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Management of Cave and Karst Systems
National
Park System units occasionally solicit the assistance of the
Geologic Resources Division with the management and preservation
of caves and karst. Recent management actions included the
placement of gates on caves in Mammoth Cave National Park,
Kentucky; assessments of cave resources at Petroglyphs National
Monument, New Mexico; inventories of the culturally sensitive
and important caves of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park; the
generation of recommendations for the protection, development,
and interpretation of Cathedral Caverns State Park, Alabama;
the development of cave management and protection in China,
Mexico, and the Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula;
and ongoing ecological restoration with an emphasis on bat
habitat in the historic section of Mammoth (with a key role
being played by paleontology).
A
recent landmark decision was the passage of the Lechuguilla
Cave Protection Act (P. L. 103-169, 2 Dec 1993) after the
Lechuguilla Cave in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico,
was threatened by oil and gas exploration on adjacent Bureau
of Land Management managed lands. The act states that "Lechuguilla
Cave...(has) internationally significant scientific, environmental,
and other values and should be...protected... against...adverse
effects of mineral exploration and development." The
act withdraws all federal lands inside the boundaries of a
protected cave area from all forms of mineral and geothermal
leasing. The protected area along the northern boundary of
Carlsbad Caverns National Park was established by an expert
panel of geologists and speleologists assembled by the National
Park Service.
The
National Park Service has memoranda of understanding with
the National Speleological Society and Bat Conservation International
designed to secure assistance with inventories, surveys, monitoring,
and exploration of caves and with the investigation and preservation
of bat habitat. The staff of the Geologic Resources Division
assist with cave management direction for the service, reviewed
cave management documents such as the general management plans
for cave areas, and conducted cave management seminars and
workshops.
For
more information about the National Park Service's Cave and
Karst Program, please download the PDF version of our brochure.
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