National Speleological Society, Inc. What is the NSS?caves.org/brochure/nss_biennial_report.pdfcontributions from our members. Thanks to a generous donation, we also ac-quired Wells

What is the NSS?The National Speleological Society has three

goals:

To protect caves and their natural contents,

To advance the study of caves and the sci-ence of speleology, and

To promote safety and fellowship amongcavers.

The NSS is the largest cave-related organiza-tion in the world. We have over 12,000 members—scientists, conservationists, cave owners, and cave

explorers—throughout the United States andabroad. The Society was founded in 1941 and isheadquartered in Huntsville, Alabama. The NSS isaffiliated with the American Association for the Ad-vancement of Science and the Union Internation-ale de Spéléologie.

NSS volunteers donate countless hours to-ward cave conservation, cave science, and safe caveexploration. Membership in the Society is open toanyone who shares our goals.

The NSS is a non-profit corporation and is taxexempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the InternalRevenue Code. Contributions to the Society are taxdeductible to the full extent allowed by law.

ContentsA Letter from the President 3

Protecting Caves and Their Natural Contents 4Cave Restoration and Protection 5

Cooperation with the Federal Government 6Cooperation with States and Private Organizations 7Educating People about Caves 8Encouraging Sensible Public Policy 9Aid to Cave Owners 10Cave Ownership and Management 11

Studying Caves and Speleology 12Promoting Speleological Research 13Exploration and Documentation of Caves 14

Promoting Caver Safety and Fellowship 16Cave Rescue 17Member and Non-Member Services 18NSS Awards 19

NSS Financial Reports 20Statement of Financial Position 20Statement of Activities 21Statement of Cash Flows 22

Photo Credits 20

NSS Personnel 23

NSS Donors 23

National Speleological Society, Inc.

2 Biennial Report 2001–2002 and 2002–2003

A Letter from the President

AFFILIATED WITH THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SICENCE

NATIONALSPELEOLOGICALSOCIETY, INC.

Dear Reader,

For over 60 years, the goals of the National Speleological Society(NSS) have been “to promote interest in and to advance in any and allways the study and science of speleology, the protection of caves andtheir natural contents, and to promote fellowship among those interestedtherein.” I am pleased to say that the Society made great strides to-wards these goals in fiscal years 2001-2003, thanks to our members anddedicated volunteers.

Through acquisition and by providing grants, the Society continued itsprogram of protecting significant cave systems and their contents for fu-ture generations. In 2003, we purchased Great Expectations Cave, Wyoming,the third deepest limestone cave in the United States. This is the Soci-ety’s second cave property west of the Mississippi, and our first in alpinekarst. A very successful fundraising drive raised nearly half of the acqui-sition cost, and we expect to be able to cover the remaining amount withcontributions from our members. Thanks to a generous donation, we also ac-quired Wells Cave, one of Kentucky’s longest and finest recreational caves,with important biological and geological features. Taking further steps toprotect caves, the Society awarded $10,000 in grants to regional cave con-servancies for cave and karst acquisition.

NSS members continued to add greatly to the knowledge of karst,caves, and cave environments by discovering and surveying new caves andcave passages, documenting cave flora, fauna, and artifacts, and conduct-ing speleological research. To support this important work, the NSSawarded thousands of dollars in grants for research, exploration, andconservation.

The Society advanced caving safety with the publication of AmericanCaving Accidents, as well as On Call, the foremost book on cave rescuetechniques. In addition, the National Cave Rescue Commission conductedcave rescue courses around the country, at all skill levels, to caversas well as non-caver technical rescue teams.

The continuing strength and success of the NSS comes from our mem-bers, who volunteer countless hours each year in support of the Soci-ety’s goals. It is these dedicated individuals, with their passion forspeleology, exploration, and conservation, who have made us what we aretoday. This report documents two years of their accomplishments. I amhonored to serve as their leader.

Sincerely,Scott Fee, President


Office of the PresidentScott Fee2813 Cave AvenueHuntsville AL 35801-4431

DEDICATED TO THE EXPLORATION, STUDY, AND CONSERVA-


Biennial Report 2001–2002 and 2002–2003 3

Protecting Caves and Their Natural ContentsThe most visible reasons to

protect caves are the delicate andbeautiful rock crystal formations(like stalactites and stalagmites)they often contain. Indeed, visi-tors to commercial caves only seea fraction of the beauty that existsunderground.

But caves are also home tounique creatures, including someendangered species. For exam-ple, cave-dwelling bats can eattons of mosquitoes and otherpests in a single evening. Scien-tists are excited about otherforms of cave life—even bacte-ria—which have adapted to sur-vive in extreme conditions,because they may hold the key tothe development of new medi-cines. The survival of all thesecreatures depends upon maintain-ing the cave ecosystem.

For individuals and commu-nities in karst regions (wherelimestone and similar bedrock

often forms caves), cave conserva-tion has a very direct benefit: im-proved water quality. In karstareas, sinkholes often lead tocave passages, to undergroundrivers, and into the undergroundaquifers that supply the drinkingwater. Polluted runoff into cavesis especially dangerous because itfrequently leads to drinkingwater pollution. In these regions,the unexpected collapse of thesurface (along with any buildingsabove) can be triggered bydrought and groundwater deple-tion, or by excessive runoff fromover development.

Some caves are importantbecause they preserve evidenceof historic or prehistoric visitors—sometimes human and some-times animal.

For all these reasons andmany more, the NSS is workingto protect our caves. Sometimes,cave conservation is as straightfor-

ward as cleaning trash out of acave. Just as often, however, theNSS works to educate land ownersand make public officials aware ofthe importance of the caves undertheir feet and of how fragile thecave environment is.

Conservation Task ForcesThe NSS has chartered Con-

servation Task Forces specificallyto deal with conservation issuesin these areas: • Central Oregon• Hawaii• Sloans Valley, Kentucky• The Teton Mountains, Idaho

and Wyoming• Klamath Mountains, California• Daniel Boone National Forest,

Kentucky• Mount Adams region, Washing-

ton• Peppersauce Cave, Arizona

Cave Restoration and Protection: Shelta Cave, AlabamaThe Society’s headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama, sits atop Shelta Cave, a particularly important

cave because it contains several endangered species. For example, Shelta Cave is the only place in theworld where a species of crayfish, Orconectes sheltae, lives.

Thirty-five years ago, vandalism and increasing human traffic threatened the cave’s ecology. The NSSdecided on a radical experiment: it created a cave gate from an old jail cell door and installed it on the en-trance in 1968. The vandalism stopped, but the endangered gray bats that had inhabited the cave wouldnot fly through the bars. With the bats gone, their guano no longer supplied food for the other speciesthat lived in the cave, and those other species nearly disappeared. A new gate design in 1981 was sup-posed to encourage bats to return, but things did not improve. Unlike most bat species, it appears thatgray bats are particularly skittish about cave gates.

In 2002, the NSS used grant money from the U.S. Forest Service and Bat Conservation Internationalto remove the gate and instead erect a fence around the entire sinkhole entrance in its place. A genera-tion ago, Shelta Cave taught the world that bat cave gate design was critical. Now, it may teach us aboutgray bat habitat.



Protecting Caves and Their Natural Contents:Cave Restoration and Protection

The front lines of caveconservation are in the sink-holes and caves themselves:cleaning up trash, restoringbroken formations, or perhapsinstalling entrance gates tohelp regulate human visitationto particularly sensitive caves.NSS members spend countlesshours every year working onthese projects, which are toonumerous to mention. Privatecave owners, governments,and conservation organizationsall rely upon the NSS’s abilityto muster dedicated, special-ized volunteer help.

