Key Cave National Wildlife Refuge is a 1,060 acre (4.3km2) National Wildlife Refuge located in northwestern Alabama, along the Tennessee River downstream from Florence, Alabama. Additional purchases are under negotiation which will increase the size of the refuge to 1,800 acres (7.3km2).
National Wildlife RefugeSystem is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife, and plants. Since President Theodore Roosevelt designated Florida's Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge as the first wildlife refuge in 1903, the system has grown to over 562 national wildlife refuges and 38 wetland management districts encompassing more than 150,000,000 acres (607,028 km2).
Alabama is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th largest by area and the 24th-most populous of the U.S. states. With a total of 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of inland waterways, Alabama has among the most of any state.
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles (1,049 km) long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, as many of the Cherokee had their territory along its banks, especially in eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama. Its current name is derived from the Cherokee village Tanasi.
The Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge is a 35,000 acre (142 km2) National Wildlife Refuge located along the Tennessee River near Decatur, Alabama. Named after Major General Joseph Wheeler, it was established to provide a habitat for wintering and migrating birds in the eastern United States.
Decatur is a city in Morgan and Limestone counties in the State of Alabama. The city, nicknamed "The River City", is located in Northern Alabama on the banks of Wheeler Lake, along the Tennessee River. It is the largest city and county seat of Morgan County. The population in 2010 was 55,683.
Topography
Key Cave NWR
Two caves, Key Cave and Collier Cave, lie within the refuge, approximately 1.5 miles (2.4km) apart. Both caves are closed to the public. Each is on the northern shore of Pickwick Lake on the Tennessee River. The area also contains several sinkholes and cave systems, including a 38-acre (150,000m2)sinkhole lake. The sinkholes and cave systems provide a source of groundwater for the caves. The refuge is set up to minimize the pollution of this groundwater.
Pickwick Lake is the reservoir created by Pickwick Landing Dam as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The lake stretches from Pickwick Landing Dam to Wilson Dam.
A sinkhole, also known as a cenote, sink, sink-hole, swallet, swallow hole, or doline, is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. Most are caused by karst processes – for example, the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks or suffosion processes. Sinkholes vary in size from 1 to 600 m both in diameter and depth, and vary in form from soil-lined bowls to bedrock-edged chasms. Sinkholes may form gradually or suddenly, and are found worldwide.
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with water is called the water table. Groundwater is recharged from and eventually flows to the surface naturally; natural discharge often occurs at springs and seeps, and can form oases or wetlands. Groundwater is also often withdrawn for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells. The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology, also called groundwater hydrology.
The land suffers from severe erosion due to the extensive farming in the area. A restoration of the land to native warm season grasses and mixed hardwoods is underway in order to protect the cave groundwater area. Approximately 338 acres (1.4km2) of the land is used for corn and soybean production under a Cooperative Farm Agreement. Fields of warm season grasses such as big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans), sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), and eastern gamagrass (Tripsacum dactyloides) cover 260 acres (1.1km2) of land. 122 acres (0.49km2) of hardwood forest has been planted to help control the erosion. There are an additional 30 acres (120,000m2) of erosion drainages which are being converted to grassland or hedgerow habitat, 16 acres (65,000m2) being used as shallow water areas, and 256 acres (1.04km2) of hardwood forests consisting primarily of oak and hickory trees.
In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, air (wind), plants, animals, and humans. In accordance with these agents, erosion is sometimes divided into water erosion, glacial erosion, snow erosion, wind (aeolic) erosion, zoogenic erosion, and anthropogenic erosion. The particulate breakdown of rock or soil into clastic sediment is referred to as physical or mechanical erosion; this contrasts with chemical erosion, where soil or rock material is removed from an area by its dissolving into a solvent, followed by the flow away of that solution. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, or for thousands of kilometres.
Andropogon gerardi, known commonly as big bluestem, turkeyfoot, tall bluestem, and bluejoint, is a tall grass native to much of the Great Plains and grassland regions of central and eastern North America.
Schizachyrium scoparium, commonly known as little bluestem or beard grass, is a North American prairie grass native to most of the United States, except California, Nevada, and Oregon, and a small area north of the Canada–US border. It is most common in the Midwestern prairies. Little bluestem is a perennial bunchgrass and is prominent in tallgrass prairie, along with big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). It is a warm-season species, meaning it employs the C4 photosynthetic pathway.
History
Map of Key Cave NWR
The land of the Key Cave NWR area has historically been used for agricultural purposes, primarily in farming cotton. The area receives its name from William Key, who owned the land the refuge now contains as well as a plantation house on nearby private property. A slave cemetery called "Key Cemetery" is located on the refuge.
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds.
In 1990, the Ozark Underground Laboratory tested the underground water table and determined that the area suffered from chemical pollution from nearby cotton, soybean, corn, and wheat farming operations. The Key Cave and Collier Cave share the same aquifer system which was being polluted as a result of the farming operations.
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water.
Surface runoff is the flow of water that occurs when excess stormwater, meltwater, or other sources flows over the Earth's surface. This might occur because soil is saturated to full capacity, because rain arrives more quickly than soil can absorb it, or because impervious areas send their runoff to surrounding soil that cannot absorb all of it. Surface runoff is a major component of the water cycle. It is the primary agent in soil erosion by water.
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock, rock fractures or unconsolidated materials. Groundwater can be extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology. Related terms include aquitard, which is a bed of low permeability along an aquifer, and aquiclude, which is a solid, impermeable area underlying or overlying an aquifer. If the impermeable area overlies the aquifer, pressure could cause it to become a confined aquifer.
In 1992, the Monsanto Company sold the land in the highest hazard risk area to The Conservation Fund. This land was later sold to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which established the Key Cave NWR on January 3, 1997.
Wildlife
Alabama cavefish
Key Cave is a critical habitat for the endangered Alabama cavefish (Speoplatyrhinus poulsoni). Only 130 specimens have been observed over the 36 excursions to Key Cave between 1967 and 1998. The refuge also provides protection for approximately 40,000 endangered gray bats (Myotis grisescens). The cave is also home to two species of endangered crayfish: Phantom cave crayfish (Procambarus pecki) and Cambarus jonesi.
The refuge has 2.5 miles (4.0km) of trails for hiking and cycling. Key Cave is not open to the public, but nearby viewing platforms facilitate the viewing of the bats during the summer. This is the #9 site on the North Alabama Birding Trail.
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