Going batty; Carlsbad Caverns is hoping its bats and limestone prove to be major assets

New Mexico Business Journal, March, 1999 by Lyn Kidder

As amazing as Carlsbad Caverns National Park is, attendance there dropped about 3.5 percent in the past year, continuing a decline which began five years ago. Frank Deckert, the park's superintendent, speculated that because the economy is strong, families might be opting for higher-priced vacations like cruises and theme parks.

In response, the park is considering ways to draw more visitors, one of which is by featuring its bats. The first international Bat Festival, held last August, featured a parade downtown, lectures on bat ecology and children's programs at the nearby Living Desert State Park. But the big event was the bat flights. Early risers at a special Breakfast with the Bats program watched thousands of Mexican freetail bats return to the entrance of the cavern. During evening programs, visitors observe the nocturnal creatures leaving the cave to feed.

The park has also replaced its cassette tape tour with new compact discs. The tour is now also available in Spanish. The park now offers a children's video on its history and the importance of preserving it. The video was locally produced with a Parks in Classrooms grant from the National Parks Service.

The city of Carlsbad will likely benefit from scientific research relating to the caverns. In July, 1997, the U.S. Senate passed a bill creating the Carlsbad National Cave and Karst Research Institute. Karst is a kind of limestone topography that appears in parts of Carlsbad Caverns and in many caves in the eastern United States.

The institute is still in the planning stages, but construction of any facility must be outside the boundaries of the park, probably in the city of Carlsbad. The institute's mission will be to promote the science of speleology (the study or exploration of caves), collect and disseminate speleological information and develop resource management practices for cave and karst environments.

"Right now the legislation calls for all federal money to be matched with funds from another source," Deckert said. "We'll be working with the Carlsbad Department of Development to find funding, possibly from the state or from private businesses that would have an interest in cave research, like oil and gas companies."