Natural resource condition assessment: Mammoth Cave National Park

Groves, Chris; Singer, Autumn; Bledsoe, Lee; Toomey, Rickard; Algeo, Katie; Webb, Cathleen

The common feature of all America national parks is that they protect natural, and often cultural, resources. The National Park Service’s Natural Resource Condition Program (NPS 2018a) provides a framework to evaluate the conditions of a park’s natural resources as a “snapshot in time” by using credible science to report on conditions and trends, critical data gaps, and threats for a broad subset of a particular park’s resources. This document reports on the results of an analysis of such conditions for the natural resources of Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park (MACA). Established in 1941 with an area of 21,380 hectares, MACA protects a globally significant karst landscape—those that form on soluble rocks such as limestone in which caves, underground rivers, sinkholes and large springs are common. The centerpiece is the Mammoth Cave System, which has a current known length of more than 660 kilometers, by far the world’s most extensive known cave system. The cave protects evidence of more than 4,000 years or human exploration, including artifacts showing that ancient explorers travelled up to eight kilometers from the nearest entrance, the deepest cave exploration of ancient people anywhere in world. A rigorous, sustained exploration effort has been underway for more than 60 years, and exploration continues with no end in sight. There are over 400 other known caves in the park, several of which are of major importance themselves. Because of the world-class nature of the hydrogeologic resources here, the area has attracted scientists, students and explorers from around the world and indeed what are now fundamental principles of karst science have been established through research efforts here. The NRCA project team collectively have more than 75 years of experience in working closely with park’s resources, and its scientists, in research, teaching, conservation, and just exploring and enjoying the park itself. Although Mammoth Cave served as the principal motivation for the establishment of the park, MACA also serves to protect many other important resources on the surface and underground. The Green River, which bisects the park flowing from east to west, has among the highest biodiversity of North American river systems, with a range of diverse habitats that support at least 150 species of fish and 70 mussels. In the park, there are at least 43 endemic species, those not found anywhere else in the world. The park is home to at least 1,925 species (Appendix A), a number of which are threatened or endangered. Based on scoping meetings and close communication with the staff of MACA’s Division of Science and Resource Management (S&RM) and the NPS Cumberland Piedmont Inventory and Monitoring Network (CUPN) we chose 13 focal natural resources to form the framework of the report. These include four physical/landscape topics (surface air, cave air, geology and soils, and hydrology/water resources), six biological topics (bats, birds, herpetofauna, native communities, surface aquatic communities, and cave communities), and three that evaluate human influences on the resources (fire management, night skies, and human impacts). There are a range of conditions and trends, and although many of the park’s resources are in good condition and adequately protected, there are challenges. A major threat posed to many species of cave-dwelling bats in MACA and elsewhere is the deadly fungal disease known as White-nose Syndrome (WNS). Since discovery of the disease in the United States in 2006, and documentation in the park as of 2013, WNS in bats has been an important issue related to cave and bat management at MACA. Multiple bat species including the federally protected Indiana bat and northern long-eared bat have shown substantial declines in response to WNS. The declines observed in some winter-roosting species is as high as 93% (little brown bats at Colossal Cave since 2013). In response to the disease, monitoring and surveillance of bat...

Natural resource condition assessment: Mammoth Cave National Park

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