Sustained forests; sustained profits
Sustained forests; sustained profits
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Karst is a type of topography within a landscape which develops as soluble rocks such as limestone and marble dissolve. Dissolution of the subsurface strata produces a landscape characterized by well-developed underground drainage and surface collapse features such as sinkholes, dry valleys, vertical shafts, caves, and fluted rock surfaces (epikarst). It is a three-dimensional landscape, a volume with often unusual plants and animals on the surface and ecological communities with special characteristics underground. Karst or karst topography can create special hazards in building construction for the land is potentially unstable. Past use of these depressions for farm waste dumps may continue to have lasting impacts on water quality and the rate of dissolutuion.
A cave is legally defined as "...any naturally occurring void, cavity, recess, or system of interconnected passages between the surface of the earth or within a cliff or ledge and which is large enough to permit a person to enter, whether the entrance is excavated or naturally formed." It also includes any sinkhole or other opening which is an extension of the cave entrance or is a part of the cave (36 CFR 261.2). Baichtal believed that karst must be managed as an ecological unit to ensure protection of cave resources.
These resources may be many and include those biological, cultural, mineralogical, paleontological, geological, hydrological, and recreational.
A sinkhole usually results from the collapse of the roof of a cavern. A brochure with the illustration below is available (1990) from Dept. Mines, Minerals and Energy, Div. Mineral Resources, Box 3667, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (804/293-5221). At A(left-center) is a steep-sided collapse sinkhole , B is a soil arch over a void, and C is a collapsed roof into a cave forming a sinkhole.
Describing the hydrology of an area of karst topography is difficult since water runoff may (or not) contribute to the runoff of a watershed. The final destination of rainfall in a karst unit of a large watershed is usually unknown and thus the total water budget of such areas can only be surmised. Soil is injected into the dissolution channels and may emerge at distant points. Pollution of the underground streams and rivers is a perpetual possibility and threat for people who have well within these areas...and for all "downstream", but what is downstream is unknown. In non-Karst areas, soils are moved by gravity, landslides and surface flows. In karst, soils can be moved rapidly horizontally and vertically into conduits of various sizes.
In one area, for example (Bubbling Springs, Rockbridge Co. Va.) C02 gas accumulates from the action of organic acids from forest soils on the carbonate rock. Under slight pressure, it bubbles at a large spring.
The tentative primary objective within karst is to maintain and protect the natural processes and the productivity of this landscape where it occurs and to develop uses within it. Means to do so include regenerating forests there, maintaining or improving the water quality entering into and issuing from it, and protecting and using the cave resources found within them.
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| Reported or known caves in Virginia |
Karst in some areas may have ecologically unique communities. They often have productive aquatic communities; productive, cove-like soils; wind protection; well-developed drainage; and caves. Because soils are rich, most have had extended timber removals.
Some caves are among the precious few remaining unexplored areas of Earth. America is fortunate to have a large "underground wilderness." Historically, people have utilized the caves of the VirgInia region for over 9,000 years. Indians from a variety of cultures se~cted caves for shelter, exploration, burial places, and many other purposes. Qur more recent ancestors found many uses for caves including exploration, temporary residence, salt-petre fliifling, churches, water supply, and commercial attraction. The accumulated residue of the many human activities forms a unique and vital record of the lifeways of these people and the environment upon which they depended. Once disturbed or destroyed, the archeological record of past cultures cannot be recreated. Unfortunately, much of this information has already been lost due to vandalism. Historical material that has been tampered with can never be reconstructed.
Caves are uncommon geological phenomena. The minerals deposited therein may be rare and occur in unique forms of great beauty which are irreplaceable if destroyed. The cave environment has also proven nearly ideal for the preservation of fossil bone deposits and ancient seeds and pollen. Certain rnineral growths and sedimentary deposits can yield important information about the geologic and climatic bistory over the last 100,000 years. Fossil biological deposits provide documentation on both the migrations and extinction of animals and plants in the prehistoric past.
Caves are valuable to the geologist because they permit observation of geologic structures below the surface of the Earth. Because most caves are formed by the solution-forming actions of groundwater and represent major components of the underground drainage network in the area in which they occur, caves provide a natural laboratory for groundwater studies. Caves are therefore likely to play a growing role in studies which seek to find better ways to protect and utilize groundwater resources as increasing demands are placed on these resources.
