Tennessee Caves Initiative
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Cory Holliday: just another day at the office. Photo © J. Douglas
Tennessee's Cave Team
Managed by Cory Holliday, the Conservancy's Tennessee Cave Initiative has developed strategies over the years for acquisition of key sites, on-the-ground stewardship, landowner outreach and cave protection agreements, education and strong partnerships with state and federal agencies.
In 2007, The Nature Conservancy in Tennessee began a federally funded program to assist private landowners in safeguarding caves and surrounding habitats on their lands. The Cave & Karst Landowner Incentive Program in Tennessee is the first of its kind and is managed by Cory Holliday. For more information on how you can protect caves on your property in Tennessee, contact him at 615-383-9909 .
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The entrance to Bunkum Cave in Tennessee.
Photo © Dr. Julian Lewis
Tennessee Caves
Over 9,600 documented caves in Tennessee
The Tennessee chapter has made the preservation of cave ecosystems one of its highest priorities – and for good reason – Tennessee has the highest number of known caves in the United States. The Nature Conservancy directs the leading cave protection program in Tennessee.
Nearly 1,000 species, mostly crustaceans, insects and arachnids, live exclusively in caves within the contiguous 48 states. About 95 percent of the species are listed as vulnerable or imperiled by The Nature Conservancy. Although many of these species are known to exist in just 10 or fewer caves, few are listed under the Endangered Species Act. In Tennessee alone our caves harbor hundreds of rare and unique species.
Subterranean systems are linked to the surface by sinkholes and other entrances. Cave-adapted species, such as cave crayfish, depend upon the surface for clean water and organic debris that serves as a food source for small invertebrates. Alterations to the landscape above a system, or within the water recharge area of a cave, can affect both the quality of water within the cave and the amount of food input to the system.
Protecting Tennessee’s cave creatures means protecting cave ecosystems, and that poses no small challenge to conservationists. The Nature Conservancy’s Tennessee Cave Program has been working for the last 30 years to protect these unique and complex systems. Collaborating with partners, the chapter completed a survey ranking the state’s top 100 biologically significant caves and developed protection strategies for endangered caves throughout the state.
Little is known about the animals living in this complex subterranean landscape. In 2001, the Conservancy began working with world-renowned zoologist Dr. Julian Lewis to launch the largest cave-survey project ever undertaken in Tennessee – to survey 100 caves on the Cumberland Plateau. The results have been astounding: the collection of 48 previously unknown species, as well as more than 150 insects considered globally rare.
The Conservancy will use this information to develop protection strategies for these delicate ecosystems. "Even in a field where I have become pretty accustomed to spectacular results, I find this to be stunning. Fieldwork in the Cumberlands is, to a cave biologist, like unwrapping presents on Christmas morning – everyday," said Lewis.
Bats are another important protection target for the Conservancy. They are especially sensitive to disturbances in caves. Caves serve as hibernation hideaways for many kinds of bats, including gray bats and Indiana bats (both listed as endangered species and both found in Tennessee). They form large colonies numbering in the thousands and sometimes the tens of thousands. Waking bats during hibernation causes them to use up energy that they have stored to survive the winter often leading to their death. During the summer, some bats will again form large colonies in caves. Disturbing summer maternity colonies can cause the death of flightless young bats when they are knocked from the walls to the floor by panicked mothers. The Conservancy works with partners to monitor bat populations at caves across Tennessee.
Our Partnership with the National Speleological Society
The Nature Conservancy works closely with local members of the National Speleological Society to achieve our cave conservation, research and management goals. This long-standing and valuable partnership was formalized in 1992 through a Memorandum of Understanding. Local cavers help TNC with stewardship activities such as fencing, cave gates, and sink hole clean-up.
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