Bill Oldacre Receives First John Van Swearingen IV Stewardship Award

Brian Houha

At this year's TAG Fall Cave-In, I accepted the Southeast Cave Conservancy's first annual John Van Swearingen Jr. Award for Cave Management for Bill Oldacre. Bill was instrumental in saving Florida's longest dry cave. Back in the early seventies, he made friends with the owners of Warrens Cave and persuaded them to donate it to the Nature Conservancy. Bill has managed the cave ever since.

Bill Oldacre is an icon in the Florida caving community. He is Florida's version of Bruce Smith. He was president of the Florida Speleological Society and head of the cave rescue team. I remember in the dead of winter he had us treading water in our caving gear in a UF campus pool. We practiced rescue techniques until about half of us were on the verge of hypothermia. He carried a rope box to our meetings and taught us knots and splices. He also spent a lot of time instructing at
the club prusik stand.

Bill was very gracious accepting the award. Our caving community is blessed with a lot of hard working, giving people like Bill. I'd like to see a lot more recognition given. There aren't enough awards to go around so I hope all of you who know people like Bill will give them your personal recognition by complimenting them for their labors. If they inspire you to give back, some of you might consider sending a donation to our Southeastern Cave Conservancy.

Florida is ahead of the TAG area when it comes to sprawl. They just bulldozed Blue Canyon Cave when the new millionaire landowner built his mansion by the cave and didn't want a bat colony in his yard. There are countless stories like this happening in Florida as the countryside gets subdivided into five-acre ranchettes. In the next twenty years, you will be seeing a lot of sprawl following the interstate highway systems in the TAG area. We are fortunate to have hard working volunteers in the SCCI. Let's help them help our caving community.