Article

What are the Parks Up To?

cave formations
The first room in Lehman Caves, the Gothic Palace. Great Basin National Park, Nevada.

NPS Photo.

Compiled by Joel Despain, National Cave and Karst Management Coordinator
for Inside Earth Newsletter, Fall 2020

What are the National Parks doing with their caves and karst and lava tubes? Once a year, many of the NPS cave managers gather at the annual meeting and convention of the National Speleological Society to talk about it. The convention includes important presentations on cave biology, geology and human uses where NPS staff present and also learn. It is a chance to talk to the leadership of volunteer organizations that provide thousands of hours of work across the Service. It is also an opportunity, under the planning processes laid out in NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act, to gather input on cave management plan development, cave gating projects, cave biology work and other park activities. And at each convention the NPS team gets together to discuss key issues, to share ideas and to describe what their parks have been up to. Andy Armstrong, Physical Scientist and Cave Specialist for Timpanogos Cave National Monument, has long organized the parks to contribute information on their activities. The result is the bulleted list of activities below, first presented and discussed in Cookevillle, Tennessee at the Convention in July of 2019.

Amistad National Recreation Area

Submitted by Jack Johnson

  • The park has completed a 223 page Karst Resources of Amistad National Recreation Area, Val Verde County Texas by Zara Environmental. It synthesizes recent karst and biological inventory work with previously existing cave and karst data.
  • We completed the final maps for three of the park's recently documented caves, including the only known US habitat of the Mexican blind catfish.
  • Amistad has ongoing sampling of spring outflows in the park for stygobites, cave-adapted aquatic animals. This has led to the identification of a subterranean freshwater snail that was only very recently (2019) described in northern Mexico.
  • Archaeological shoreline survey around the reservoir this spring resulted in the discovery of several new caves, which await survey, mapping, and inventory.

Buffalo National River

Submitted by Chuck Bitting

  • We continue our efforts to establish a dye tracing program to trace underground streams in the park so that we know which springs they go to. Funding, as always, is a big obstacle, particularly with the late arrival of accounts and early contracting deadlines.
  • We continue working under a Cooperative Agreement with the Cave Research Foundation (CRF) to get additional biological and cartographic surveys of our caves completed. They are getting very far along in the mapping of Fitton Cave. Currently they are working in the Helictite, New Maze, and Grand Central Station areas of this cave. They continue locating and documenting additional caves. Over half of the caves documented on the park have final drafts of the survey completed.
  • We continue focusing efforts to determine which caves are used in the summer by the Tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus). The Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has not completed the 12 month species review on P. subflavus, yet. The outcome of this review will have a significant impact upon our future Post-WNS (White-Nose Syndrome, a deadly bat disease) Cave Management Plans.
  • We have a GIP (Geoscientist in Park) intern working on organizing our acoustic bat call data. We have approximately 2.5 terabytes of bat calls which will be re-processed using the latest USFWS approved versions of bat call identification software. The data will be placed in the Integrated Resource Management Application (IRMA) databases once it is all compiled.
  • We assisted USFWS, TNC (the Nature Conservancy), CRF (Cave Research Foundation), Arkansas State University, and Arkansas Department of Transportation with radio tracking Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) females as they emerged from their hibernaculum this spring. One of the bats was tracked to bottomland hardwoods in the Arkansas Delta area. The other bats were followed for a few days, but then lost.
  • We have complete coverage of USGS National Map 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) Light Distancing and Ranging (LiDAR) data for the entire Buffalo River watershed. This data is proving very useful in locating additional cave resources on the park.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Submitted by Ellen Trautner

  • A Visitor Use Management study (“carrying capacity”) is ongoing with a year-long GIP intern with assistance from a summer Mosaics intern.
  • A paleontology intern will start in the fall to inventory the park’s paleontological resources, including what is found within caves. Another intern will start in the winter to do bat counts and other WNS-related activities.
  • CRF and other volunteers contributed over 4,000 hours towards resource management, including mapping & cartography, lint and algae removal, reflagging, restoring various pools, etc.
  • Electrical cable hiding project is ongoing—the front half of the Big Room is complete; volunteers participate monthly and are currently working in the Scenic Rooms.
  • Phase 1 of National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) and New Mexico Tech algae growth study is complete. Phase 2 has begun and will determine the best methods for algae removal.
  • Forward-osmosis urine mitigation study through the University of Akron shows promising results and potential for future use in Lechuguilla Cave. There cavers are currently allowed to dump their uring in three locations on mulitple-day trips.
  • WNS policies and procedures have been updated as New Mexico’s status changed to Intermediate. A WNS biosecurity mat system has been developed and waiting on park management approval for deployment. Dr. Diana Northup returned in March for more sediment and guano sampling and she and Debbie Buecher came back in May to do bat swabbing to check for WNS.
  • Mike Mansur, with assistance from Ellen Trautner and several volunteers, repaired several large, broken speleothems in Carlsbad Cavern.
  • A cave Search and Rescue (SAR) team has been established and is conducting quarterly mock rescues in park caves.
  • Cave surveys are continuing in Carlsbad Cavern (34 miles), Lechuguilla Cave (148 miles), Spider Cave (6 miles!), and in various backcountry caves.
  • Carlsbad will host an Orentation to Cave Rescue (OCR) for park employees and local agency personnel in the fall with Andy Armstrong as lead instructor.

