Saving and Managing Cave Lands with Nonprofit Conservancies   Cave Conservancy Home
2002 NSS Convention -- Camden  Maine
9:00 a.m. to 12 noon         Wednesday, 26 June 2002  
 
9:00 a.m.        Welcome
9:10 a.m.        Corporate Standards and Practices of the Land Trust Alliance; Rane Curl
9:45 a.m.        Volunteers and Conservation: A Valuable Partnership; Heather Garland and Nancy Sferra
10:20 a.m.     TBA
10:55 a.m.     Agencies as Partners in Karst Conservation; Kriste Lindberg; Bob Vandeventer.
11:30 a.m.     Techniques for Leveraging Effectiveness of Cave Conservancies; John Wilson.
 
Corporate Standards and Practices of the Land Trust Alliance
Rane Curl, Michigan Karst Conservancy and Michigan Natural Areas Council
Incorporated cave and karst conservancies arose from the desire of cavers and cave scientists to ensure access to caves and to protect the natural features of caves. They have the knowledge and enthusiasm necessary to set reasonable protective policies for management of caves owned, leased or only managed. But they seldom start with knowledge and experience in incorporating and managing a non-profit, charitable, corporation. The foremost source of support and guidance in those respects is the Land Trust Alliance (LTA, www.lta.org), an umbrella organization for over 1,200 conservancies nationwide. In order to try to ensure a high standard of corporate responsibility and management, which helps maintains corporate health, effectiveness and reputations of land trusts everywhere, LTA recommends the adoption of corporate Standards and Practices (S&P). LTA S&Ps concern such topics as incorporation, board development and board member training, financial and asset management, fundraising, training and recognizing volunteers, and much more.
 
Volunteers and Conservation: A Valuable Partnership
Heather Garland, Cave Program Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy of Tennessee
Nancy Sferra, Director of Science and Stewardship, The Nature Conservancy of Maine
 
Non-profit conservation organizations are often faced with financial limitations when planning and implementing protection projects. Volunteer help is essential to the success of conservation efforts, often "making or breaking" a project. The Nature Conservancy has long relied on volunteers for many functions, including cave and karst protection projects. In a general capacity, volunteers routinely offer help with office and fundraising event functions. Volunteer groups, such as boy or girl scouts and corporate volunteer programs, are critical to larger projects. These activities might include trail development and maintenance at preserves, removing exotic plants, or reforesting riparian areas. In Tennessee, volunteers from the caving community have given countless hours in a variety of ways to support conservation of the state's magnificent cave resources. Projects such as sinkhole and cave clean-ups and entrance barrier construction require much volunteer labor. These projects can be incredibly time-consuming, financially draining, and physically exhausting; and would be virtually impossible to accomplish without the many members of Tennessee’s caving community volunteering their time. In addition, the caving community in Tennessee also provides assistance with both the management of biologically significant caves and biological surveys at these sites. Partnerships between volunteer groups and The Nature Conservancy play an important role in the conservation of caves.
 
 
Agencies as Partners in Karst Conservation
Kriste Lindberg and Bob, Vandeventer, Indiana Karst Conservancy
Various agencies can be deployed to assist you in cave and karst conservation. They range from government organizations to a variety of other non-profits, land trusts, etc. The IKC currently works with all three and more and they have been instrumental in helping us with our mission - each one bringing a new angle and more individuals to draw from, usually creating a win/win situation for all. For example, we have been working with various federal, state, municipal, and private organizations to help protect karstlands and their occupants, further our education and outreach efforts, network and reduce redundancy, and so on. It is especially timely now as there are so many threats to our underground resources. For example, we are working on a collaboration between city and county government to work on education, drainage, and ordinance issues. Our caves and karst could use the help!
 
Techniques for Leveraging Effectiveness of Cave Conservancies
John Wilson, Chair NSS Cave Conservancies Committee
 
The Conservancies Committee serves as a means for cave conservancies to access NSS services and NSS member expertise. The NSS can provide information that is useful to cave managers and assist conservancies as needed. It encourages all cave conservancies and other groups responsibly managing caves to affiliate with the NSS.   Cave conservancies are classified into seven types depending on their structure and their relationship with the NSS. The model for encouraging small and new cave conservancies uses attribution psychology and other techniques to help cave conservationists leverage their effectivene