife biologist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
(The secretary initially did not intend to take notes here, but then did anyway, so this is not exhaustive.)
Mollie continued where she left off in November discussing her work in bat conservation. There was much discussion about the White Nose Syndrome disaster, but also signs of recovery. Cavers have had an adverse effect and have a potential to make things worse. There have been efforts against it, like temperature manipulation (in mines, not caves) actually making it colder. Polyethylene Glycol (PEG8000) is an effective fungicide that has to be sprayed onto things. We saw photos of data collection techniques and got some explanation. Little is known about bat migration, though it is being studied. Mollie talked about tracking and banding bats, and how they end up in surprising places. Cave gates installed up through the 1970’s were not well devised for bats and their populations declined. Gates have been improved upon and bats have done better as a result. We gathered that people can’t do wrong by installing bat boxes. The one big thing all of us cavers need to hear is that avoiding hibernation sites, and any cave could be one, from the beginning of October to the middle of April is the best practice.

We thanked our guest for joining us, and the meeting ended around 9:45pm.