News

Dr. G.O. Graening presents on the “Bioinventory of the Marble Mountain Karst”.

G.O. got into caving by chance:  when he started his doctoral program in biology at the University of Arkansas (in the heart of the Ozark karst region), he joined Dr. Art Brown’s lab, who specialized in speleobiology and cavefishes.    In 1999, G.O.  began studying the foodwebs of the Ozark cavefish, and got hooked on caving and cave science.  He expanded Dr. Brown’s research program into a 2-State inventory of cave life in Arkansas and Oklahoma, which culminated in the new hardbound book “The Cave Life of Oklahoma and Arkansas”.   G.O. then worked for The Nature Conservancy, and helped launch their subterranean biodiversity conservation initiative nationally, as well as in the Yucatan and Jamaica.  G.O. moved back to California in 2004, where he joined the Mother Lode Grotto, and began studying the cave life in California.  Collaborating with other speleologists and biologists, G.O. and his team have found several new species of cave arthropods, and he hopes to complete the California survey in a few years and produce a book on the cave life of California.

Tracy Audisio presents “Evolution underground: Cave arthropods of California and the Pacific Northwest”. Her talk will provide an introduction to the evolution of cave obligate animals and an overview of arthropods frequently encountered in caves. The talk will conclude with current cave spider research and exciting new discoveries in California and the Pacific Northwest.

Tracy is a graduate student studying cave spiders in a joint program between the California Academy of Sciences and San Francisco State University. Tracy began caving with the Stanislaus Speleological Society in 2004, and is affiliated with the Cave Research Foundation and serves on the Advisory Board for the Western Cave Conservancy.

Bruce Rogers and Beej Jorgenson present on cave mapping and survey. Bruce discusses the different techniques and gear with a followup from Beej on cave mapping software and usage.

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Topics covered:

• How to create a new page
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• How to create a new user
• How to add pictures
• How to modify the template

Gilly Elor gives a presentation on her 2011 trip experience to TAG (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia area) and her report on the TAG Fall Cave-In. Featured in this presentation is her account on descending Fantastic Pit (600′ drop) in Ellison’s Cave. Other notable caves include Howards Waterfall, Stephen’s Gap, and a few other wet multi-drop caves.

Gilly is a current Diablo Grotto Newsletter Editor and has been caving since July 2010.  She is interested in getting more involved in both international and domestic exploration

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Bruce White’s presentation on his participation in a 2-week expedition to -4500 feet in Croatia during the Summer of 2011.

Bruce started caving in 1992 in Indiana. He has caved in 14 states, mostly Indiana and TAG. He has also caved internationally in Canada, Mexico, Malaysia (Borneo) and Croatia.

SFBC Grotto Member, Ron Bourret returns to discuss his caving and exploring background and how it affected his recent participation in the Loferer Schacht Expedition in Austria 2013.