Volunteer TrainingThe NSS conducts work-

shops and meetings to teachthe specialized techniques re-quired to work in caves. A fo-rum on cleaning cave graffiti(without harming stalactitesand stalagmites) was held atthe NSS’ 2002 national conven-tion in Maine. Restorationworkshops were held at the2001 national convention inKentucky and at Karchner Cav-erns State Park, Arizona, inApril 2002.

Peppersauce Cave, ArizonaPeppersauce Cave in the

Coronado National Forest, Ari-zona, was a pristine under-ground wilderness withdozens of insect species livinginside when a popular 1948magazine published exact di-rections to the cave. As a re-sult, this undeveloped, wildcave quickly became one ofthe most heavily visited—andmost heavily vandalized—caves in the world.

Using grant money fromthe State of Arizona and the Envi-ronmental Protection Agency,the NSS is working to restorePeppersauce to the extent possi-ble. The Society has donatedover $100,000 worth of volun-

teer effort to remove graffiti andhelp decontaminate pools ofwater in the cave. The NSS isworking with the Coronado Na-tional Forest to erect an informa-tion kiosk nearby.

Designing Bat Cave GatesA cave-dwelling bat can de-

vour hundreds of mosquitoesand other insects every hour,every night of the summer. Butbats are particularly susceptibleto human disturbance whenthey are hibernating or nursingtheir young in caves. That’s onereason why the NSS has em-braced the use of gates on theentrances of certain caves toregulate human traffic.

A bat cave gate must be de-signed precisely. The openingsmust be small enough that peo-ple cannot crawl through, yetbig enough for a bat to find us-ing echolocation.

The NSS is part of a nation-wide steering group on bat cavegating that includes the federaland several state governments,Bat Conservation International,and other conservation groups.In March 2002, the group met ina technical forum in Austin,Texas. The information presentedat this meeting represents the na-tion’s best source of informationabout bat cave gating.

Huccacove Cave, ColoradoHuccacove Cave was Colo-

rado’s first commercial cave whenit opened to tourists in 1875.When vandals broke into the cavein 2002 and spray painted thewalls in a pristine passage, the Wil-liams Cañon Project of the NSSdeveloped innovative techniquesto remove the damage.

Cave Conservation GrantsThe NSS supports extraor-

dinary cave conservation pro-jects through a modest grantprogram. Among the projectssupported in the past two fiscalyears were:• a study and inventory of the

caves along the proposedroute of interstate highway I-66 in Kentucky;

• a cave gate design forum inTexas;

• a study comparing bats’ re-sponses to gates at entrancesversus gates farther insidecaves and mines;

• creation of educational mate-rials about land developmenton karst terrain;

• a study of public reaction tothe designation of under-ground wilderness areas;

• installation of an informationkiosk near a popular lavatube cave in Hawaii.



Protecting Caves and Their Natural Contents: Cooperation with the Federal Government

The NSS is not alone in re-alizing the importance of caveconservation. But as the largestcave conservation organizationin the world, the NSS is uniquein its ability to provide knowl-edge, expertise, and manpowerto the federal government andothers. Together, we have a trackrecord of successful conserva-tion, restoration, education, andadvocacy for caves and the crea-tures that live in them.

The United States govern-ment is an invaluable partner inour work. The federal govern-ment owns countless caves, andthey are the principal conserva-tor of our nation’s wildlife andenvironment. The NSS main-tains memorandums of under-standing on common areas ofconcern with the National ParkService, the U.S. Bureau of LandManagement, the U.S. ForestService, the U.S. Fish and Wild-life Service, and the TennesseeValley Authority.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management

The NSS provided guestspeakers at the BLM’s Cave Man-agement Workshop in Carlsbad,New Mexico.

National Park Service

The NSS concluded a uniquearrangement with Mammoth CaveNational Park in which the NSS re-moved “improvements” made dur-ing the 19th and early 20th centuryfrom deep within the cave. The So-ciety is also working with the ParkService to decide how to restoremicroclimates within MammothCave to encourage bats to returnto the cave.

The Society worked with Na-tional Park Service interpretiverangers in five regions to train NSSvolunteers to teach elementary andsecondary school classes aboutcaves and karst. Using materialssupplied by the National Park Serv-

ice, the teachers reached thou-sands of schoolchildren.

The NSS conducted a spe-cial cave rescue orientation semi-nar for Wind Cave National Park,South Dakota.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Along with The Nature Con-servancy and other organizations,the NSS helped the Corps in anunprecedented three week cam-paign to place bat-friendly gateson seven entrances into the Dud–Haile Cave System in Tennessee.

USDA Forest Service

The Society successfullyconcluded a years-long struggleto convince USDA Forest Serviceland managers from theDeschutes National Forest in Ore-gon to change their managementof Road 18 Caves. Among otherproblems from over use, cave ex-plorers were disturbing sensitive

bat species, and the placement ofbolts and use of hand chalk byrock climbers was threateningprehistoric rock art on the cavewalls.

In Cornonado National For-est in Arizona, NSS members areworking to reverse decades ofvandalism at Peppersauce Cave.

The NSS conducted a caveconservation seminar for LincolnNational Forest personnel in NewMexico.

U.S. Fish and WildlifeService

The Society helped the U.S.Fish & Wildlife Service, the Na-ture Conservancy, and the stateof Vermont develop a manage-ment plan for a Vermont cavethat is one of the largest bat hiber-nacula in New England.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Servicewas one of many groups withwhich the NSS formed a taskforce to study the design of batcave gates.



Protecting Caves and Their Natural Contents:Cooperation with States and Private Organizations

State and local govern-ments mirror the federal govern-ment’s concerns for caveconservation. The NSS offersthem its knowledge and expertiseto help form and implement sen-sible policies concerning caves.

The NSS also works hand-in-hand with conservation organiza-tions on a variety of caveconservation activities, both lo-cally and nationwide. We main-tain memorandums ofunderstanding with The NatureConservancy, Bat ConservationInternational, the American CaveConservation Association, andthe Karst Waters Institute.

State GovernmentsThe NSS’ Hawai’i Caves

Conservation Task Force workedwith the Hawaiian legislature tocraft a statute that tried to bal-ance conservation, science, rec-reation, and the religious beliefsof native Hawaiians.

The Tennessee Wildlife Re-sources Agency, along with theNSS, the U.S. Fish and WildlifeService, and The Nature Conser-

vancy, is developing a unique con-servation plan to preserve cave-dwelling species (for example,blind fish and insects) beforethey reach the brink of perma-nent extinction.

The Arizona Departmentof Environmental Quality andthe U.S. Environmental Protec-tion Agency are working withthe NSS to clean up Pepper-sauce Cave.

Bat Conservation International

The NSS and Bat Conserva-tion International worked to-gether to study microclimates inVermont caves which serve as bathibernacula.

Bat Conservation Interna-tional and the NSS together re-vised their public informationbrochure, Bats Need Friends.

NSS members assisted BatConservation International foun-der Merlin Tuttle in surveying theendangered gray bat populationin caves in Tennessee and Ala-bama.

