Nature Conservancy Karst Area Sensitivity Map

[L Roebuck]

Landscape mappers to reveal sensitive sites

FAYETTEVILLE — The common wisdom among scientists and conservationists who recorded environmentally vulnerable areas of Northwest Arkansas once was that the data ought to be kept hush-hush.

Now, they want to share it with the public.

The area’s nether world includes features such as caves, rare species, underground waterways, sinkholes, fissures and other porous terrain. A thin layer of topsoil typically covers highly fractured, soluble limestone.

Researchers refer to these landscapes as karst geography.

They are unusually sensitive to environmental damage, such as construction disturbances and pollutants.

“In the past, everyone thought that keeping the karst locations and the species a secret was a way to protect them,” said Tim Snell, associate state director for The Nature Conservancy.

Otherwise, the thinking went, would-be spelunkers or hunters might use the scientific databases as treasure maps.

“That secrecy works really well in rural areas, but not in highly developed areas,” he said.

Full Article

Geologist to make Geological Map of the World

[Brian Roebuck]

All of these efforts will eventually make keeping caves secret dang near impossible. It appears there are ongoing efforts by many organizations to obtain cave location data by any means possible. While this might be helpful in planning new deveolpment to avoind karst and caves it can also be easily abused by others to exploit caves and cave resources. It's a two edged sword and I hope it is data that is kept vaugue enough to keep vandals out of caves and devolpers from building over them.

As the world gets more information crazed it may become necessary to keep cave locations very close to one's chest. I wonder how the landowners with caves on their lands feel about thsi information being so accessible? I would not like it if I owned a cave or two.

[Azurerana]

Dr. Beaner,
I don't see anything wrong with the NW Arkansas karstmap as it is shown on the downloadable screen. In fact, that version is so vague as to be basically useless, except for the delineated recharge areas. A 7.5 minute topo quad contains more information, and it's available to anyone with $8. A Google Earth flyover of one's house can tell by the relative size if you live in a cabin or a mansion. I tried out this live.com thing the other day-- I typed in a person's name and state, and the software gave me their postal address and pinpointed their house on a street map. I just found your house on that same map, and an aerial photo, just by typing in your name and state in about 3-4 tries and 7-8 minutes. I then typed in my phone number and Missouri, and a pin landed right on top of my house on the aerial photo in about a minute.

I would say locating someone's residence is a lot more sensitive info than a cave location, and we're there already. I don't think we're going to be able to hide caves much longer, so the effort needs to change into controlling access. The Brits have been there for some time now.

I don't say I like this brave new world, but I think its the one we're going to be stuck in.

[L Roebuck]

Humm.....so how did these organizations get the cave location data?

I know the Tennessee Cave Survey data is proprietary.

[Azurerana]

All I know is these folks from Northwest Arkansas came trolling (like motoring slowly with juicy worms on big hooks) to the MSS. Kept it up for about 9 months. Wanted ALL the location/cave bio data for Missouri. Tried wheedling, tried flattery, tried intellectual bribery(non-cash), tried every trick in the book, but they were rejected, with the caveat that if they needed specific information on a specific cave for a specific purpose, our board agreed to listen to future pleas on a case by case basis. That's reasonable.

The MSS (by definition) doesn't keep info on other states. I've got some other theories about where they actually got the AR information, but the article itself says where: UA @fayetteville, landowners and small conservancies. They likely got some out of well-distributed open records like cavefish and bat assessments, too. And everyone has buddies, don't they?

For all the good they do, I don't think TNC is the caver's friend. That org has its own agenda.

[Brian Roebuck]

azurerana said:

For all the good they do, I don't think TNC is the caver's friend. That org has its own agenda.

I would have to agree with that assessment. They do many good things but I am also quite skeptical of their various other agendas.

[chac]

I must agree with AZ. TNC has been very active in funding worldwide preserve efforts (Sian Ka'an and Calakmul in southern Mexico come to mind). I applaud their efforts to take a lead in environmental and cultural conservation efforts.

They also appear to have a strong agenda (in my dealings with them). I must take a cautious position when considering their bags of money and how they plan to implement a lasting program for these preserves.

Jim

[dhparker]

We always thought TNC were good guys--enough so that we occasionally contribute. Is is cricket to say on here what other "agendas" you're talking about? If not, could you send me a private message? We don't want to be supporting anything too weird.

Donna