INTERIOR HIGHLANDS
Going Underground TNC is crossing borders to protect our caves
director of conservation in Oklahoma. “Working across state borders allows us to address it as a whole and figure out where we can make the biggest difference.” At a meeting this summer in Missouri, the TNC team determined two main priorities for the region: reconnecting aquatic habitats by removing barriers that block rivers and streams, and protecting karst systems across the region. Karst systems are the Swiss cheese-like networks of subterranean passageways, popping through the surface in the form of cavemouths, sinkholes and springs. They are formed by mildly acidic water that slowly eats away the rock, creating voids as the water sinks farther underground. Missouri alone has more than 7,000 caves, earning it the nickname “The Cave State”. In recent years, TNC’s Ozark Karst Project Manager Mike Slay has conducted assessments of karst systems in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri to determine the most vulnerable locations. The work will help protect species we know and, almost certainly, many we don’t. Slay has discovered numerous previously unknown species during his career. Each trip underground has the potential to reveal something new. “We always talk about going to look for unicorns, because of the rarity of some of these species and the off chance you might see them,” Slay says.
for state boundaries. So, The Nature Conservancy is taking a different approach to protect these systems and the unique species that depend on them. A team of TNC staffers from three states has begun focusing on the Interior Highlands, a region that spans much of Missouri. It runs southwest from the St. Louis metro through the Ozarks and on into the northwest corner of Arkansas and the eastern edge of Oklahoma, nicking the corner of Kansas. Along with caves, the Interior Highlands are home to the unique geology of the Ozarks plateau and the Ouachita and Boston Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Glades, fens, oak-hickory savannahs, prairies and pine forests can all be found within its expanse. “The Interior Highlands are a fascinating region that includes some of the most biodiverse landscapes on Earth,” says Katie Gillies, TNC’s
On maps of the surface, solid lines define the states, separating Missouri from Arkansas, Arkansas from Oklahoma. But in the dark and twisting tunnels of the world underground, those lines don’t mean much. Thousands of caves, sinkholes and springs cut through the limestone and dolomite that undergird landscapes across our region. And while they hold huge importance for people, as well as an array of species scientists are still discovering, they have little respect
SCAN THIS CODE or visit nature.org/ mopodcast to hear the full conservation with Mike Slay
THIS PAGE TOP TNC has protected the watershed above Sherfield Cave, where the largest colony of endangered Indiana bats in Arkansas hibernate each winter. © Ethan Inlander/TNC BOTTOM From late fall through winter, Indiana bats hibernate in caves in the Ozark region. © Fauna Creative
6 MISSOURI : ACTION AND IMPACT
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