- Next Online Seminar via Zoom – Monday 13 March
- Field Meeting: Karst hydrology of the Hertfordshire Chalk – Saturday 1 April
- New C&KS Photo Feature
- AGM & Science Symposium
- Jerry Wooldridge FRPS
- New Council Member - David Shearsmith
- New posts in BCRA
- Cave & Karst Science, CREG Journal
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/groups/britishcaver ... sociation/
- BCRA News forum: http://bcra.org.uk/forum
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/bcra_speleology
- UKcaving: http://ukcaving.com/board/?board=86.0
* Next Online Seminar via Zoom – Monday 13 March
The next in our series of online seminars will be on Monday 13 March 2023 at 19:30 GMT, when Dr Alexander Klimchouk will speak on 'Hypogene caves and karst: varieties and global examples'. To see an abstract of this talk, go to http://bcra.org.uk/seminar. Dr Klimchouk is a researcher at the Institute of Geological Sciences in the National Academy of Science of Ukraine. In December 2022 he was awarded a Researchers at Risk Fellowship by the British Academy with Cara (the Council for At-Risk Academics) and is currently working at the University of Manchester with Professor Cathy Hollis.
* Field Meeting: Karst hydrology of the Hertfordshire Chalk – Saturday 1 April
This trip will look at the geology, karst geomorphology and hydrology of some of the major karstic features in the Hertfordshire Chalk. The day will involve short walks (2.5 miles) and a pub lunch. For further information please see the text and the downloadable PDF on our News Forum page at http://bcra.org.uk/forum. If you wish to join this meeting you should register for the event using the Google form mentioned on that page. The meeting organiser is Simon Bottrell, s.bottrell@leeds.ac.uk. The deadline for registration is 20th March 2023.
* New C&KS Photo Feature
As an experiment, to see if we can encourage more cavers to submit articles to Cave & Karst Science, we have created a Photo Feature category of submission, comprising three photographs and a brief explanation of their scientific significance. For further information and examples, see http://bcra.org.uk/pub/candks/guidelines.html. Editor David Lowe writes: Potential contributors do not have to produce a mini-thesis restricted just to caves and karst. Let the imagination spin and see what comes out of the prompting photograph(s).
* AGM & Science Symposium
This is advance warning that our AGM and Science Symposium will be at the University of Leeds, on Saturday 21 October, organised by Simon Bottrell. On the Sunday, Phil Murphy will lead a field trip to Nidderdale.
* Jerry Wooldridge FRPS
Many of you will already have heard the sad news that Jerry passed away in early February. Jerry was an honorary life member of BCRA, appointed when BCRA came into existence 50 years ago. Jerry was, of course, a world-class cave photographer but he also did much work for BCRA behind the scenes. He undertook all the photo and graphics pre-press work for Cave And Karst Science and was a key member of the Hidden Earth conference team. We shall be celebrating his life, both in Cave And Karst Science and in the BCRA Review, later in the year.
* New Council Member - David Shearsmith
BCRA Council has co-opted a new Council member, David Shearsmith. David has caving experience in the UK and abroad as well as being a cave leader and previously a cave instructor. He is currently an active caver and a member of the TSG. He is interested in cave photography and cave science, with a particular interest in the Peak and Speedwell system. Additionally, David has administrative experience and has been involved in work involving health & safety and safeguarding.
* New posts in BCRA
So, with the above in mind, David Shearsmith has been appointed as BCRA's safeguarding officer. Recently, we announced that Vince Simmonds had offered to take over from David Gibson as secretary. Unfortunately, Vince has had to step down from Council and so the post has reverted to David Gibson for the time being. Also, Council has appointed Rob Watson to be our representative on the Ghar Prau committee.
* Cave & Karst Science, CREG Journal
Both these periodicals are running a little late. The March issue of the CREG journal is expected to be out in April and the April issue of C&KS is expected to be out in May.
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David Gibson
BCRA Secretary