California
Barnum Cave. Klamath National Forest, California; 1999. This cave was gated by volunteers with ACCA's Northwest Chapter. The cave provides habitat for endangered Townsend's big-eared bats. Bat researchers estimate that as much as 10% of body fat may be used up each time a bat is forced to come out of hibernation. If bats need 50-70% of their stored fat just to survive, it is easy to understand how multiple disturbances take a heavy toll on hibernating bats. The cave will be open for recreational use during the summer when bats are not present, but closed each winter.
Kentucky
Bowman Saltpeter Cave.
Coach Cave. Southwestern Kentucky; 1993. The cave, also known as Hundred Dome, was once winter home to over 100,000 Indiana bats. By 1975, their numbers plummeted to about 4,500 and in the winter of 1993, biologists found only 27. With the new gate in place, biologists will monitor the effect the gate may have on the cave's microclimate and determine its effectiveness.
Crumps Cave. Kentucky; 1993. The discovery of one of Kentucky's most important archaeological finds in 1989, markings on a mudbank half a mile back in the cave, suddenly vaulted the heavily vandalized cave from obscurity. Numerous geometric designs, animals and human figures were found drawn in the soft mud. The Kentucky Heritage Council (KHC) provided grants to the ACCA and the Cave Research Foundation (CRF) to design and build a gate. The gate will be monitored to ensure that it is not breached.
James Cave. Southwestern Kentucky; 1993.
Morgan's Cave. Kentucky; 1995. This cave was being heavily impacted by increasing vandalism from recreational cavers.
Pine Hill and Hurricane Pit. Eastern Kentucky; 2000.
Tennessee
Devil's Step Hollow. Tennessee; 1995. To protect the rare petroglyphs that remained undisturbed there for over 1,000 years. The fragile cave drawings were in danger from increased recreational caving and from looting by artifact hunters. Project support was provided by the ACCA, the Tennessee Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, the Tennessee Division of Archaeology, the Tennessee Division of State Parks, several volunteers and the cave's private owner.
Herring Cave. Tennessee; 1995. The focus of this project was on protecting a colony of endangered gray bats and two other threatened species- the Tennessee cave salamander and the Southern cavefish. Herring Cave had been a popular party spot because of its easy accessibility. Trespassing was threatening the cave's unique formations and the habitat of threatened bats and amphibians. The gate was paid for with funding from The Nature Conservancy, Tennessee Wildlife and Resources Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Hubbard's Cave. Tennessee; 1985. The gated portion of the cave is a wintering site for 250-300,000 Gray bats and also hosts a colony of approximately 10,000 Indiana bats. It is the largest single hibernating colony of endangered Gray bats in the world. An estimated 10,000 man-hours of volunteer labor, from numerous organizations, went into the project during the six weekends needed to complete it. The finished gate is more than 39 feet long and 31 feet in height, containing over 70,000 pounds of materials and 2,400 linear feet of steel, making it the world's largest cave gate.
Update! Hubbard's Cave. Tennessee; 1999. The largest airflow cave gate in the world was built over one of Hubbard's three entrances. This gate was constructed due to increased visitation during the 1990s, which resulted in the severe vandalism of cave resources, including Civil War artifacts.
Marcum Cave. Tennessee; 2000. This cave is the second largest Indiana bat hibernaculum in Tennessee.
Tobacco Port Cave. Tennessee; 2000. This project was a modification of an existing gate to incorporate a new design for endangered Gray bat caves.
Virginia
Rocky Hollow Cave. Virginia; 1999. Rocky Hollow Cave has the unique potential for large-scale repopulation of any of the 13 most important Indiana bat caves and mines in Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia. The bat gate took three days and twenty-seven people to construct. Assisting in this project were volunteers from Forest Service, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bat Conservation International and members of the ACCA.
West Virginia
Minor Rex Cave. West Virginia; 2000. This cave houses a summer colony of Virginia big-eared bats numbering between 400 and 500 individuals. During the winter, approximately 200 Virginia big-eared bats and 55 Indiana bats hibernate in the cave. Historic accounts indicate that this cave once harbored about 1,000 Indiana bats in the winter. Other bats, including approximately 700 little brown bats, 225 eastern pipistrelles and a small number of eastern small-footed bats, also hibernate in the cave.
Schoolhouse Cave. Pendelton County, West Virginia; 1999. Privately owned Schoolhouse Cave houses the second largest known concentration of hibernating Virginia big-eared bats in West Virginia and is one of the world's top five wintering sites for this bat. The cave is also home to the Germany Valley cave millipede, a species given a G1 rank (5 or fewer occurrences globally) by The Nature Conservancy. A small number of Indiana bats and two species of concern, the Eastern woodrat and the small-footed bat, will all be protected by the new cave gate.
Sinnit and Thorn Mountain Cave. West Virginia; 1999. ACCA partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bat Conservation International (BCI), the U.S. Forest Service and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources to hold a cave gating workshop. During the seminar, the group replaced two old gates on the entrances of Sinnit and Thorn Mountain Caves with a newer type of cave gate that is stronger and more bat-friendly. The caves are habitat for the federally endangered Virginia big-eared bat.
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