2009 NNL Photo Contest Winners

1st place:

2nd place:

3rd place:

Cold Water Cave, Iowa
Photo by Jerry Grier and Sean Fitzgerald of Waterloo, IA
Cold Water Cave, designated a NNL in 1987, is an exceptional example of an extensive cave system well decorated with speleothems.  It contains numerous vertical shafts and an unusually large, meandering underground stream that courses along most of the approximately 7.3 miles of cave passageways.  The cave atmosphere is also unusual for its typically low oxygen content and extremely high carbon dioxide content. 

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Florida
Photo by Ron Horbinski of Mequon, WI
Designated a NNL in 1964, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary contains a wide variety of habitats including pond cypress, wet prairie, pineland, and the largest remaining stand of virgin bald cypress in North America.  The sanctuary provides important habitat for many species of shorebirds, including the great egret pictured here and supports the largest wood stork rookery in the United States.  

Garden of the Gods, Colorado
Photo by Sayre Hutchison of Lakewood, CO
Garden of the Gods, designated a NNL in 1971, is an outstanding illustration of the lithologic character of sedimentary rocks and of the vertical forces that produced the front range of the Rocky Mountains.  Located within Garden of the Gods Park, this site contains the uncommon honey ant, and is one of the best sites in Colorado for observing white-throated swifts, swallows, and canyon wrens. 

High Plains Natural Area, Texas
Photo by Lynn Nymeyer of Umbarger, TX
Located within Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge, High Plains Natural Area was designated a NNL in 1980.  It is one of the best developed, least disturbed natural shortgrass climax communities remaining in the Great Plains biophysiographic province.  The shortgrass prairies of Texas and the Great Plains depend on annual moisture from monsoonal storms. 

Point Lobos State Reserve, California
Photo by Gavin Emmons of Paicines, CA
Designated a NNL in 1967, Point Lobos State Reserve is an outstanding example of terrestrial and marine environments in close association.  It is the only known habitat of Monterey cypress and variegated brodiaea, and is one of only a few known locations containing the Gowan's cypress and sea otter.  The site is a sanctuary for thousands of sea and shorebirds. 

Redoubt Volcano, Alaska
Photo by Page Spencer of Anchorage, AK
Designated a NNL in 1976, Redoubt Volcano is the second highest of the 76 major volcanoes of the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands.  Located within Lake Clark National Park, Redoubt is an active stratovolcano that began erupting again in March 2009.  Multiple eruptions spewed ash throughout southcentral Alaska nearly 20 years after its last major eruption. 

Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee
Photo by George W. Hornal of Goodlettsville, TN
Designated a NNL in 1966, Reelfoot Lake contains a mosaic of habitats including cypress swamps, sawgrass jungles, water lily glades and scattered bodies of open water.  Located within the Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge and Reelfoot Lake State Natural Area, the site contains domes, sunken lands, fissures, sinks, sand blows and large landslides.

Torrey Pines State Reserve, California
Photo by Carol P. Murdock of Santee, CA
Torrey Pines State Reserve, designated a NNL in 1977, contains a unique and undisturbed biological community supporting endangered bird species.  Torrey pine forests occur naturally only here and on Santa Rosa Island, 175 miles to the northwest.  High bluffs and sea cliffs found at this site are good examples of geological processes.

Wissahickon Valley, Pennsylvania
Photo by Lisa Kolakowsky Smith of Philadelphia, PA
Located within Fairmont Park, the Wissahickon Valley is a symbol of natural area preservation within a vast urban complex.  Designated a NNL in 1964, this site provides value in the study of natural landscape evolution from late Tertiary times to the present.    

Zurich Bog, New York
Photo by Barbara J. Drake of East Bloomfield, NY
Zurich Bog, designated a NNL in 1973, is a good example of a northern sphagnum bog and bog forest vegetation, both of which are uncommon in north-central New York.  The site provides habitat for many species of birds, including the common yellowthroat pictured here.