Great Basin National Park

Submitted by Gretchen Baker

  • The Lehman Caves Management Plan and Wild Caves and Karst Management Plan are both under the 180-day Environmental Assessment process, with finalization expected in September 2019. Additional caves are expected to be opened for recreational, permitted use.
  • The January 2019 lint camp was canceled due to the government shutdown, but the March 2019 lint and restoration camp proceeded as planned, with over 20 volunteers coming from several states.
  • The funding to install a new cave lighting system in Lehman Cave, along with lint curbs, elevated walkways over sensitive hydrologic areas, and expanded education and outreach efforts has been received. This will be a 5-year project starting late summer 2019. Rod Horrocks will be assisting with lighting design.
  • New cave exhibits will be installed in the Lehman Caves Visitor Center in winter 2019-20.
  • A new cave map for Lehman Cave is nearing completion; a version for interpretive use has been completed by Shane Fryer and Cyndie Walck.
  • Park staff continue biomonitoring, conducting an array of bat surveys, and maintaining climate dataloggers.
  • Cultural resources staff are documenting all historic signatures and other historic artifacts along the current electrical system in Lehman Cave. Once they finish, they will expand into other parts of the cave.
  • Researchers are studying Lehman Cave geomicrobiology to better understand the cave origins.
  • The park continues an annual Lehman Cave rescue practice in cooperation with the local SAR team and local agencies.
  • The park maintains a strong inter-agency caving partnership with USFS, BLM, and Nevada Department of Wildlife.

Jewel Cave National Monument

Submitted by Dan Austin

  • Jewel Cave has been confirmed WNS positive, as of May 2018. No mass mortality has been seen yet, but resource managers observed visible WNS symptoms on bats in the Historic Area this spring. Observed symptoms included the classic white muzzle and fluorescent orange skin lesions. Bats nearer the entrance presented no signs of WNS.
  • Because WNS is now present at the cave, visitors are no longer being screened for previous visits to caves or mines. The monument is taking an active role in helping to prevent the spread of the fungus by having tour groups walk across decontamination mats after every tour. Hydrogen peroxide is being used to decontaminate, and park staff are still working on logistics.
  • Scenic tour reconstruction project has temporarily stopped during the summer season. The construction project will resume again this fall (2019), once visitation drops. The new structures will incorporate a lint catchment system beneath each staircase and platform, as well as lint curbs to help resource managers more effectively clean the tour route. Kelly Mathis has been hired as a resource monitor to help with the project.
  • The cave exploration program has been very active. The cave passed the 200-mile mark in December, and continues to be productive. Current cave length is approaching 203 miles. At the beginning of June, cavers began installing a 4th camp site at the southwestern end of the cave, 12 hours from the elevator. The new camp will help improve safety and productivity on long expeditions out to the end of the cave.
  • Microbial sampling in Piso Mojado lake produced some very unexpected results – a bug called SAR 202 was discovered, an important organism that is typically only found in deep oceanic environments, and is critical to recycling recalcitrant organic carbon. It has never before been seen in terrestrial environments, and the organism makes up more than 50% of the lake microbial population. Further studies on this are pending. Additionally, more microbial sampling at Wellspring Lake near the southwest end of the cave will take place in July. Initial microbial cell counts were collected in June, and it appears that the microorganism population of the lake is extremely low – more info to come on this.
  • Water levels in the deeper cave lakes rose by more than 28 feet last fall, and are still very high. Data loggers are inaccessible due to the high water, but it will be interesting to see what the correlation is to surface precipitation.
  • Sierra Heimel was hired as a GIP and started in June. She will conclude her internship in October.

