Springfield Cave Tours Cancelled due to Bats

Quick question: What is a group of bats called? answer below in bold

A large number of gray bats were discovered on a recent cave tour in Springfield's parks and caused the cancellation of the remaining tours. As reported in the 09/08/08 Springfield News-Leader newspaper, Outdoor Initiatives staff member Scott Hootman states "Sure enough we got about 300 feet into the cave and there was a very big population -- I'm guessing 1,000 to 1,500 bats right above the stream." The tours, given in boats, have been cancelled for now.

Most cave tours are sponsored in the late summer to early fall to avoid problems with distrubing the bats. Staff at the the Rock Bridge State Park sponsors several tours beginning in August and ending in early October. Complete tour information may be found at the RBSP website. If you haven't been in the Devil's Ice Box, it's certainly something you should do before leaving Columbia. A cave tour experience into the Devil's Ice Box can be found at the KC Grotto website.


As indicated on the Missouri Department of Conservation's website on gray bats, human distrubance can cause the bats to lose 20-30 days of stored fat greatly increasing mortality among the colony.

The gray bat is listed ENDANGERED by the Missouri Department of Conservation and ENDANGERED by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Rainbow Softball Center Pitching/Batting Cages

Thanks to some vandals that just want to destroy something for the pure excitment of destruction, the Rainbow Softball Center pitching/batting cages are closed indefinitely.

Sometime from 11:00 pm Saturday night, Aug 23 to 8:00 am Monday, Aug 25, vandals destroyed the central elevator, distribution pipes and all related wires. It's a wonder they didn't receive an electrical shock!!! Unfortunately, just to replace the elevator alone is going to cost nearly $5,000 so the department is looking at options.

What do you think we should do?

1. Replace and repair what is needed to get it operational. Estimated cost $5,000.

2. Renovate the cage and replace the elevator, pitching machines and coin boxes. The existing equipment is about 13-14 years old. Estimated cost: $18,000

3. Add batting cages similar to what is found at Antimi and American Legion. No pitching machines, just let teammates pitch to each other.

4. Do nothing.

A few comments: Over the last 10 years (1998-2008), the machines generated a total of $57,984 in revenue and had about $14,000 in expenses. This resulted in a profit of $43,984 for the 10 year period. The machines do generate revenue.....as long as they're working!!!

Let us know what you think!

Thursday Night (8/28/08) Storm Damage

Mother Nature is certainly at it again. Thursday night's rain and high winds certainly caused us some problems. Throughout the day on Friday, reports kept coming in regarding trees and limbs on playgrounds, roads, trails and parks.

The photo above is at Stephens Lake Park where a limb fell on a portion of the Gordon Shelter Playground.

As bad as it is to lose a tree and some limbs, the messy problems were with the trash cans and port-a-pots blowing over and spilling their contents all over the parks. I think Cosmo Park took the worst hit in this regard. Nearly every trash can and portable toilet got blown over. Thank goodness we rent the port-a-pots and don't have to clean those!

Anyway, thank you to everyone who called in to report problems. This really helps us keep our crews moving as we don't have to spend a lot of time inspecting every park. By 7:30 am on Friday, we already knew about several problem areas all as a result of citizen assistance. Remember, the number to call and report any park problems is 573-874-7201. Program that number in your cell-phone!