The Nature ConservancyThe Nature Conservancy

and the NSS have been partnersin cave conservation for decades.The Nature Conservancy ownsmay important caves which theNSS helps manage. For example,in Tennessee, local NSS chaptershelp The Nature Conservancystudy and manage HubbardsCave and Yell Cave.

The NSS and The NatureConservancy, along with the gov-ernment of Vermont and the fed-eral government, are monitoringmicroclimates in several Vermontcaves which are important bat hi-bernacula.

Boy and Girl ScoutsNSS members lead count-

less Scouting trips into cavesevery year. These trips afford awonderful opportunity to teachyoungsters about caves and caveconservation.

The Society is testing a pilotcave training program with theBoy Scouts and Girl Scouts inUtah and Texas.



Protecting Caves and Their Natural Contents:Educating People about Caves

Public education is a vitalpart of our cave conservation pro-gram. Ignorance about caves andkarst geology often leads togroundwater pollution, to inap-propriate land use, and to irrepa-rable harm to the cave ecology.By educating the public andthose who make the decisionsabout how to use the land abovecaves, the NSS hopes to raiseawareness of these issues.

Over the past two decades,concerned groups made the pub-lic aware of how important wet-lands are. The NSS wants to dothe same for caves. The Society istrying to make land owners, insti-tutional land managers, school-children, and the public as awhole all aware that caves are notjust tourist attractions. Like wet-lands, caves are very fragile placesthat we have to protect if wewant clean water and a naturallyfunctioning ecosystem.

Public OutreachThe NSS cooperated with

the Smithsonian Museum of Natu-ral History to produce a travelingphoto exhibit titled Caves: A Frag-ile Wilderness.

The “learn about caves”page at the NSS’s award-winningWeb site, http://www.caves.org,gets thousands of hits.

The Society’s DiscoveringCaves series of brochures areavailable free of charge in bothprinted and electronic versions.Titles include Bats, Fragile Under-ground, and Lava Tubes. Down-loads of these brochures areextremely popular, sometimestopping 300 per day.

The NSS booklet, A Guide toResponsible Caving, was completelyrevised and reprinted in 2002.

Journey into AmazingCaves

When the leading producerof IMAX films wanted to make a

film about caves, the NSS helpedto make sure the public got notonly accurate information, but aconservation-oriented message aswell. The film, Journey intoAmazing Caves, premiered inMarch 2001.

The NSS’ involvement hascontinued as the film tours IMAXtheatres across the country. LocalNSS chapters answer questions,provide literature, and give dem-onstrations at showings of thefilm. Nationally, the Society con-tinues to field requests for infor-mation that the film hasgenerated from the public andnews media alike.

Project UndergroundProject Underground was

created seven years ago by theNSS members to train school-teachers and provide them class-room materials to teach aboutcaves and karst. The Society pro-vides Project Underground withtraining facilities and financialassistance. With additional sup-port from the National Park Serv-ice and the American CaveConservation Association, Pro-ject Underground continues tomake a difference in ourschools.

National Park ServiceCave Education Initiative

The NSS, Project Under-ground, and the American CaveConservation Association to-gether received a grant from theNational Park Service to train twodozen NSS volunteers in each offive regions (Virginia, Kentucky,Colorado/South Dakota, NewMexico/Arizona, and Ore-gon/Northern California). The vol-unteers then spent the2001–2002 school year teachingcave and karst programs forgrades K–12.

The NSS also helped thePark Service create an educa-

tional children’s video aboutcaves.

General Interest CaveBooks

The NSS maintains the larg-est cave bookstore in the world,and it offers the largest selectionof cave books available anywhere.The bookstore also distributesfree educational literature aboutcaves.

In 2003, the Society publish-ed its first children’s book, TheHidden World of Caves, writtenby Ronal Kerbo of the NationalPark Service.

The American GeologicalInstitute’s publication, LivingWith Karst: A Fragile Founda-tion, produced with NSS finan-cial and editing support, wonan award at the InternationalCongress of Speleology’s 2001quadrennial meeting as one ofthe best speleological publica-tions in the past four years.

Media RelationsWhether it be questions

about Osama Bin Laden’shideouts, a sinkhole that swal-lowed a building, or the discov-ery of a cave never before seenby man just outside a majorcity, the news media rely on theNational Speleological Societyfor accurate information aboutcaves.

For example, the NSShelped National Public Radiojournalist Daniel Grossman pro-duce a segment on cave biologyfor the radio program, The DNAFiles, which won a prestigiousPeabody Award for 2001. In2002, Public Broadcasting Serv-ice’s award winning science pro-gram, NOVA, aired a programtitled The Mysterious Life ofCaves that featured an NSS pro-ject to study the caves of Ta-basco, Mexico.



Protecting Caves and Their Natural Contents: Encouraging Sensible Public Policy

Where there are threats tocaves on a regional scale, the NSSworks to educate well-inten-tioned policymakers who maynot realize what a resource theyhave (quite literally) just undertheir feet. Even when they knowwhere caves have been found,policymakers often have no ideahow important and sensitivethose caves may be.

Ebay Auction PolicyThe NSS opposes the sale

of cave formations (like stalactitesand stalagmites) because the mar-ket for such formations encour-ages vandals to deface caves. In2001, the Society succeeded ingetting eBay and Yahoo to pro-hibit the auction of most cave for-mations. The Society alsodiscourages “rock shops” fromhandling similar sales.

Kentucky TriModal Transpark

NSS members are workingto improve a proposal for a 1,200-acre industrial park outside theborder of Mammoth Cave Na-tional Park in Kentucky. In addi-tion to the industrial park, plansfor the “trimodal transpark” callfor a new airport, a new highway,and a new rail line. It promises tobe an important economic en-gine for the region.

But the site is sensitive todevelopment because it is pock-marked with sinkholes whichlead to caves which are in turnconnected to underground aqui-fer beneath the longest cave inthe world, Mammoth Cave. Thereis a potential that increased run-off from the development enter-ing and polluting theunderground environment. In-creased runoff could also causesurface collapses, damaging build-ings and other infrastructure.

NSS members on both sidesof the controversy are working toassure that, if the transpark is

completed, the effect on thecaves and on the undergroundenvironment is minimized.

Cave InventoriesWhere a large development

project is proposed in a karstarea, NSS members often con-duct an inventory of the area’scaves and cave resources. With-out such an inventory, neitherthe NSS nor the decision makerscan know if underground re-sources are at risk.

Inventories often go far be-yond merely locating caves andcave passages. They typically in-clude mapping the caves and mayinclude studies of the animal andinsect populations present in thecaves, hydrologic studies to un-derstand where undergroundwater comes from and goes to,and geologic studies.

Sloans Valley Cave, Kentucky

Sloans Valley Cave is 26miles long and fantastically diverse.For example, among the rare andendangered species in the cave is alarge population of blind crayfishthat live only in caves.

The NSS formed the SloansValley Conservation Task Force toaddress several potential threatsto the cave from a nearby landfill,a second planned landfill, a waterreservoir that backfloods parts ofthe cave, highway widening over-head, and a rails-to-trails projectthat will funnel thousands of peo-ple past several entrances.

The Task Force is develop-ing a 3-D GIS model of the caveto model water levels, the mixingof cave streams with reservoirwater, siltation, landfill runoffroutes through the cave, and air-flow patterns.

Geo-Caches in CavesGeo-caching is a relatively

new and immensely popular rec-

reational activity similar to orien-teering. People get the coordi-nates of a cache hiddensomewhere in the great outdoorsfrom the Internet and then use aGPS receiver to find the cache.