Mammoth Cave National Park

Submitted by Rick Toomey

  • Mammoth Cave National Park (MACA) is working with the Denver Service Center (DSC) to get our Cave Management Plan into a final document this year. We are currently in the 6 month National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) period and anticipate completing our plan and Environmental Assessment (EA) by Oct. 1. We will be out for public review in July.
  • We are currently getting our approximately $13 million project to upgrade 2 miles of cave trail between the Snowball Dining Room and Grand Central Station on the Grand Avenue Route out for bid. This project is challenging due to logistics related to the distance to entry points and significant choke-points along the route. The goal is to put in hard trail surfaces (concrete or pavers), add stairs,ramps, handrails, and edge treatments where needed and add approximately 1/4 mile of accessible trail to our Accessible Route to make the trail safer, more maintainable, and to protect cave resources. We anticipate construction to start in September or October 2019. We plan to have construction complete by Memorial Day 2021.
  • WNS has led to very significant decreases in several bat species in park. Of species with decent winter counts, Little brown bats have decreased by >91%; Indiana bats by >81%; and tricolored bats by >80%. Summer capture and acoustic data also indicates that northern long-eared bats are almost gone from the park. We are seeing increases in some species of bats including evening bats, red bats, and gray bats. Rafinesque big-eared bats, small footed bats, and big brown bats are stable to increasing. Based on the 2018 winter count, Long Cave now has more than 300,000 bats hibernating in it. We continue to do post-tour WNS intervention (walkover mats for walking tours, park supplied gear for crawling tours). We have discontinued requiring decontamination between caves on the park.
  • We have been participating in several projects related to potential WNS treatments. This spring we began a project with Dr. Diana Northup (and Oregon Caves and Lava Beds) on a study looking at cave microbiome susceptibility to UVC light. The next in-cave phase of that project will occur in September. Analysis of microbiome from sampling this spring is on-going.
  • We have been working with Tom Byl (USGS and Tennessee State University) on harmful algal blooms (HABs) at the park. Although this may not seem like something to report to this group, Tom has isolated cyanotoxins and cyanotoxin producing algae from lampflora in several areas of the cave. We have obtained NPS-USGS funding to begin a systematic study of HABs in the park. This includes work on lampflora cyanotoxins.
  • The park is continuing work to opening / re-opening several caves and entrances for additional tours. Specifically we are looking at potential to use Wondering Woods Cave and Crystal Cave for some types of tours.
  • We are currently doing system design and compliance activities for a major upgrade to the sewer system at MACA. The upgrade is being done to address the age of the system and to help prevent and address sewer leaks that have occurred over the cave system. Again, construction may begin as early as calendar 2020.
  • Kurt Helf (CUPN) has been finalizing his Cave Aquatic Biology Monitoring protocol. This summer we will be doing the first full run of monitoring under this protocol.
  • We are currently reviewing our 75% draft of the Cultural Landscape Report for our Mammoth Cave Historic District. When finished this document will greatly assist in understanding the cultural context of the area and may lead to adjustments of our National Register District boundries.
  • Our Superintendent has participated on a number of cave trips. These have included participating on a CRF survey trip, doing a rappel and water crawl to assist on a dye-bug change-out, and doing a trip on one of the larger cave streams with wetsuits and inflatable kayaks. It is good to have a Superintendent who wants to go into the cave and see new areas.

NPS Paleontology Program

Submitted by Vincent Santucci

  • The NPS Paleontology Program is assisting Grand Canyon National Park (GRCA) with a Centennial Paleontological Resource Survey for the park during 2019. This inventory includes evaluation of GRCA cave paleontology and a small team has been involved with development of a chapter featuring GRCA cave paleontology and are planning some cave paleontology focused field trips in the fall. The 2019 National Fossil Day logo features a Late Pleistocene scene from Rampart Cave in GRCA.
  • Paleontologists J.P. Hodnett and Vincent L. Santucci are working with MACA staff to assess Mississippian shark fossils from the Mammoth Cave. A site visit to MACA is being scheduled for mid-September 2019.
  • A paleontological resource inventory is planned for Carlsbad Caverns National Park (CAVE) during fiscal year 2020. A paleontology intern is being recruited to assist with the inventory and the development of a paleontological resource inventory report for CAVE.

