Partnering and Managing for Excellence: Mammoth Cave National Park

MAMMOTH CAVE NATIONAL PARK

PHOTOGRAPHS:

KENTUCKY

As a national park, World Heritage Site, and International Biosphere Reserve, Mammoth Cave is recognized worldwide as a unique and exemplary karst resource. Beneath the surface is the longest cave known to man; to date, it extends at least 365 miles, with more discovered every year. Above the surface lie steep hills and valleys, winding rivers and woodlands re-grown from the farms and small communities that existed here before the park’s establishment in 1941.

The park offers cave tours, camping, hiking, canoeing, picnicking, and horseback riding in a 52,830-acre hardwood forest, with 31 miles of the Green and Nolin Rivers, and 70 miles of trails.

DID YOU KNOW

138 species make use of the cave on a regular basis – 42 of these are troglobites, adapted exclusively to life in the cave. Blind fish and crayfish, and the Kentucky cave shrimp are eyeless and colorless.
Prehistoric people scraped minerals from the cave walls between 2,000 and 4,000 years ago, and left behind slippers, gourds, and torch sticks that are perfectly preserved in the cave’s constant environment.
In 1838, three young slaves were leased to the owner of Mammoth Cave to guide the visiting public into the cavern. Nick Bransford, Mat Bransford, and Stephen Bishop became well-known personalities, and discovered many of the passageways still shown on tours today.

DON'T MISS ATTRACTIONS

Cave tours are offered year round, ranging from an easy ¼-mile stroll to 5 miles of crawling, climbing, and sliming. Blackouts in the cave’s total darkness, when guides purposely turn off all the lights, are a favorite memory of returning visitors.
Enjoy a quiet hike in the 300-acre Big Woods, an old-growth remnant on the north side of Green River.
Starry overnights at the park campgrounds or concessioner lodging bring out stargazers. Located miles from metropolitan areas, the park’s night skies are stellar.
Take a twilight stroll around the Sloan’s Crossing Pond Walk to the riotous croak-buzz-and-squawk of frogs, bugs, and waterbirds.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PRIORITIES

The park has greatly expanded its research capability through dynamic partnerships with academia, the prime example being the Mammoth Cave International Center for Science and Learning with Western Kentucky University. The goal of the Center is to provide laboratories, classrooms, and housing where students of all ages experience hands-on learning under the guidance of world-class scientists. Information and methodology gained from projects such as propagating endangered species (American chestnut trees and river mussels), identifying new strains of cave bacteria, and monitoring mercury bio-accumulation in animal tissue, are shared with students and the public.

As a National Park Service Center for Environmental Innovation, Mammoth Cave National Park staff strives for excellence in environmental stewardship every day. Recycling, green purchasing, alternative fuels, stormwater filtering systems, and attaining Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for visitor center reconstruction are a few examples of the park’s commitment to environmental protection and leadership. Partnerships increase productivity – the National Park Foundation and Unilever provided post-product decking, made of recycled detergent bottles, for boardwalks in the park; the boardwalks are used for environmental education with area partner-schools, whose students live on karst landscapes.

(l to r) LaJuana Wilcher, Secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for the Environment and Public Protection, Superintendent Ron Switzer, Western Kentucky University President Gary Ransdell, and Senator Mitch McConnell signed a declaration to inaugurate the Mammoth Cave International Center for Science and Learning, on August 18, 2004.

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