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Taking it one step further, should "risky" activities like caving or climbing be prohibited as "too dangerous" for participants and for potential rescuers? What about skydiving, hang gliding, bungee jumping, BASE jumping, scuba diving, motorcycling, hunting, surfing, or any other non-mainstream activities that occasionally result in the death of a participant? And when a grizzly kills a hiker in Yellowstone or Denali or Glacier National Park, should the parks be closed forever to protect us? Hood has had several in recent years - should it be closed to climbing to protect the public? Same question for Denali and many other mountains. Would we close a beach forever because of a drowning, or a shark attack? Shall we close any mountain or rock climb that is the scene of a fatality? Oregon's Mt. Are the authorities now going to seal any cave that experiences a fatality or more than 4 rescues in order to "protect the public?" We know this because we know the approximate visitation level to be at least an order of magnitude greater than most wild caves.

Of course, it would probably achieve the stated goal of preventing any more rescues or deaths in the cave, but at what cost? The cave actually has a much better safety record than many other caves that have been the scenes of rescues or fatalities. That approach will clearly result in a great loss to the caving community and to the public at large, from a natural resource management and science standpoint. Similarly, from a recreation viewpoint, a fun and challenging cave enjoyed each year by thousands of visitors will be destroyed because of a single unfortunate and tragic accident. This cannot be good for the cave or its inhabitants. Has anyone investigated the possibility that significant microbial life may be present in Nutty Putty Cave? None of the Nutty Putty sources reference anything like this, and a cursory search on Google and Google Scholar did not identify any published papers on this topic.Īlso, have any of the cave managers or the land owners considered the potential ramifications to the cave biota (and possibly microbiota) of completely sealing up the natural entrance to this cave? Is there any requirement for the land owner, SITLA, which appears to be an agency of the State of Utah, to undertake an environmental assessment before undertaking such an environmentally significant act as permanently sealing the cave? ron_miller NSS Hall Of Fame Poster Posts: 235 Joined: 6:24 pmįrom a conservation and science point of view, I cannot see any merit in the idea of sealing the cave as has been described (blasting passages and then filling the entrance sink with concrete. Sulfur-based microbial activity in caves and in active hydrothermal areas represents a very active area of scientific research many of the microbes that have been identified in sulfur-origin caves are new to science. Also, the cave's signature "Nutty Putty" clay-like material also appears to be unusual in nature clay-like compounds are sometimes associated with microbial activity. In discussing the cave's hydrothermal origins, the geology article on the NuttyPutt圜ave.com web site contains several references to the current or former presence of sulfur compounds.

Hydrothermal activity is often associated with extensive sulfur-based microbial activity. The cave is reportedly of hydrothermal origin the unusually warm temperatures in the cave (relative to the mean annual surface temperature) suggest the possibility of an ongoing connection with a geothermal heat source.

While reading about Nutty Putty Cave, I noticed several factors that suggest the possibility that a precipitous decision to seal the cave could be problematic from an environmental or scientific perspective.