1994 RESOLUTIONS
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| 5 | |
PLACEMENT OF PERMANENT CLIMBING ANCHORS IN CAVES |
| A joint meeting was
sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management
to hear the concerns of both cavers and climbers regarding the practice
of technical climbing in cave entrances. The discussions included
the practice of installing bolts for protection. In response,
western U.S. climbers and cavers adopted the following positions: |
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o The Federal Cave Resources
Protection Act of 1988 prohibits anyone from knowingly destroying,
disturbing, defacing, marring, altering, removing or harming any
significant cave, or altering the free movement of any animal or plant
life into or out of any significant cave located on federal lands.
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o In addition to climbing
safety, the climbers and cavers were most concerned about resource
protection. They felt that any climbing activity (other than
normal cave exploration), and especially activities involving placement
of permanent hardware, is not appropriate to the use of "significant"
caves. The potential for damage to the fragile caves; plant and
animal ecologies, and to archeological features existing in some of
them, does not justify the use of permanent hardware.
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The Federation of
Western
Outdoor Clubs supports the above recommendations regarding climbing in
caves. Where applicable, these climbing practices should be
considered for adoption by climbers in comparable cave environments
elsewhere in the U.S. |
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| The FWOC recommends that
the Members and Member Clubs of the Federation convey these
recommendations to the National Parks Service, the U.S. Forest Service,
the Bureau of Land Management, and to the various state's Departments
of Public Lands of the related western states, and also to their
respective federal legislators of the related states. |
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