Cave Loss

Development over the past two centuries has eliminated or destroyed many caves in St. Louis County, Missouri, a state that could quite rightly call itself the Cave State.

"Caves have been discarded by developers with the same impunity as trees," said Robert Criss, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis. "Things are developing so rapidly in St. Louis County and elsewhere that we should try a little harder to protect our natural habitat. There is no law in Missouri to protect caves on private land, and we don't seem to have any protocol as to what is acceptable."

Caves are a feature of karst terrain, along with sinkholes, springs, and "losing" streams that disappear into "swallow holes" and resurface in other areas. Researchers studied most of the 127 reported caves in St. Louis County--which excludes St. Louis city, a county of 508 square miles with a population (2000 Census) of 1,016,315, comprising nearly one-third of the St. Louis area's population of approximately 2.7 million.

They found that the entrances to at least two caves have undergone significant natural modification from breakdown or landslide processes. They also found that a far larger number -- greater than 10 percent -- have been highly modified or obliterated by suburban expansion in the county. At least 24 caves have been obliterated or made into culvert entrances.

St. Louis County's Metropolitan Sewer District even manages several caves as part of the sewer system that handles street runoff. Indeed, there is a picture in the journal paper of a typical suburban yard, the homeowner standing next to a storm sewer culvert, which is the entrance to Fogelbach Cave.

"It's hard to measure the impact of filling in caves on habitat and species loss," Criss said. "I'm not saying I want all development to stop or that owners shouldn't sell to developers. My point is that we really haven't sufficiently discussed the issue."

---LiveScience Staff

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Credit: Washington University in St. Louis