GSS Members Information Letter
Georgia Speleological Survey
c/o Brent T. Aulenbach, Treasurer
2294 Marshes Glenn Drive
Norcross, GA 30071-3073
btaulenb@usgs.gov
21 November, 2001
«FNAME» «LNAME»
«ADDRESS»
«CITY», «STATE» «ZIP»
Dear «FNAME»,
This letter is to inform you that the Georgia Speleological Survey (GSS) is starting up a project to re-survey Frick's Cave (GWK 14) in Walker County, Georgia. The GSS has tentatively planned its first survey trip on Saturday and Sunday, December 1st and 2nd. More information on the project and how you can participate is contained below.
Frick's Cave is owned by the Southeastern Cave Conservancy, Inc (SCCi) and has limited access due to endangered Gray Bats and Tennessee Cave Salamanders. The GSS has planned to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the SCCi to re-survey Frick's Cave. A copy of the MOA will be available soon on the GSS website at http://www.caves.org/survey/gss.
The purpose of the project is for the GSS to produce a complete,
high-quality, computer drafted map of Frick's Cave including cross
sections, floor detail, and a simplified profile view. Since the
publication of the existing map, cartographic styles have improved
and there has been a significant discovery of an additional 2,000
feet of cave. A high quality map would benefit the SCCi as it
would identify the cave resources in more detail and further define
the hydrology to allow better protection of the cave from pollution.
The map would also be useful for other scientific studies performed
in the cave.
The GSS expects the cave survey to require two field seasons due
to the length of the cave (approximately two miles) with an expected
completion of the cave survey in March, 2003 and the completion
of the map by the end of September, 2003. Because the Gray Bats
are easily disturbed, the cave can only be surveyed in the winter
when the bats are not present. The survey will use standard grade
5 survey techniques (using compass, tape, and clinometer). It
is the intent of the GSS to try to involve many GSS members and
others in both the survey and drafting aspects of the project.
The GSS will be allowed a maximum of three survey groups of three for each trip with a few additional participants allowed for additional tasks. The actual number of groups will depend on the number of qualified sketchers we have on each trip. There may not be room for everyone interested in helping out on the first few trips, but we will try to involve as many people as we can. One does not need to be a GSS member to participate. One of the goals of the project is to get new participants involved in surveying; however, we also need to have enough experienced surveyors to teach the newcomers on each trip. If trips regularly fill up, we may have to come up with a more formal policy to make sure everyone gets a chance to participate.
All sketchers need to be qualified in order to insure a high quality map. In order to be a sketcher you should know how to sketch to scale, including using cross-sections, running profiles, and thorough floor detail. If you are not sure if you are an adequate sketcher, you can send some of your recent sketches to me for evaluation. If you would like to learn or practice sketching, you may also participate on the trip as a ghost sketcher in which you can sketch along with the actual sketcher.
The best way to sign up for a survey trip is to send me an email at btaulenb@usgs.gov. If you do not have access to email, you can call me at (770) 729-1839. Please only sign up if you are sure you can make a date. If you find out later that you can not make a trip, please contact me as soon as possible. When signing up for a trip, please include whether you are a qualified sketcher, whether you already know how to use survey instruments, and if you have survey instruments that you can bring on the trip. If you are planning on participating on the first trip, tell me what day(s) you can participate. We have permission to camp out on Saturday night at E.T. Davis' property which is adjacent to the SCCi's Frick's Cave property.
Details on survey standards will be distributed later and posted on the GSS website.
Because of the cost and effort to mail notices for each survey trip, the GSS will announce trips as soon as they are planned via email and they will also be posted on the GSS website. I will keep a list of all GSS members' e-mail addresses and can add others to this list that are interested.
Please check to make sure your contact information is up to date:
Name: «FNAME» «LNAME»
Address: «ADDRESS»
City/State/Zip Code: «CITY», «STATE»
«ZIP»
Phone: «PHONE»
E-mail Address: «EMAIL»
NSS Number: «NSS»
Dues Paid Through: «Dues»
If any information is not up to date, please send corrections to me at btaulenb@usgs.gov or call me at (770) 729-1839.
Sincerely,
Brent T. Aulenbach, GSS Treasurer
Back to Resurvey of Frick's Cave Main Page
Back to GSS Home Page
The URL for this page is <http://www.caves.org/survey/gss/FrickLetter.html>.
If you have any questions, comments, or corrections about this
document, please contact: btaulenb@usgs.gov.
Last modified: Monday, 31 December, 2001 bta