Ozark National Scenic Riverways

Submitted by Scott House

  • Most of the cave work is performed by Cave Research Foundation through a cooperative agreement with NPS. Since this time last year, volunteers have put in 120 people days not including travel. Wretched weather and the government shutdown greatly impacted the ability to get necessary winter field work accomplished.
  • Cave field work is continuing out of shared NPS/USFS facilities at Winona Ranger Station. This complex includes office facilities for both CRF and NPS LE Rangers; large warehouse storing NPS gear, safety cache, and CRF gating equipment; and Forest Service researcher quarters.
  • Bat surveys continue to show a decline in all species except, thus far, Indiana bats, Gray bats, and big brown bats. One major gray bat colony is relatively new and is now a Priority One gray bat cave. The other P1 hibernaculum in the park did not get monitored this winter due to weather related safety concerns.
  • Cave gate repairs have been done to two bat caves, adjacent to the park on a park-partner’s lands. Regular lock maintenance has been done on all gated caves.
  • Regular cave monitoring continues with over 60 cave visits in the last year. Archaeologial Resources Protection Act violations are one of the major reasons for monitoring, as well as ongoing biological surveys.
  • The monitoring information is entered into the Missouri Speleological Survey database which now includes over 6000 faunal records from OZAR caves. Over two hundred new faunal records have been added, and several hundred legacy records have been found and added. The source of these is old reports, which have been located, scanned and added to the database.
  • Our tour cave, Round Spring Cavern, is continuing with three tours daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day 2019 led by the Park Interpretive Division staff. The cave is always closed throughout the winter for rest and rehabilitation.
  • New interpretive posters have been developed, printed, and distributed. A new poster, showing the science of cave mapping, is now being printed.
  • Cave surveys continue although most were greatly affected by the severe high water conditions of the past few years. Bealert Blowing Spring is now more than 1 mile in length.
  • NPS and CRF continue to work with other agency cave partners including Mark Twain National Forest, L-A-D Foundation (Pioneer Forest), the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (State Parks). A cave interpretive event was held in the park last September.
  • A new biological survey is being done by CRF (Mick Sutton) on five NPS caves of biological interest.

Timpanogos Cave National Monument

Submitted by Andy Armstrong

  • Progress continues on digitizing the virtual cave model. Notably, new code has been written to accommodate mesh construction and workflow automation, which drastically speeds up the process from changing a pointcloud into a virtual environment. So far, Hansen Cave and Middle Cave have been successfully reconstructed. Maximum resolution of the model is around 5mm in well sampled areas. An experimental virtual reality demo featuring the two caves will be tested at the 2019 NSS convention.
  • Additional laser scanning of the more difficult to reach parts of the caves (Middle Cave entrance, fault line, and Soda Pop Pit) are expected to be completed late July.
  • The virtual cave model project will be completed December 2019, and there are tentative plans to feature this virtual reconstruction as an exhibit in the newly constructed visitor center in the future.
  • The sump connection between Hansen and Middle Cave that was open for most of 2018 due to drought, has now closed again, due to rising water levels and separating the two cave microclimates.
  • Steve Rice of Water Resources Division (WRD) will be visiting the park in August 2019 to construct a dye trace plan for determining the cave watershed. Steve will also make a recon trip above Middle Cave to plan for resistivity work to define the upper reaches of Middle Cave Fault in an effort to learn more about minor rockfall that has been occurring in the cave.
  • Brendon Quirk (University of Utah) is finishing up his Master’s Thesis on paleoclimate work in Timpanogos Cave to determine the lake effect of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville on local snowpack and glacial landforms.
  • Hydrothermal calcite deposits have been collected and shipped to the University of Melbourne for Uranium-Lead dating in an effort to determine the age of the cave.
  • The design phase of a new cave lighting system has begun with engineers from the NPS Intermountain Region (IMR). This will be a three-year project and will include installation of a cave telephone system.
  • Work has begun to replace the sludge vault for the cave trail restroom with an evaporative system. This will greatly reduce the potential for contamination of karst resources.
  • The park is completing work on a new visitor center and parking lot, with an opening date of June 19, 2019. This modern LEED certified facility replaces the temporary building that visitor services has been operating in for 28 years since a fire destroyed the Mission 66 Visitor Center in 1991.
  • Timpanogos Cave remains WNS-free for now. The fungus has been found only 500 miles away at Ft. Laramie in Wyoming.

Wind Cave National Park

Submitted by Marc Ohms

  • Despite the fact that WNS is in the area, we have not detected it within the park. Cave soil testing and bat swabbing via mist netting has not indicated any signs.
  • We recently had a two-day Introduction to Cave Rescue class at the park and had 11 students from Wind and Jewel Caves as well as the Forest Service.
  • On-going exploration has Wind Cave at 151 miles in length.
  • Digging and paleontological work continues in Persistence Cave. We are about 500 feet in and have cataloged over 10,000 bones from over 50 species dating back as far as ~50,000 years.
  • With the help of a seasonal employee and two volunteers this past winter we completed several restoration projects in the cave- vacuuming, wood removal, trail demarcation ,etc.
  • We worked with our Inventory & Monitoring Network to complete our Cave Water Monitoring Protocol Plan. The Narrative Portion can be found here: https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2260030 and the SOPs can be found here: https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2259815
  • Completed Li DAR scanning of all the tour routes and several of the larger rooms in the cave.
  • Cave climate research from Dr. Andreas Pflitsch and microbiology research from Dr. Hazel Barton continue.

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Part of a series of articles titled Inside Earth – NPS Cave & Karst News – Fall 2020.

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Last updated: October 6, 2020