The NSS is concernedabout the publication of geo-cache locations at cave entrances.Often, the only protection a par-ticularly fragile cave might havefrom human visitors is the factthat its location is unpublished.Increased traffic to caves may alsodamage delicate landowner rela-tions built up through decades oftrust. Some geo-cachers may alsobe encouraged to enter caveswithout proper training or equip-ment. The NSS is developing apolicy that properly addressesthese issues.



Protecting Caves and Their Natural Contents: Aid to Cave Owners

Owning a cave brings withit the extra responsibility of car-ing for the underground re-sources (like clean water, likemosquito-eating bats, or like agreat place to enjoy exploring).

Cave owners have to dealwith competing pressures: pres-sure to develop the surface andpotentially harm the cave, pres-sure to let spelunkers visit thecave, or pressure to avoid theproblem by simply bulldozing theentrance.

The NSS tries to make it eas-ier for cave owners—private indi-viduals, government agencies,and conservation organizations—to do the right thing.

Landowner Defense FundSeveral years ago, a gener-

ous Tennessee landowner with along history of letting the publicexplore her cave was sued whena boy (not an NSS member) fellinside her cave and died. What be-gan as a private collection to helpoffset the landowner’s legal bills

has blossomed into the NSS’ land-owner defense fund. The fund isdesigned to encourage land-owners to allow the public tovisit their caves.

Many states have passedlandowner liability statutes thatsay landowners should not nor-mally be liable for injuries thathunters, hikers, and cave explor-ers suffer on the landowner’sproperty. The lawsuit against theTennessee landowner was dis-missed because of one of theselaws.

Helping Make Cave Acquisitions Possible

The NSS makes modestgrants for conservation organiza-tions to acquire important caves.In these two fiscal years, the Soci-ety supported the NortheasternCave Conservancy’s purchase of acave which is hydrologically con-nected to the Society’s ownMcFails Cave Nature Preserve inNew York, and the purchase bythe West Virginia Cave Conser-

vancy of a critical entrance to a25-mile-long cave which is listedas one of the world’s top ten en-dangered karst ecosystems by theKarst Waters Institute.

Cave Management Assistance

The NSS’ Central OregonCaves Task Force has signed anagreement to help the DeschutesNational Forest help managecaves in the Bend–Fort RockRanger District. The task forcehas previously helped shape theU.S.D.A. Forest Service’s conserva-tion policies toward several sig-nificant caves in Oregon.

The Society held a sympo-sium on cave management fornonprofit organizations at its na-tional convention in Maine in2002.

The NSS’ Klamath Moun-tains Conservation Task Forceworked with the Klamath Na-tional Forest in Oregon to de-velop a management plan forMarble Mountain Cave.

Vandalism Deterrence Reward

The Society maintains astanding offer of a reward, up to$1,000, for information leadingto the conviction of anyone forvandalizing a cave. Although noclaims were paid in these two fis-cal years, several claims are cur-rently under investigation.

Cave Management Symposia

To help governments andother organizations that owncaves, the Society brings to-gether the nation’s experts inthe field to discuss common is-sues. In addition to symposia atthe NSS annual national conven-tion, the NSS co-sponsored the15th biennial National CaveManagement Symposium in Ari-zona in 2001.



Protecting Caves and Their Natural Contents: Cave Ownership and Management

The NSS appreciates thepressures on cave owners be-cause the NSS owns caves, too.

NSS Nature PreservesThe NSS owns or manages

twelve extraordinary nature pre-serves throughout the country. Al-though none is developed as ashow cave, which caters to tour-ists, each is important for anotherreason—geologically, biologi-cally, paleontologically, histori-cally, or recreationally.

For example, the Donald R.Russell Nature Preserve in Okla-homa was donated to the NSS tohelp preserve endangered batspecies. One cave at the preserveis home to as much as a third ofthe known population of onesuch species of bat. Recently, theSam Noble Museum of NaturalHistory helped study rare fossilsof a pleistocene tapir discoveredat the preserve.

The Kingston SaltpeterCave Nature Preserve in Georgiais managed by the NSS for the Fel-burn Foundation. In the ice ages,animals lived there. (The Univer-sity of Tennessee houses thecave’s fossil collection.) Duringthe Civil War, the cave was minedfor Saltpeter. During the GreatDepression, the cave was open totourists. Today, the cave is the fo-cal point of a unique nature pre-serve, and with help from the

Weinman Museum, the NSSmakes it available as a geologicalclassroom for Georgia’s schoolteachers.

The Society’s Newest Preserves

During these two fiscal years,the Society added two new naturepreserves. Wells Cave Nature Pre-serve, Kentucky, has been a popu-lar recreational cave but is alsogeologically and biologically signifi-cant. It was generously donated tothe Society by Mr. James Helm-bold. The second new preserve,Great Expectations Cave in Wyo-ming, is described in the sidebar.

The Society’s Other Preserves

The other NSS Nature Pre-serves are:• Mill Creek Sink, Florida• Barton Hill, New York• Shelta Cave, Alabama• John Guilday Caves, West Vir-

ginia• McFails Cave, New York• Schoharie Cave, New York• Tytoona Cave, Pennsylvania• Warren Cave, Florida

Cave ConservanciesThe Society charters local

cave conservancies throughoutthe nation. These conservancies

own or manage caves for conser-vation purposes:• Appalachian Cave Conservancy

(Tennessee, Virginia)• Butler Cave Conservation

Society (Virginia)• Carroll Cave Conservancy

(Missouri)• Great Saltpetre Cave

Preserve (Kentucky)• Cave Conservancy of Hawaii• Karst Conservancy of Illinois• Indiana Karst Conservancy• Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy

(Pennsylvania, West Virginia)• New Jersey Cave Conservancy• Northeastern Cave

Conservancy (New York)• Pennsylvania Cave Conservancy• Texas Cave Conservancy• Texas Cave Management

Association• West Virginia Cave

ConservancyIn addition, the following

cave conservancies are institu-tional members of the NSS:• Cave Conservancy of the

Virginias (Virginia, West Virginia)

• Michigan Karst Conservancy• Missouri Cave Conservancy• Southeastern Cave Conser-

vancy (Alabama, Florida, Geor-gia, Kentucky, Tennessee, WestVirginia)

Cave Ownership and Management: Great Expectations Cave Nature Preserve, Wyoming

The Society acquired Great Expectations Cave in Wyoming by purchase when it became availableearly in 2003. “Great X” is over 8 miles long and is the third-deepest limestone cave in the United States.It contains an underground room nearly half a mile long and over 100 feet high. The property bordersfederal land on three sides, including the Bighorn National Forest.

This extraordinary cave and the surrounding area exhibit one of the finest examples of alpine karstin the nation. The upper entrance is at an elevation of 8,500 feet in the Big Horn Mountains. TrapperCreek sinks into the entrance and emerges again six miles down Trapper Canyon at the Great Exit, whichis on land owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Cavers making the trip underground musttravel through the 1,500-foot-long “Grim Crawl of Death.”



Studying Caves and Speleology

Promoting Speleological Research:Working with the National Cave and Karst Research Institute

Congress created the National Cave and Karst Research Insti-tute in 1998. Like similar institutions in other nations, and like theNSS, the Institute is chartered to coordinate and facilitate the sci-ence of speleology, promote speleological education, encouragecave and karst conservation, promote environmentally-sound landmanagement, and serve as a repository of information about caves.The Institute is funded by federal government appropriations on amatching basis with other contributions.