The underground wilderness also provides a source of recreation for the people that enjoy the dark and sometimes muddy subterranean world. The challenge to go where no person has gone beckons the non-professional caver to the underground. The caver enjoys the beauty of the formations and rigorous effort often necessary to gain access to these sights. In Virginia, the cave owner is not liable for injuries sustained by any person using the cave for recreational or scientific purposes if no charge has been made for the use of the cave by the owner. The owner is considered to be the person who owns title to the land whereon the cave entrance is located. Similar laws apply in adjacent states.
Owners have every right to enforce policies concerning access to their cave and should be somewhat selective of whom they allow into the cave. Before entering any cave, a caver should always have permission of the owner. Cavers should have the proper equipment for the trip that is planned. All cavers should wear hard hats and carry several light sources. A permit is required in most states for non-owners to excavate or remove archeological artifacts or historical features. Being a guest, the caver should treat the land owner and his or her property with respect. Any act of vandalism is unlawfiil, in a cave or outside. The sale of cave formations is unlawtul and considered to be a misdemeanor.
Cave Life
Caves offer shelter for wildlife from weather extremes, physical protection, stable environments, darkness, and seclusion. The conditions in deep caves are apparently necessary for some species of bats which breed, form their nursery colonies, and hibernate in them. Other bats use caves as night roosts where they periodically hang to digest their food. Caves are also used by a variety of birds and mammals as secure places in which to rear their young, rest, or escape weather extremes.
The cave environment is unique ecologically because of the lack of light (total darkness), high relative humidity (often nearly 100% and an average temperature of 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit winter and summer), and limited amounts of food. The absence of light prevents the growth of green plants. Thus, the major primary source of food on the surface is not present in the subterranean environment. Food is therefore scarce in caves and it is generally limited to animals that either die or are preyed upon in the cave and organic nutrients washed in by flooding or streams or filtered through cracks and crevices reaching to the surface.
Caves often contain an interesting diversity of animal life, but because of their small size, many cave organisms are not obvious to the casual observer. Many cave animals are highly specialized (adapted) for living underground, and they are frequently blind (eyeless), unpigmented (sometimes appearing white or colorless), and have slender, fragile bodies with elongated appendages. The more highiy specialized cave animals are called troglobites by biologists who study cave life. These species are often rare and known only from a few caves in a given area.
The most important cave dwelling animals are found in groups that include flatworms (planarians), snails, isopods, amphipods (side swimmers or scuds), crayfishes, shrimps, millipeds, spiders, harvestmen, mites, pseudoscorpions, diplurans, spnngtails, flies, beetles, crickets, fishes, salamanders, and bats.
One of the more obvious, but least understood forms of cave life, is the bat. Bats are mammals (like humans) because they have hair and nurse their young on the mother's milk. They are not considered troglobites because they must leave the cave to find their food. Many North American bats are insect eaters and thus benefit humans by consuming many tons of insects during the summer months. Rather than competing with birds for food in the daytime, they search for food at night. They emit sound in the ultrasonic frequencies and locate objects by using the echoes that bounce back to their ears. This highiy developed sonar system is a perfect adaptation for finding insects at night and also for navigating in the darkness of caves where many of them rest during the day. Some bats hibernate in caves during the winter months. During this time they are particularly susceptible to human intrusion. Too much disturbance during the winter can cause a bat to use its stored food too rapidly, thus it may not be able to survive until spring when food again becomes available. Fear of and animosity towards bats is entirely unwarranted. They are hanriless little creatures that deserve protection. Several species of bats (and also other cave-dwelling animals) are on the Federal Government's List of Endangered Species. See The Trevey section entitled "Threatened and Endangered Species."
