CUSTER (AP) -- Officials with the Black Hills National Forest are asking cave enthusiasts to continue honoring a 2-year-old closure of about 200 caves and old mines designed to prevent the spread of a deadly bat disease.
According to media reports, the U.S. Forest Service imposed the ban in July 2010 to protect bats from white-nose syndrome.
The disease has devastated some bat populations in the eastern United States. The caves and old mines are on national forests and grasslands in South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska.
Officials are discussing what to do with the closure, which is set to expire in late July. The Forest Service could lift, maintain or amend the ban.
Wildlife biologist Kerry Burns says cavers anxious to resume should wait for the decision.