The Institute appointed its first permanent director, noted spe-leologist Dr. Louise Hose, in 2002. Dr. Hose is an NSS member andformerly served as a director of the Society. Immediately before herappointment, Dr. Hose was the editor-in-chief of the Society’s scien-tific journal, the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies.

Although the National Cave and Karst Research Institute is stillin a ramp-up phase, the Institute and the NSS are already workingclosely together. Institute helped fund the publication of the NSSbook, Cave Conservation and Restoration. The NSS is helpingauthor a “white paper” to provide an intellectual framework to aimthe Institute toward obtaining its required matching funds from thespeleological community. The NSS and the Institute are negotiatingfor the potential loan of certain NSS library materials to the Instituteheadquarters in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Caves remain one of thelast frontiers on earth to forman to explore and study. NSSmembers almost routinely dis-cover places where humanshave never set foot before, evenjust a few hours drive from thiscountry’s major metropolitan ar-eas. Part of the NSS’ work is tocatalog and inventory caves,which helps landowners makeintelligent land use decisions.

The scientific study ofcaves and karst, called speleol-ogy, combines the expertise ofmany different disciplines: biol-ogy, geology, hydrology, paleon-tology, and archeology to name afew. Speleology promises notjust academic knowledge, butmore direct benefits like curesfor human disease and cleanerdrinking water. The NSS sup-ports speleological researchthrough grants and publications,and the NSS is closely involvedwith the federal government’snew National Cave and Karst Re-search Institute.



Studying Caves and Speleology: Promoting Speleological Research

Although not a research in-stitution itself, the NSS is keenlyinterested in promoting the studyof speleology by academics andother qualified researchers. (NSS-sponsored cave research directedtoward conservation is describedelsewhere in this report.)

Journal of Cave and KarstStudies

The NSS publishes its peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary scien-tific journal, the Journal of Caveand Karst Studies, three times an-nually. With an advisory board ofworld-renown speleologists, theJournal is the premier Englishlanguage publication concerningcave science. The Journal is in-dexed in the Thompson ISI Sci-ence Citation Index Expandeddatabase, making it an importanttool to facilitate cave research.

To encourage an awarenessand appreciation for speleologi-cal research among cavers out-side academia, the NSSdistributes the Journal to all regu-lar members of the Society.

In April 2002, the Journalpublished a special issue titledCave and Karst GIS describingthe use of geographic informa-tion systems to model caves andkarst regions. In April 2003, theJournal published papers fromthe Conference on Lava Tubesand Ground Water Pollution heldin Hilo, Hawai’i, in 2000.

NSS Research GrantsThe NSS makes research

grants in the natural sciences, so-cial sciences, and humanities.The Society’s conservation grantprogram also sponsors researchspecifically related to cave conser-vation. Research grants in thesetwo fiscal years included:• a comparison of hydrology of

karst and non-karst basins inKentucky;

• cave sedimentation;• cave use in Malaysia;• caves in the Grand Canyon;• mist-netting cave bats in Panama;• ecology of a cave in Grand Can-

yon National Park;• atmospheric CO2 and the land-

scape of the South China karst;• sulfur-based ecosystems in

caves;• micromammal faunas in the

northern Urals, Russia;• biologic effects on mineral for-

mation in sulphidic caves;• ancient Maya cave use; and• the West-central Florida aquifer.

NSS FellowshipsThe Society awards the

Ralph W. Stone Research Granteach year to a graduate studentstudying cave or karst science.

For academic year 2001-2002, the fellow was Jean Krejcaof the University of Texas, Austin,for her proposal, “Genetic Relat-edness of Stygobites as a Tool forDetermining Aquifer Connected-ness.” For 2002–2003, the fellowwas Darlene Anthony of PurdueUniversity for her proposal, “LateTertiary Development and Quater-nary Abandonment of LargeCaves Along the Western Cumber-land Escarpment, Tennessee andKentucky, in Response to Re-gional River Entrenchment AcrossUnglaciated Appalachian Pla-teaus.”

Speleological Work in theArts and Humanities

Although the natural sci-ences dominate Speleology, theNSS also supports work in thearts and humanities.

For example, the AmericanSpelean History Association is anofficial section of the Society andpublishes the Journal of SpeleanHistory. In June, 2001, the Jour-nal published a special issue onthe life and death of Floyd Col-

lins, who died in a cave entrap-ment media spectacle in 1925,and whom many consider thegreatest cave explorer who everlived.

The Society has establisheda Spelean Arts and Letters Awardto recognize excellence in cave-re-lated artistic expression, manage-ment, or criticism.

Promoting Spe-leological Research:Dating Cave Sediments

Darlene Anthony is aPhD candidate at Purdue Uni-versity. Her research was par-tially sponsored by an NSSfellowship in the 2002–2003academic year.

Ms. Anthony is investigat-ing the rates at which hillsideserode and rivers become en-trenched in the Ohio River Val-ley over the past two millionyears. Quartz-containing sedi-ments are left in some cavepassages by undergroundstreams. Later, erosion may di-vert the stream, leaving thecave passages “high and dry”and leaving these sedimentsundisturbed over geologictime scales. Because they areshielded from cosmic radia-tion, certain isotopes of alumi-num and beryllium in thesediments radioactively decayat different rates. The differen-tial rate of decay allows Ms.Anthony to determine whenthe sediment was deposited,which is evidence of the eleva-tion of surface rivers at thattime. This kind of researchmay eventually allow scientiststo more accurately modellandscape erosion or datecave passages, both of whichmay have profound implica-tions.



Studying Caves and Speleology: Exploration and Documentation of Caves

Speleology remains one ofthe few sciences where laymenroutinely add to mankind’s knowl-edge of the world. With only a lit-tle training, amateur cavers—whomake up the bulk of the NSS’smembership—regularly discoverand map new caves, discover newcave passages in known caves,and document the animal life andcontents of caves around the na-tion. These projects are too nu-merous to mention, but withoutthis important work, the profes-sional academics (biologists, ge-ologists, hydrologists,paleontologists, and the like)would be unable to do their work.

NSS Exploration GrantsThe NSS makes modest

grants for cave exploration, bothin the United States (from theSara Corrie Memorial Fund) andabroad (including grants to studyMexican caves from the formerJoe Ivy Fund). During the pasttwo fiscal years, the Societyawarded grants for:• purchase of cave survey gear

for use by a Tennessee cavesurvey group;

• locating and documentingcaves in the Cascade Moun-tains of Washington State;

• an expedition to India;• exploring Coldwater Cave, the

longest cave in Iowa;• the inventory of caves along a

proposed interstate highwayroute in Kentucky;

• exploration of halite caves innorthern Chile;

• exploration of caves in west-ern Mexico and Oaxaca, Mex-ico; and

• exploration of anoxic caves inFlorida.

Fighting TerrorismWhen Osama Bin Laden

was rumored to be hiding incaves in Afghanistan, the NSS li-brary provided the U.S. militarywith information about caves in

that country. (In fact, most ofthose “caves” turned out to beman-made tunnels.)

Underwater Cave Exploration

The NSS Cave Diving Sec-tion is the largest cave diving or-ganization in the U.S. Thesehighly trained and safety con-scious experts expand our knowl-edge of Florida spings, highaltitude sumps in the West, seacaves along both oceans and thegreat lakes, and the cold, murkysumps deep inside the caves ofthe Northeast.

