TR Cave Seasonal Closure Extended Through August 31

The Bighorn National Forest announced Monday that access to Tongue River Cave will begin on September 1. In 2019, Tongue River Cave was closed due to the discovery of a maternity roost of Townsend’s big-eared bat. Forest officials were obligated to close the cave to human entry to comply with the standards in the 2005 Revised Bighorn National Forest Land Management Plan. The closure allowed the bats to rear their pups undisturbed.  Monitoring for the sensitive bat species occurred during the summer of 2020 and continues in 2021.  Monitoring will determine the use of the cave by bats and will guide future cave management decisions.

In addition to monitoring use by bats, surveillance of the area noted vandalism and damage to the sensitive cave ecosystem.  Vandalism to the cave closure and a break-in occurred early last month, resulting in expensive repairs to federal property and suspected mineral theft.  The closure from April 15 of this year through July 31, has been extended through the end of August. When the Tongue River Cave reopens, entry will be regulated through the Tongue Ranger District by obtaining a passcode to open the locked gate. Anyone that enters a cave in the Bighorn National Forest is required to submit a mandatory registration form that can be found, along with further information on caves, on the Forest website at www.fs.usda.gov/bighorn.

For more information please contact the Forest Supervisor’s Office and Tongue Ranger District at (307) 674-2600. Visit Tread Lightly! at https://treadlightly.org/ or Leave No Trace https://lnt.org/ for more tips on how you can do your part to recreate responsibly.  You can also visit their social media pages for more information.