2007 National Cave & Karst Management Symposium
October 8-12, 2007, St. Louis, Missouri
27 December 2007
Many thanks to our 183 participants, our 25 sponsors, and our volunteers for a successful and enjoyable Symposium!
See the Directory for the 2007 NCKMS!
—William R. Elliott, NCKMS 2007 Chair
Marcelo Kramer explains his poster on Brazilian caves to Phillip Newell at the 2007 NCKMS in St. Louis.
The first four zip files below are 87 photos of the 2007 NCKMS in St. Louis for you to download. I haven't had time to write captions for them, but I subdivided them into four zip files that cover most of the event. These are low-resolution photos, but I have high-res. versions available. If you have additional good photos, please email them to me at Bill.Elliott@mdc.mo.gov
Additions, Dec. 7, 2007:
- nckms5.zip 2.1 MB. By Blake Stephens. Sessions, Mushroom cave fauna, Meramec Caverns.
- nckms6.zip 8.5 MB. By Bob Currie. Fisher Cave trip, Jon Beard repairing stalagmites (see below).
- nckms7.zip 6.4 MB. By Brian Andrich. Meramec Caverns people.
- nckms8.zip 2.6 MB. By Hilary Lambert. Fisher Cave trip, Jon Beard repairing stalagmites.
- nckms9.zip 21.2 MB. By Jean Krejca. Wed. trip to Mystery Cave, Perry County, MO, cave life.
- nckms10.zip 7.0 MB. By Marcus Buck. Scenes of Falling Spring Cave, during the Oct. 8 Illinois Karst Field Trip, led by Philip Moss; Cliff Cave in St. Louis, during the Oct. 12 Urban Karst Field Trip led by Bob Criss.
- nckms11.zip 3.4 MB. By Mary Schubert. Oct. 12 Urban Karst Field Trip led by Bob Criss.
Review: The National Cave & Karst Management Symposium was held October 8-12, 2007 at the Holiday Inn SW & Viking Conference Center, St. Louis, Missouri.
On Monday there was an Illinois Karst trip led by Philip Moss, and two workshops given by Bat Conservation International's Jim Kennedy and Project Underground's Carol Zokaites. In the evening we had a welcome party with hors d'oeuvres and free beer from Schlafly.
On Tuesday the main sessions began with a keynote address by Director John Hoskins of Missouri Department of Conservation. Paper sessions were punctuated with ample breaks and refreshments. Sponsors had exhibits in the lobby, and Speleobooks brought a complete store. Lunch was served in the lobby. Tuesday afternoon concluded with Cave Management by Cavers and a panel discussion. On Tuesday evening we bused to Missouri Department of Conservation’s beautiful Powder Valley Nature Center, where we held a free public event, including the Caves in Crisis photo exhibit and a speaker panel, followed by refreshments in the lobby, which included a "cave cake."
On Wednesday we took a bus trip to Meramec State Park, with geology narratives, walking tours of Fisher Cave, speleothem repair demonstration by Jon Beard et al., caving at Mushroom Cave, karst geology tours in the Hamilton Valley, hors d'oeuvres and refreshments, then a tour of commercial Meramec Caverns with experts, followed by a dinner in the cave and a slide show about the restoration of nearby Bat Cave #1. The photo below is from the 2000 Natural Areas field trip to Fisher Cave.
We had a full day of sessions on Thursday, ending with a special showing of the video Caves: Life Beneath the Forest, presented by Kriste Lindberg from Indiana. There was a big poster session, then a banquet that evening with a wonderful speaker, Dr. Blaine Schubert, East Tennessee State University, who spoke on "Cave and Karst Paleontology in North America."
Friday concluded with an Urban Karst session and an afternoon Urban Karst field trip, led by Dr. Bob Criss, Washington University, to points around St. Louis, which sits on a karst that has been generally poorly managed for 200 years. We visited various sinkholes and the entrance of Cliff Cave, ending up at the Mississippi River.
Please feel free to contact me for further information.
Sincerely,
William R. Elliott, cave biologist
Missouri Department of Conservation
Resource Science Division
P.O. Box 180
Jefferson City, MO 65102-0180
573-522-4115 ext. 3194