Tongue River Cave to Remain Closed This Year

Bighorn National Forest officials have announced that Tongue River Cave will remain closed this year and entry registrations will not be issued to the general public. Last year, the Forest Service closed Tongue River Cave due to the discovery of a maternity roost of Townsend’s big-eared bat, a sensitive species. To comply with the 2005 revised Bighorn National Forest Land Management Plan, Forest officials were obligated to close the cave to human entry to allow for the bats to rear their pups undisturbed.

The news release issued by the Bighorn National Forest states that monitoring for the sensitive bat species will continue throughout this summer to determine their use of the cave and to guide future cave management decisions. In addition to monitoring use by bats, it was revealed that vandalism and damage to the sensitive cave ecosystem is occurring.  It was noted that less than 10 percent of people that entered the cave had completed the mandatory registration and that most people did not enter with the appropriate safety gear nor the necessary skills.   In addition to the egregious damage from graffiti and trash, mineral theft is occurring in Tongue River Cave. For many years, efforts to clean up litter and graffiti have been a standard; however, they continue to be an issue at Tongue River Cave.

Bighorn National Forest biologists, in partnership with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and other agency specialists are also monitoring the spread of White-nose Syndrome (WNS) and Pd, the fungus that causes it, by conducting bat surveys and environmental sampling in caves on the Bighorn National Forest.