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Mr. Lera
has been working on cave conservation for many years.
He has written papers on underground wilderness and cave
protection laws and is interim chairman of the Working
Group on
Speleothem Protection
(The UIS Commission on Cave Mineralogy). The goal of
this UIS section is to prohibit the export and import of
speleothems worldwide. The worldwide cave conservation
process is a long and arduous task. It is not known which
countries are mining speleothems and which countries are
exporting/importing them. Some caves deserve to be added to
the World Heritage List. Any caves receiving this status
should also receive better protection measures. At the
moment a network of conservation-minded cavers is setting up
worldwide. If you would like to work with Mr. Lera in the
protection of caves in your nation please write to him.
Mr. Lera has special knowledge in U.S. Postal History and
Thematic Exhibiting.
He is also qualified to
National
judge
under the auspices of the
American Philatelic Society.
He is national gold medal level exhibitor.
Mr. Lera was
also the president of Speleophilatelic Section of the
NSS (National Speleological Society)
and was past Administrative
Vice President of the NSS.
The Speleophilatelic
Section is devoted to
cave related stamps. It meets annually and published
Underground Post.
His exhibit
concerning bats, called Masters of the Night,
is well known in the philatelist world. Message of this
artwork is: "Highly sophisticated, gentle and beneficial
allies to man, bats are the least understood and most
maligned of the world's mammals."
Furthermore Mr. Lera is author of the book Bats in
Philately and a successful writer of
horror and sci-fi stories, all of which have a small
reference to a cave or bat in them.
They can be found at
www.horrorlibrary.net.
His stories are published under the nom de plume “John
Rowlands.”
He is also a current member
of the State of Virginia Cave Board and is a fellow of The
Explorers Club.
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