NSS Cave ProjectsLarge, long-term cave explo-

ration and documentation pro-jects may be granted status as anofficial NSS project. They include:• studying Lost River Cave, Indi-

ana;• paleontological studies of Vir-

ginia caves;• studying caves along the can-

yon of Rio La Venta, Chiapas,Mexico;

• mapping caves on Mona Is-land, Puerto Rico;

• monitoring and documentingcaves formed in the MountRainier glacier by volcanicsteam vents;

• exploring cave sumps usingspecialized diving techniquesin the northeast U.S.;

• studying caves in Tabasco,Mexico;

• exploring gypsum caves in thesouthwest U.S.;

• exploring and surveying ofsome of the deepest caves inthe hemisphere in Oaxaca,Mexico, which are approach-ing a mile in depth;

• surveying the Roppel portionof Mammoth Cave, Kentucky;

• studying Scott Hollow Cave,West Virginia; and

• indexing published cave pas-sage descriptions into a singledatabase.

Williams Cañon, ColoradoThe NSS’s Williams Cañon

Project in Colorado published abook, Caves of Williams Cañon,in 2002. Conservation projects bythe group included repairing van-dalism to Huccacove Cave and re-storing areas of the commercialCave of the Winds. The groupalso repaired the Williams Can-yon Road which was destroyed byflooding in 1999.

NSS Cave SurveysNSS Cave surveys coordi-

nate the systematic explorationand inventory of caves over largegeographic areas. Surveys are ac-tive in Alabama, Colorado, Geor-gia, Hawai’i, Idaho, Indiana,western Kentucky, Missouri, Ten-nessee, Texas, Virginia, and WestVirginia. The NSS has docu-mented over 25,000 caves in theUnited States.

Aerial Survey of Idaho Caves

When a fire cleared over-growth on a swath of Idaho landcontrolled by the Bureau of LandManagement, a unique opportu-nity arose to look for caves whichwere nearly impossible to findotherwise. Bat Conservation Inter-national funded an aerial surveyof the area by members of theNSS’s Idaho Cave Survey. Poten-tial lava tube cave entrances werelocated using GPS.

The NSS volunteers then re-turned on foot and found 43 newcaves. Each was surveyed andphotographed. Archaeological, pa-leontological, and biological re-sources were inventoried. Specialattention was paid for evidenceof a dwindling species of batwhich uses the area. In all, overfive miles of cave passage werefound.



Exploration and Documentation of Caves: Making Cave MapsFictional spelunkers leave

bread crumbs or unroll balls ofstring to avoid getting lost. Inreal life, cavers use maps to navi-gate through larger caves. In theUnited States, NSS membersmake nearly all of those maps.

No satellite or high-techequipment can survey a cave;surveyors must manually meas-

ure every passage. This special-ized skill is valuable because thework is often tedious and un-comfortable. Large caves regu-larly take decades to surveycompletely.

Cave maps have other veryimportant uses. They documentthe location of cave passagesrelative to the surface. Hydrolo-

gists use them to track the flowof water underground. Geolo-gists use them to help under-stand both the formation ofcaves and the geology of the sur-rounding rock. Cavers use themto select the most likely placesto search for new passages. If arescue is ever required, a goodcave map may save a life.



Promoting Caver Safety and FellowshipAlthough the NSS is largely

a membership organization (our12,000 members make us the larg-est cave-related organization inthe world), we provide importantcave-related services, resources,and information for both mem-bers and non-members alike.

The NSS provides trainingfor cave rescue services through-

out the nation through its Na-tional Cave Rescue Commission.

The Society operates one ofthe largest cave-related book-stores in the world. We publish amonthly magazine, the NSS News.

Annual NSS conventionsprovide a wealth of opportunitiesfor learning about and visitingcaves. The Society maintains what

may be the world’s largest cave li-brary, along with a museum andarchives of American cave explora-tion. The NSS also supports jointactivities with foreign caving or-ganizations.

Cave Rescue: Bowden Cave, West VirginiaThe main entrance to Bowden Cave, West Virginia, is visible from the highway. On Saturday morn-

ing, July 28, 2001, two adult youth leaders and five boys left a note on their vehicle saying they would bepoking around inside the cave and exiting from another entrance up the hollow. No one had checked theweather forecast.

Once inside, the group slowly headed up a lazy underground stream. Occasionally, the ceiling low-ered and they had to crawl. Meanwhile, it started raining outside. They left the stream for a mazy sectionof the cave that they thought would lead up to the other entrance, but they could not find the way out.Eventually, they turned back to exit from the main entrance. But by then, extremely heavy rains outsidehad turned the lazy stream into a torrent, and in one of those crawlways, the stream had risen to withinjust 3 or 4 inches of the ceiling. Now they couldn’t get back out the main entrance, and they couldn’t findthe other entrance. They were trapped.

On Sunday morning, the owner of the campground where the group was staying noticed theyhadn’t returned. He knew they had gone off caving somewhere, so he called the authorities. Eventually,the search was expanded to include the fire department near Bowden Cave, and they found the group’svehicle and the note. The fire department contacted a local coordinator for the National Cave RescueCommission, and trained volunteers (mostly NSS members) began to arrive by Sunday evening. Thegroup had already been underground for over 30 hours.

One team of rescuers went in the main entrance and fought their way up the raging river. They had tostop when they found the crawlway filled with water nearly to the ceiling. Meanwhile, a second rescue teamhiked up the hollow and entered the cave from the other entrance. This team found the stranded group, whohad moved to higher ground, removed most of their wet clothing, and used space blankets to try to keepwarm while awaiting either rescue or for the water to recede. With the rescuers’ help, they were able to exitthe cave from the other entrance under their own power. One boy was hospitalized with hypothermia.



Promoting Caver Safety and Fellowship:Cave Rescue

Visiting caves is safe fortrained cavers, but nearly everweek, an unlucky or inexperi-enced spelunker somewhere inthe United States requires somesort of help to exit a cave.

The NSS’ National Cave Res-cue Commission helps fill thisneed. The Commission maintainsa national curriculum for cave res-cue training, trains volunteer res-cuers, maintains communicationswith local, state, and federal res-cue squads and agencies, andmaintains strategically locatedcaches of specialized equipmentdesigned for cave rescues. TheNational Cave Rescue Commis-sion does not provide rescue serv-ices per se; that is done by thethousands of individual volun-teers (mostly NSS members) whoserve in local rescue squads orcave rescue groups.

Most fire departments andrescue squads have no cave res-cue experience—be it finding alost group somewhere in atwenty-mile-long cave, keepingan injured caver warm until morehelp arrives, or helping move a lit-ter through a tight crawlway. Na-tional Cave Rescue Commissiontrained rescuers are available na-tionwide to help local rescuersconduct underground search andrescue.

On CallThe NSS published the

world’s foremost treatise on caverescue, titled On Call, at the endof 2001.

Cave Rescue TrainingThe National Cave Rescue

Commission’s cave rescue train-ing curriculum includes dozensof weekend orientation seminarsorganized regionally and week-long “boot camps” for more in-depth training. To date, over3,000 cavers have been trained bythe Commission. Topics includepatient care and stabilization inthe underground environment,evacuation techniques for differ-ent types of cave passages, roperescue techniques, undergroundcommunications, and incidentmanagement. The 2001 nationalboot camp was held in West Vir-ginia, and the 2002 national bootcamp was held in upstate NewYork.