Suggestions for entering a cave
Respect the cave; cave formations are very delicate and if broken are gone forever. Unilke a forest, caves do not grow back. Do not write or mark on walls. Use reflective tape tags to mark your trail if you must, then remove them on the way out. Never touch a formation, especially a white one. Mud and dirt in the crystal lattice will not wash out. Carry two trashbags in with you, one to haul trash out with, the second to help prevent body heat loss in case of emergency. The second bag is nice to put dirty clothing into after the trip. Carry out everything you take into the cave, such as cigarette butts, spent carbide and batteries, food wrappers and clean up these things left by the less thoughtful who have gone before you. Always be equipped to stay in the cave twice the time anticipated for the trip to last. Leave word as to where you are going and how long you plan to be gone. Dress for wet, 500 weather. It is better to carry extra clothing than be cold due to lack of proper attire. Have the necessary equipment (and know how to use it) for the type cave into which you plan to go. Never attempt anything, such as vertical drops, for which you are not trained, have not practiced, and are not fully equipped to handle. Never climb hand-over-hand on a rope. Remember that without the landowner's permission, you are criminal trespassing and can be prosecuted for such.
There are local caving clubs and grottos throughout the country where people with a common interest in caving gather, plan trips, and learn new techniques. Grotto members usually welcome guests on trips. They will know about the proper equipment and where to get it. Local grotto members will be familiar with local caves and can make a trip enjoyable. The local caving club is also a link with cavers throughout the country. These local caving clubs have many training sessions each year to teach new members and interested non-members how to map caves, rappelling and rope climbing procedures, and safety and rescue training.
Cave formations, cave creatures, and the cave environment need the protection of everyone. Without everyone's help, there will be no caves for the coming generation to see or enjoy.
Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time.
The planned managerial steps are as follows:
If other caves are discovered or are known, please report them and their exact location with a map to the main office of The Trevey.
An email was recieved in 1999 as follows:
Spelunkers Batty Over Donating $200,000 in Time to Avoid Annual Fees
The Associated Press, Friday, October 8, 1999
Tuscon, Ariz.-- Cave enthusiasts in Arizona and New Mexico are volunteering about $200,000 of work annually, including repairing damage to caves and marking new trails.
Their efforts are designed to take care of Forest Service caves for future generations -- and to keep the agency from imposing a spelunking fee and opening the caves to novice tours.
"In places, we're scraping half an inch to an inch of mud off beautiful formations that have been walked on for a hundred years," said Dave Jagnow, conservation chairman of the National Speleological Society (NSS), whose members are doing the work.
Many caves have been closed for years because of destruction, "and our goal is to get these caves restored and trails laid out in them and get them once again opened to recreational caving," he said.
The speleological society is the largest caving association in the United States with about 12,000 members. Arizona and New Mexico each have about 50 NSS members, said Jagnow (pronounced YAG-no).
Under an informal agreement started in 1998, the society's local chapters are trying to donate at least $200,000 worth of work a year, half each in southeastern New Mexico's Lincoln National Forest and in southeastern Arizona's Coronado National Forest, Jagnow said.
In 1997, the Forest Service had proposed a three-year cave fee demonstration project in the two states, including tours of caves.
The fee proposal, intended to foster restoration, met with considerable resistance from spelunkers, said Jerry Trout, the Forest Service's national coordinator for cave resources. But when the NSS offered the volunteer work, "we accepted that in lieu of the fees," he said.
Of more than 100 caves in the Lincoln National Forest, most require vertical equipment, ropes and skills to negotiate drops of more than 200 feet, Jagnow said.
"The Forest Service was proposing to run tours of many of these caves, train novices in vertical techniques, provide all the equipment -- ropes, hard hats and lights -- and take them into vertical caves," he said.
The agency's liability, Jagnow said, would have been considerable.
"It takes years of experience to move lightly through a cave and be aware of surroundings, without crashing your hard hat and light into a ceiling, without hearing the tinkle of 'soda straws' (thin, delicate floor-to-ceiling formations) you've just destroyed."
If you would like more information about caves and what you can do to help protect them, contact the National Speleological Society, Cave Avenue, Huntsville, Alabama 35810.
Literature
Baichtal, J.F.., D.N. Swanston, and A.F. Archie. 1995. An ecologically-based approach to karst and cave resource management, p10-27 in Rea, G.T. editor. 1995. Proceedings of the 1995 national cave management symposium,
Hubbard, D.A., Jr. 1991. Caves and caving in Virginia (see above address and phone).
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Last revision January 17, 2000.