"Take nothing but pictures,
leave nothing but footprints (but only on established trails),
kill nothing but time"

White Nose Syndrome (WNS)

is the name given to a condition of unknown cause that has led to the death of hundreds of thousands of bats in the eastern United States. Since its initial identification in a New York cave in 2006, WNS has now spread to scores of sites in sixteen states and four Canadian provinces, as far south as Tennessee, as far west as Indiana, and as far North as Quebec. A previously unknown fungus, Geomyces destructans, was confirmed in 2011 to cause WNS. In the winter of 2010, the fungus was identified on bats in Missouri and Oklahoma, but no histological signs of WNS were present. Numerically, WNS has affected the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) most severely, but has now been documented to affect all six northeastern hibernating bat species.

Please visit the official NSS WNS web site for more information and the latest news.

Cave Conservation

  • A great landowner reference distributed by the Cave Conservancy of the Virginias is Living on Karst: A Reference Guide for Landowners in Limestone Regions. This is a must for landowners in karst regions.
  • J-4 in Center County, PA is closed until further notice. Please pass the information along. Nittany Grotto is making progress on a land owner agreement.
  • GAG holds a mutual fund. These funds are to be used for a cave conservation project sometime in the future. We hope that by planning ahead this will enable us to contribute in a way that we previously couldn't.
  • NSS Policy For Cave Conservation

Be sure to check out the NSS Cave Conservation and Management Section for the most recent updates.

Restricted Access Cave Lists


Access policies change frequently so please check with a local grotto first before you visit a cave!

Cave Laws