The National Cave RescueCommission conducted specialcave rescue seminars for WindCave National Park in South Da-kota and for local rescue and lawenforcement personnel near aparticularly popular and danger-ous ice cave in the Teton Moun-

tains of Wyoming. The Commis-sion also trained cave rescueteams in Cuba, Costa Rica, and Ar-gentina.

American Caving AccidentsThe Society biennially pub-

lishes a compilation of reportedcave accidents in the UnitedStates, American Cave Accidents.The publication is intended as alearning tool for novice and expe-rienced cavers alike.

International TechnicalRescue Symposium

The NCRC is an annual co-sponsor of the International Tech-nical Rescue Symposium, whichwas held in Denver in November2002 and in Salt Lake City in Oc-tober–November 2003.

Underwater Cave RescueThe NSS Cave Diving Sec-

tion has trained more than 500cave diving rescue and recoveryspecialists. The Cave Diving Sec-tion cooperates with NationalCave Rescue Commission, the Na-tional Crime Information Center,the National Association forSearch and Rescue, and even for-eign governments to make under-water cave specialists available 24hours a day.

The NSS Cave Diving Sec-tion educates open water diversabout the extreme dangers ofcave diving, to prevent tragediesin submerged cave passages. Incooperation with the federal gov-ernment, state and local govern-ments, and other divingorganizations, the Cave DivingSection has developed a success-ful “no light” rule for open waterdivers to discourage them fromentering into underwater caves.The Cave Diving Section also in-stalls safety and warning signs atsome better known underwatercaves in the U.S., Mexico, and theCaribbean.



Promoting Caver Safety and Fellowship: Member and Non-Member ServicesMembership Services

Each month, members re-ceive our magazine, the NSSNews. The News is full of fea-tures on cave exploration, con-servation, history, and science.Regular columns cover cavingtechnique and safety, basic prin-ciples of cave science, book re-views, and interviews. Eachspring, the News publishes an is-sue devoted solely to cave con-servation.

Members also receive theSociety’s peer-reviewed scientificjournal, the Journal of Cave andKarst Science, an annual Mem-ber’s Manual, and AmericanCave Accidents, which bringshome a safety message.

The Society holds a conven-tion annually in different loca-tions throughout the nation. (In2001 it was in Maine, in 2002 inKentucky.) The convention at-tracts between 1,000 and 1,800 at-tendees. The weeklong meetingsinclude technical and scientificsessions, presentations, work-shops, seminars, field trips, com-petitions, and salons that coverall areas of the speleological artsand sciences. For young people,the Junior Speleological Societyarranges special activities duringthe convention, including cavingtrips and educational programs.

Perhaps the greatest mem-bership benefit is the camarade-rie with other cavers. The NSShas over 200 local chapters,

called grottos, across the nationwhich plan regular field trips andconservation projects. In addi-tion, NSS sections are organizedaround common cave-related in-terests that cut across geographicboundaries, such as vertical ordigging techniques, cave survey-ing and cartography, cave history,cave conservation, cave manage-ment, underground photogra-phy, cave diving, cave geologyand geography, and more.

Membership in the Society isopen to anyone, or any organization,who shares our goals. Minors and stu-dents can join at a reduced rate. Visithttp://www.caves.org to join.

The NSS Bookstore

The Society operates one ofthe largest cave bookstores in theworld for both members and non-members. Among the most popu-lar titles is On Rope, the NSS’ bestselling book on rope climbingand rappelling techniques.

www.caves.org

The NSS’ award winningWeb site, http://www.caves.org,offers information about cavesand about the Society, a lively dis-cussion board where anyone canask questions, and free down-loads of some of the NSS’ mostpopular publications. The site isa reference resource for membersand non-members alike.

International Cooperation

The NSS provided a chal-lenge grant to create an exchangeprogram with the Polish Moun-taineering Association. The Soci-ety also supports theUkrainian–American Youth CaverExchange Foundation and theChina–USA Caves Project’s jointexploration of caves in GuizhouProvince. The NSS’ Caves of CubaProject develops relationships be-tween cavers through explorationof Cuban caves.



Promoting Caver Safety and Fellowship:NSS Awards

The NSS awards a numberof different honors to recognizeextraordinary service to the Soci-ety or to speleology. The follow-ing awards were conferred infiscal years 2001–2002 and 2002–2003, respectively:

Honorary MemberDr. Paul WilliamsDr. Trevor Shaw

William J. StephensonOutstanding ServiceAward

Dave JagnowRobert B. (Bob) Hoke

Lew Bicking Award(excellence in cave exploration, mapping,and publication)

Phil LucasDavid L. Black

Conservation AwardJim NielandKriste Lindberg

Science AwardJames ReddellCarol Hill

Spelean Arts and LettersTom ReaColin Gatland

Certificate of MeritScott FeeVPI GrottoRandall BlackwoodEric and Melissa HendricksonJim NepstadPaul and Lee Stevens

Peter M. HauerSpelean History Award

Robert H. ThompsonJohn C. Taylor

Ralph W. Stone ResearchGrant(graduate student fellowship)

Jean KrejcaDarlene Anthony

James G. Mitchell Award(best scientific paper byan NSS member underage 25)

(no award in 2001–2002)T.J. Friend

Fellows of the Society(long-term dedication tothe goals of the Society)

Stan AllsonBarbe BarkerJohn BentonSam BonoJeff BrayJohn Lamar ColeAl CollierJoe Douglas

Gary FieldenStephen FlemingDick GarnickBill GreenwaldRoger HaleyAndy HarrisDave HaunJill HeinerthPaul HeinerthAl HughesWerner JudJean KrejcaDave LesterBill MeyerBarbara MossTom MossAndy NiekampRandy PaylorTom PollockMerrilee ProffittJulie SchenckCyndie WalackTim WhiteJim WilsonDale AcklinBill BoehleGordon BraceTerry ClarkMike DorePat DoreTom DotterGeorge JaeggersLarry KingDevin KoutsKriste LindbergHarold LovePaul MeyerRichard “Fig” NewtonJim OlsenSteve OrmeroidDoug PerkinsBrian RoebuckLynn RoebuckJoe Skipworth

National CavesAssociationShow Cave Award(best paper on a showcave)

Rick Fowler, Chris Groves,and Shivendra Sahi(no award in 2002–2003)



NSS Financial ReportsNSS Financial Reports:Statement of Financial Position April 30, 2003 (audited1)

Assets Liabilities and Net AssetsCurrent Assets Current Liabilities

Cash and cash equivalents $ 244,320 Accounts payable $ 8,367

Accounts Receivable 9,226 Accrued expenses 1,319

Inventory 188,705 Advances 1,191

Prepaid Expenses 35,688 Deferred income 22,418

Total Current Assets $ 477,939 Current portion of note payable 25,968

Total current liabilities $ 59,263

Property and Equipment

Buildings 665,936 Long-Term Liabilities

Land improvements 34,850 Mortgage note payable 145,062

Equipment 4,598

Less allowance for depreciation (66,497) Total Liabilities 204,325

Total property and equipment 638,887

Net Assets

Other Assets Unrestricted net assetts

Securities held for investment 1,968,184 Undesignated 388,993

Designated for a purpose 276,515

Temporarily Restricted 2,215,117

Permanently restricted 0

2,880,685

Total Assets $3,085,010 Total Liabilities and Net Assets $3,085,010

1. The notes to this statement and the independent auditor’s report are an integral part of the audited financial statements. The complete independent auditor’s report with accompanying notes is on fileat the NSS office.

