National Cave Management Resources

Cheryl Jones, Chairman, NCKMS Steering Committee

Make the NCKMS a part of your cave management plans!

Over the last three decades, the National Cave and Karst Management Symposia (NCKMS) have developed into important forums for promoting, advancing, and sharing concepts in effective management of cave and karst resources. They offer ideal opportunities for cave conservancies to expand their information base and create relationships with others involved in cave management. In addition, your experiences in creating a conservancy, as well as the conservancy’s practices, issues, and management techniques would be valuable insight for everyone interested in improving the way we are able to care for caves and their contents.

The NCKMS provide an opportunity for practical synergy among people from diverse backgrounds, professions, and interests, and from around the country. New techniques are discussed, issues addressed, solutions developed, and effective working relationships formed to help protect and conserve caves, cave ecosystems, water resources and karst lands. Those involved in cave and karst management, including Federal agencies, non-profit caving, karst research, and conservation organizations, the National Cave and Karst Research Institute, state agencies, as well as individuals with an interest in cave management, learn from each other and develop important relationships that would otherwise be unlikely.

The first NCKMS was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975, and the five-day events have been organized on a regular basis since then. The US Forest Service hosted the 15th symposium in 2001 in Tucson, Arizona, and the NSS Cave Diving Section were our hosts last year in Gainesville, Florida. We are looking forward to the 2005 NCKMS in Albany, which being organized by Northeastern Cave Conservancy. Plan to have members of your conservancy attend and participate!

The NCKMS Steering Committee was formed to ensure that a NCKMS is held biennially. Members represent the organizations and agencies that have a formal interest in, or responsibility for, managing cave and karst resources on a nationwide basis. The committee offers the only structure for these influential groups to share ideas and experiences, and to work together to address issues arising in managing caves and karst.

The Committee selects a group to host symposia through a bidding process, and provides guidance for developing the event. It also offers sponsorships to enable symposia attendance, publishes symposia Proceedings, and sponsors conferences that address cave and karst management issues, including this Cave Conservancy Workshop. The annual meetings are held during the NSS Conventions, and are open to everyone.

For more information, visit www.nckms.org. Cave conservancies may find the information and ideas presented in the NCKMS Proceedings useful and thought provoking, and authors of papers may prove helpful contacts. Hard and CD copies from past symposia may be purchased from Speleobooks and the NSS Bookstore. The 2003 Proceedings should be available by the NSS Convention.

See you in at the 2005 NCKMS!

NCKMS Steering Committe members: American Cave Conservation Association, Bat Conservation International, Bureau of Land Management, Cave Research Foundation, Karst Waters Institute, National Caves Association, National Park Service, National Speleological Society, The Nature Conservancy, US Fish & Wildlife Service, US Forest Service.