OZARKS REGION
Exploring Underground Protecting our Ozark karst system
Mike claims every cave has its own personality. “There are some I really enjoyed, and others I never want to go into again,” he laughed. “Let’s just say some caves are easier to get into than they are to get out of.” Karst is a type of landscape where dissolving bedrock creates caves, springs and other natural features, and is prominent in Missouri. Mike is the Ozark karst program director for TNC. This past year, he helped with cave assessments in Missouri, as he has done in Arkansas and Oklahoma as part of his mission as a karst conservationist. “We want to determine what threatens the cave habitats in the Ozarks and what areas in the ecoregion are the most important to protect,” he says. Karst aquifers are vulnerable to pollution and runoff. This research helps identify areas that are most susceptible to pollutants or land use mismanagement, and ensures that land use changes don’t have a negative impact on water quality or cave viability. Never knowing what’s around the next corner keeps Mike enthusiastic for cave exploration. “It’s the unknown,” he says. “Caves are some of the last great places on the globe left to explore.” That, coupled with the desire to ensure these rare places are protected for future generations, motivates Mike to continue squeezing his way into amazing Ozark caves.
His career began with a crayfish. Mike Slay was an undergrad at the University of Arkansas when a professor mentioned some field research in local caves. “It just fascinated me,” he says. “I was starting to realize there were a lot of outdoor opportunities not only recreationally but also for study.” Mike found himself sitting in a dark cave staring into a crystal-clear pool of water near his hometown of Gentry, Arkansas. “I was about 700 feet into the cave, and out of the darkness emerged a bright white cave crayfish,” says Slay. “I had never seen one before, and they are a rare find in Arkansas.”
The federally endangered cave crayfish is native to Arkansas and has only been found in four caves. From that moment on, Mike was hooked. “The fact that I had just made a significant observation and that I could make additional contributions really did it for me,” he says. In his career as a cave biodiversity expert, Mike has helped discover over 30 new species of spiders, millipedes and insects, and has explored caves in Hawaii, Slovenia, Portugal, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Southern Belize and here in the Midwest.
2007 Ozark Conservation Buyer Fund established.
2010 Meramec River project launched.
2011 Bison reintroduced to Dunn Ranch.
2015 Western Ozark Waters Initiative is launched in Southwest Missouri.’
8 MISSOURI: ACTION AND IMPACT
THIS PAGE Mike Slay in Alabama’s Fern Cave © Pete Pattavina/USFWS
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