Gallery: Cave and Mine Surveys
BCM founder John Chenger became interested in studying bats after encountering them occasionally while making maps of Pennsylvania and West Virginia caves in the the early '90's. Also being interested in photography, it is a challenge to take photographs underground while maintaining a very tight site visit schedule when surveyors move at a rapid pace. Since WNS decimated the bat population in the East, John's biggest regret is not taking many more organized photographs especially in the passages that were covered with bats, which could have immeasurably impacted bat conservation thru positive education forever. "We all kept visiting these sites every other year and never considered anything would ever change, until one day all the bats were just gone."
Special thanks to Cal Butchkoski, Chris Sanders, Michael "Mick" O'Mahony, Greg Turner, and Jim Kennedy for putting up with delays in-cave to make a lot of these snapshots happen. In particular special thanks to Jim Kennedy Sr. for facilitating the first connection John had with the organized caving world and ultimately led to Bat Conservation and Management.
