Key Cave National Wildlife Refuge

Key Cave National Wildlife Refuge
Key Cave National Wildlife Refuge
	IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
Location	Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States
Nearest city	Florence, Alabama
Coordinates	34.75205°N 87.782478°W
Area	1,060 acres (4.3 km2)
Established	1997
Visitors	6000 (in 2005)
Governing body	U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Website	Key Cave NWR

Key Cave National Wildlife Refuge is a 1,060 acre (4.3 km²) National Wildlife Refuge located in northwestern Alabama, along the Tennessee River downstream from Florence, Alabama. Additional purchases are under negotiation which will increase the size of the refuge to 1,800 acres (7.3 km²).

More than 6,000 visitors per year visit the refuge. The facility is unstaffed, but is administered by the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in Decatur, Alabama.

Topography

Key Cave NWR

Two caves, Key Cave and Collier Cave, lie within the refuge, approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) apart. Both caves are closed to the public. Each is on the northern shore of Pickwick Lake on the Tennessee River. The area also contains several sinkholes and cave systems, including a 38-acre (150,000 m²) sinkhole lake. The sinkholes and cave systems provide a source of groundwater for the caves. The refuge is set up to minimize the pollution of this groundwater.

The land suffers from severe erosion due to the extensive farming in the area. A restoration of the land to native warm season grasses and mixed hardwoods is underway in order to protect the cave groundwater area. Approximately 338 acres (1.4 km²) of the land is used for corn and soybean production under a Cooperative Farm Agreement. Fields of warm season grasses such as big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans), sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), and eastern gamagrass (Tripsacum dactyloides) cover 260 acres (1.1 km²) of land. 122 acres (0.49 km²) of hardwood forest has been planted to help control the erosion. There are an additional 30 acres (120,000 m²) of erosion drainages which are being converted to grassland or hedgerow habitat, 16 acres (65,000 m²) being used as shallow water areas, and 256 acres (1.04 km²) of hardwood forests consisting primarily of oak and hickory trees.

History

Map of Key Cave NWR

The land of the Key Cave NWR area has historically been used for agricultural purposes, primarily in farming cotton. The area receives its name from William Key, who owned the land the refuge now contains as well as a plantation house on nearby private property. A slave cemetery called "Key Cemetery" is located on the refuge.

In 1990, the Ozark Underground Laboratory tested the underground water table and determined that the area suffered from chemical pollution from nearby cotton, soybean, corn, and wheat farming operations. The Key Cave and Collier Cave share the same aquifer system which was being polluted as a result of the farming operations.

In 1992, the Monsanto Company sold the land in the highest hazard risk area to The Conservation Fund. This land was later sold to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which established the Key Cave NWR on January 3, 1997.

Wildlife

Alabama cavefish

Key Cave is a critical habitat for the endangered Alabama cavefish (Speoplatyrhinus poulsoni). Only 130 specimens have been observed over the 36 excursions to Key Cave between 1967 and 1998. The refuge also provides protection for approximately 40,000 endangered gray bats (Myotis grisescens). The cave is also home to two species of endangered crayfish: Phantom cave crayfish (Procambarus pecki) and Cambarus jonesi.

Key Cave NWR also manages several bird species including grasshopper sparrows (Ammodramus savannarum), dickcissels (Spiza americana), northern harriers (Circus cyaneus), short-eared owls (Asio flammeus), loggerhead shrikes (Lanius ludovicianus), and northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus).

Facilities

The refuge has 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of trails for hiking and cycling. Key Cave is not open to the public, but nearby viewing platforms facilitate the viewing of the bats during the summer. This is the #9 site on the North Alabama Birding Trail.

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gollark: <@498244879894315027> Why wouldn't (shouldn't?) they have a URL?

gollark: They do have to spin pretty fast. There are sealed helium ones now.

gollark: > The HDD's spindle system relies on air density inside the disk enclosure to support the heads at their proper flying height while the disk rotates. HDDs require a certain range of air densities to operate properly. The connection to the external environment and density occurs through a small hole in the enclosure (about 0.5 mm in breadth), usually with a filter on the inside (the breather filter).[124] If the air density is too low, then there is not enough lift for the flying head, so the head gets too close to the disk, and there is a risk of head crashes and data loss. Specially manufactured sealed and pressurized disks are needed for reliable high-altitude operation, above about 3,000 m (9,800 ft).[125] Modern disks include temperature sensors and adjust their operation to the operating environment. Breather holes can be seen on all disk drives – they usually have a sticker next to them, warning the user not to cover the holes. The air inside the operating drive is constantly moving too, being swept in motion by friction with the spinning platters. This air passes through an internal recirculation (or "recirc") filter to remove any leftover contaminants from manufacture, any particles or chemicals that may have somehow entered the enclosure, and any particles or outgassing generated internally in normal operation. Very high humidity present for extended periods of time can corrode the heads and platters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive#Integrity

gollark: Interweb says it's to keep pressure equalized between the inside and out.

External links

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