Under a swath of Kentucky hills and hollows is a limestone labyrinth that became the heartland of a national park. The surface of Mammoth Cave National Park encompasses about 80 square miles. Today we still don’t know how big the underside is. More than 365 miles of the five-level cave system have been mapped, and new caves are continually being discovered. Two layers of stone underlie Mammoth’s hilly woodlands. Mammoth Cave is the heart of the South-Central Kentucky karst, an integrated set of subterranean drainage basins covering more than 400 square miles. On the top of this labyrinth a biologically diverse set of ecosystems is inextricably interlinked with the underground ecosystems. This physiographic province, with Mammoth Cave National Park at its core, was declared an International Biosphere Reserve the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB) in 1990.
Here, a sandstone and shale cap, as thick as 50 feet in places, acts as an umbrella over limestone ridges. The umbrella leaks at places called sinkholes, from which surface water makes its way underground, eroding the limestone into a honeycomb of caverns. Mammoth Cave National Park encompasses 52,830 acres in south central Kentucky and protects the diverse geological, biological and historical features associated with the longest known cave in the world. Above the cave, the surface landscape highlights rare plants and dense forest, a diverse aquatic ecosystem in the quiet Green and Nolin Rivers.
Mammoth, a United Nations World Heritage site, still is as “grand, gloomy, and peculiar” as it was when Stephen Bishop, a young slave and early guide, described it. By a flickering lard-oil lamp he found and mapped some of Mammoth’s passages. Bishop died in 1857. His grave, like his life, is part of Mammoth; it lies in the Old Guide’s Cemetery near the entrance, gate to the Bishop’s legendary story. Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 to protect the unparalleled underground labyrinth of caves, the rolling hilly country above, the heart of the South-Central Kentucky karst, and the quiet Green River valley. Since then, ongoing research and exploration have shown the park to be far more complex than ever imagined, hosting a broad diversity of species living in specialized and interconnected ecosystems including green plants and vibrant animals. Today we are on a wildflower walk with a naturalist, enjoying the great diversity of flora in the national park. Mammoth Cave National Park supports more than 1,300 species in about 50,000 acres.
Creating Environmental Sensible Products
Similar to Stephen Bishop’s mapping some of Mammoth’s passages by a flickering lard-oil lamp he found and mapped some of Mammoth’s passages. Mammoth does not glamorize the underworld with garish lighting. Here we are deep in the Earth. And nowhere else can we get a better lesson in the totality of darkness and the miracle of light. On a tour a ranger gathers everyone and, after a warning, switches off the lights. The darkness is sudden, absolute. Then the ranger lights a match and the tiny dot of light magically spreads, illuminating a circle of astonished faces. Still, many natural resources in Mammoth Cave National Park are subjected to unfavorable influences from a variety of sources, for example, air and water pollution, industrial development building up Electronic Waste (E-Waste), and excessive visitation. Left unchecked, the very existence of many natural communities can be threatened. To help prevent the loss or impairment of such communities in the National Park System the Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program was established. The principal functions of the I&M Program at Mammoth Cave National Park are the gathering of information about the resources and the development of techniques for monitoring the ecological communities. Ultimately, the inventory and monitoring of natural resources are integrated with park planning, operation and maintenance, visitor protection, and interpretation to establish the preservation and protection of natural resources as an integral part of park management and improve the stewardship of natural resources. The detection of changes and the quantification of trends in the conditions of natural resources are imperative for the identification of links between changes in resource conditions and the causes of changes and for the elimination or mitigation of such causes. Inventory and monitoring datasets lead to specific management actions, and then track the effectiveness of those actions. If results of resource management actions are not as anticipated, then adjustments can made to the prescription. This is an adaptive management process towards creating environmental sensible products, mitigating Electronic Waste (E-Waste).
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