Introduction to cave inventory
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Revision as of 17:45, 5 July 2010
A cave inventory is a description of resources associated with a cave or caves. They are of benefit to the land manager in deciding how best to protect, study and manage the caves.
There are two basic flavors of cave inventories: a general cave inventory and a detailed resource inventory.
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General cave inventory
A general cave inventory is usually performed on behalf of a land manager to describe the general features of the caves being managed. There is usually one inventory description for each cave with descriptions of the specific resources to be found therein.
A general cave inventory would probably list for each cave information such as: location including GPS coordinates, step logs or whatever location information is available; the general form of the cave such as solutional, erosional, lava tube, etc.; the significant flora and fauna within the cave such as bat hibernacula or mammal dens, or rare species, etc.; significant speleological resources such as large gypsum formations or tall stalagtites, boxwork, rimstone, aragonite, etc.; the hydrological nature of the cave; the general pattern and size of the cave such as multilevel maze, angular network, branchwork, etc.; any significant paleontological resources; anthropogenic resources such as skeletons, bones, etc.; historic artifacts and historic graffiti markings such as signatures; any historic uses of the cave and anything that would make the cave significant.
A general cave inventory provides a quick view of the significant nature of a cave and and overview of the significance of an area populated with caves.
A general cave inventory should list the presence or absense of a gate or other protections and what type of lock (if any) is used to secure the gate. It should list the location of any geological markers (sometimes called cave medallions).
A general cave inventory should also detail the availability of maps, papers and other documentation related to the cave itself. Also any artificats which have been removed from the cave should be listed with their current location.
Finally, if applicable, the state as to whether or not the cave should be deemed "signifcant" according to the Federal Cave Resources Protection Act should be stated.
This is not a comprehensive list and a general cave inventory should include whatever information the land manager deems as important for the proper protection and management of the cave resources.
Cave resource inventory
A cave resource inventory is a more detailed map of the inventory items within a single cave or a section of a cave. Cave resource inventories are normally done alongside a detailed survey (map) and provide more detailed layers to augment the map.
Further reading
Matthew, Reese (2001); The Use of Cave Inventory System as a Cave Management Tool from the 15th National Cave and Karst Management Symposium, Tucson, AZ, October 16-19, 2001
