Where We Work

Shower head cave formations created by water seeping from ceiling cracks. © Dave Bunnell

The Nature Conservancy is working to address the conservation needs in subterranean environments in several key places:

Hickory Nut Gorge, North Carolina

Ozarks Plateau (Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Missouri)

Tennessee Caves Initiative

Cockpit Country, Jamaica

Hickory Nut Gorge, North Carolina
An ecological treasure of national significance, Hickory Nut Gorge is home to 37 rare plant species, 6 rare natural community types and 14 rare animal species, including cave-obligate invertebrates, spiders, salamanders, bats and woodrats. Its ecological features include Bat Cave, known to be the longest granitic fissure cave in the world with additional cave systems found throughout the gorge.

Ozarks Plateau of Arkansas, Illinios, Oklahoma and Missouri:
In the Ozark ecoregion, more than 100 known animals are found only in caves and/or groundwater habitats, of which 8 are on the federal Endangered Species list.

Learn more about the endangered species of the Conservancy's Ozark Karst Program.

Tennessee Caves Initiative:
Tennessee leads the nation in sheer number of caves, with more than 8,000 already documented, underlying three-quarters of the state. Tennessee's caves are home to 2 federally endangered species of bats, as well as at least 84 other cave species that are globally rare. Recent biological surveys suggest that this list might double with a more thorough inventory.

The Tennessee Caves Initiative was developed in 1995 to coordinate cave conservation efforts. Traditional efforts have included partnering with private landowners of biologically significant caves to protect their caves, working with local caving grottos to conduct cave clean-ups and entrance barrier projects, and helping ecoregional planning efforts relating to caves and karst. Partnerships with state and federal agencies and other non-profit groups have resulted in the purchase of many biologically significant caves, including the recent purchase of the second largest Indiana bat hibernaculum in the state through a partnership with the Southeastern Cave Conservancy, Inc. and Bat Conservation International.

The Tennessee Caves Initiative is participating in a new and exciting partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and the Tennessee Division of Natural Heritage. This State Conservation Agreement, the first of its kind, will focus efforts on rare and threatened cave species that are not federally listed. The goal is that through the partnership's efforts, these species will recover or stabilize without the need for federal listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Jamaica's Cockpit Country:
Dubbed "cockpits" for their resemblance to cockfighting pits, the rounded peaks and steep-sided, bowl-shaped depressions of yellow and white limestone karst drain water through porous bedrock and sinkholes connected to a complex, subterranean network of caves. Fed by groundwater springs and seeps, this area is the source of the Great, Black and Martha Brae rivers, which supply almost two-thirds of Jamaica's freshwater supply, a crucial resource for the tourism industry that drives the economy of Jamaica's north coast.

Nearly 300 sinkholes, shelter caves, and complex cave systems have been documented in Jamaica's Cockpit Country; likely fewer than half of the cave systems that occur in this 300 square kilometer area of wet limestone forest over cockpit karst. The Nature Conservancy and Windsor Research Centre have initiated systematic biological inventories of the invertebrate and vertebrate biota that compose the cave communities, a conservation target identified by Conservation Area Planning.