Picture CreditsFront Cover Ed McCarthy CarrotsPage 2 Ed McCarthy GhostPage 4 Paul Meyer Shelta fence under constructionPage 5 Colin Gatland Final EmergencePage 6 Jim Loftin Pea PiePage 7 Dave Bunnell Rust StainsPage 9 Jeff Bushman Dropping Stevens GapPage 10 Jonathan Griffith Covered Veil SkylightPage 12 left Peter & Ann Bosted The Splash ZonePage 12 right Alan Kressler The Green PoolPage 16 Jim Loftin Crack in the CeilingPage 17 Ed McCarthy UpPage 18 Ed McCarthy In the BendPage 19 Alan Cressler Recording the PastBack Cover Jim Loftin Thoughts and Reflections

All photos except page 4 are award winners from the 2002 Photo Salon.



NSS Financial Reports:Statement of Activities April 30, 2003 (audited1)

UnrestrictedTemporarily

RestrictedPermanently

RestrictedTotal of

All Funds

Public Support and Revenue

Public Support

Membership dues $284,864 $ 34,833 $ 0 $ 319,697

Donations 9,624 102,298 0 111,922

Grant income 894 3,575 0 4,469

Fund raising 4,374 0 0 4,374

Total public support 299,756 140,706 0 440,462

Revenues

Advertising revenue 21,281 0 0 21,281

Bookstore sales 103,574 0 0 103,574

Convention revenue 141,743 6,592 0 148,335

Cave restoration revenue 0 0 0 0

Cave and karst education revenue 0 0 0 0

Cave rescue training fees and income 34,751 0 0 34,751

Fine arts salon income 10 0 0 10

Subscriptions and postal surcharges 4,990 0 0 4,990

Bookstore shipping fees 9,924 0 0 9,924

Miscellaneous 2,962 0 0 2,962

Total revenues 319,235 6,592 0 325,827

Total Public Support and Revenues 618,991 147,298 0 1,532,578

Expenditures

Program Services 611,827 17,910 0 629,737

Support Services

General and administrative 66,913 0 0 66,913

Fundraising 1,859 0 0 1,859

Total Expenditures 680,559 17,910 0 698,509

Excess (Deficit) of Revenue over Expendituresbefore Other Income (Expenses) (61,608) 129,388 0 67,780

Other Income (Expenses)

Interest expense 0 (2,030) 0 (2,030)

Interest and investment earnings (837) 44,536 0 43,699

Total Other Income (Expenses) (837) 42,506 0 41,699

Change in Net Assets (62,455) 171,894 0 109,449

Net Assets, Beginning 614,667 2,273,981 0 2,888,648

Receipt of restricted assets from donors 0 0 0 0

Investment earnings on restricted assets 0 (117,412) 0 (117,412)

Suplemental Information

Transfer of unrestricted assets to restricted (7,570) 7,570 0 0

Transfer of restricted assets to unrestricted 86,006 (86,006) 0 0

Net Assets, Ending $ 630,658 $ 2,250,028 $ 0 $ 2,880,685




NSS Financial Reports:Statement of Cash Flows Fiscal Year 2002–2003 (audited1)

Cash Flows from Operating Activities

Reconciliation of Increase in Net Assets to Net Cash Provided (Used) by Operating Activities

Increase in net assets $ 109,499

Adjustment to Reconcile Net Income to Net Cash Provided (Used) by Operating Activities

Depreciation 4,077

Realized (gains) losses on investments 2,426

Unrealized (gains) losses on nvestments (119,838)

(Increase) decrease in assets

Accounts receivable (3,470)

Advances 4,438

Inventory (312)

Prepaid expenses (13,002)

Increase (decreasse) in liabilities

Accounts payable 3,642

Accrued expenses (2,893)

Deferred income (23,877)

Miscellaneous (350)

Net Cash Provided (Used) by Operating Activities $ (39,710)

Cash Flows from Investing Activities

Purchase of fixed assets, net (238,752)

Purchase and redemption of securities, net 54,014

Net cash Provided (Used) from investing activities (184,738)

Cash Flows from Financing Actifities

Proceeds from mortgage note payable 195,000

Mortgage principal payments (23,970)

Receipt of restricted assets from donors 0

Net Cash Provided (Used) by Financing Activities 171,030

Net Increase (Decrease) in Cash and Cash Equivalents (53,418)

Cash and Cash Equivalents at Beginning of Year 297,738

Cash and Cash Equivalents at End of Year $ 244,320

Supplemental Information

Interest paid on mortgage 2,030




NSS Personnel (as of March 2004)

NSS Personnel: DirectorsHazel Barton, Highland, KentuckyLinda Baker Divine, Potomac, MarylandDavid Jagnow, Albuquerque, New MexicoCheryl Jones, McLean, VirginiaBill Klimack, West Point, New YorkBill Liebman, Cass, West Virginia

Doug Medville, Reston, VirginiaMartha Hendrix Mills, Birmingham, AlabamaGary Moss, Falls Church, VirginiaPhilip Moss, Protem, MissouriDave Taylor, Clarksville, ArizonaBill Tozer, Pendleton, Indiana

NSS Personnel: OfficersPresident – Scott Fee, Birmingham, Alabama

Executive Vice President – Don Paquette, Martinsville, IndianaAdministrative Vice President – Thomas Lera, Falls Church, Virginia

Operations Vice President – Colin Gatland, Vandalia, OhioSecretary-Treasurer – Paul Stevens, Ashburn, Virginia

NSS Personnel: EmployeesOperations Manager – Stephanie Searles, Huntsville, AlabamaOffice Secretary – Avis Van Swearingen, Huntsville, Alabama

Office Assistant – Bill Torode, Huntsville, AlabamaBookstore Assistant – Micca Armstrong , Huntsville, Alabama

NSS DonorsAlmost all NSS programs are staffed by un-

paid volunteers who together donate countlessthousands of hours every year benefiting caves.Donations make this work possible, and every dol-lar is multiplied many times over by our dedicatedvolunteers. The National Speleological Society,Inc. is a non-profit corporation and is tax exempt

under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal RevenueCode. Contributions to the Society are deductibleto the full extent allowed by law.

The Society’s “Stash Your Cash” program al-lows small monthly credit card gifts that add tre-mendously to what we can accomplish. Acomplete list of our donors is published annually.

NSS Donors: The Stephenson GroupThe Stephenson Group consists of members

of the Society who have made lifetime gifts total-ing $10,000 (*), have designated the Society to re-ceive $10,000 or more at their death, or have

given the Society a 25% interest in a charitabletrust. The Stephenson Group (as of March 2004)includes:

Richard Blenz*Don CournoyerRobert E. Danielson*Scott FeeShari J. ForsythePreston L. ForsytheJeanne Gurnee*Mr. Russ Gurnee*William Halliday*

David W. HughesCheryl KayesTed KayesMichael R. KistlerLynn G. KleinaThomas G. LeraJohn E. PearsonDoug SorokaJack Stellmack

Merle Stephenson*Lee StevensPaul J. StevensEugene Vehslage*Dogwood City Grotto*Richmond Area Speleological Society*



Documents

National Speleological Society, Inc. What is the NSS?caves.org/brochure/nss_biennial_report.pdfcontributions from our members. Thanks to a generous donation, we also ac-quired Wells