Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 22, 1995 TAG: 9507240022
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
Perhaps it was 1971, the last time the National Speleological Society came to town for its annual unconventional convention.
Informal would be the best way to describe this weeklong gathering of the caving underground, which was attended by about 1,200 hairy individualists.
"It's a big extended family," explained Dave Luckins of Michigan, president of the spelunking society. "I've got thousands of brothers and sisters. Some need to be institutionalized."
This past week, the Virginia Tech campus has been inundated by male and female cavers from all 50 states and overseas. Many camped in colorful tent cities set up near Lane Stadium, taking midsummer thunderstorms and soupy humidity in stride.
Around town they've been distinguishable by their "Cavers Do It In The Mud" T-shirts, "Batpersons Forever" bumper stickers, hiking boots and counter-culture mien.
There's no claustrophobia or fear of getting dirty among cavers. "They're gusto people," united by a spirit of conservation, Luckins said.
Amid the roister and reunion there was some serious business going on - with both global and local relevance. Caves and underground water systems are a vital yet fragile environmental resource only now being fully explored or understood.
The 12,000-member National Speleological Society promotes caving as a recreational activity, but its most important missions are research, education and protection, Luckins said.
During the week, a number of ground-breaking academic papers were presented on caves from Montgomery County's Ellett Valley to New York City's Central Park, and from Mexico, Greenland, Hawaii and Malaysia.
"All the sciences related to caving - hydrology, biology, geology - were present," Luckins said.
Global issues regarding caves are quite similar, conference attendees said. Even though caves have been a part of human existence since long before recorded history, they're still misunderstood and abused.
In Virginia - a state particularly rich in subterranean resources - cave walls were used for prehistoric artwork and as American Indian burial sites. One of the first recorded spelunkers was the insatiably curious Thomas Jefferson, who mapped an Augusta County cavern in 1787.
Caves in the Old Dominion have been economically important as sources of minerals and tourist attractions. Yet only when a caver gets lost or a yawning sinkhole disrupts highway traffic does the state's vast underworld attract public attention, Ernst Kastning said.
Kastning, a Radford University geology professor, has made awareness of Virginia's underground resources somewhat of a crusade.
"When I moved here in 1985, I don't think anybody understood what Karst topography meant," he said. "A lot of people in decision-making positions still don't understand."
The New River Valley lies in a wide belt paralleling Interstate 81 that is undergirded by porous rock and known scientifically as Karst land. Most of Virginia's caves are within this belt, as are an extensive network of sub-surface aqueducts, where water can travel several miles in a day.
These invisible streams act as natural filtration systems and are a primary source of potable water, particularly for rural residents who depend on wells. "It has to be treated gently," Kastning said.
Yet the system is often abused, by landowners who are unaware that dumping trash in a sinkhole can foul far-flung water sources, or by developers who cause local flooding when they plug a natural pipe with a bulldozer.
This past week, in fact, a team of volunteers from the Speleological Society cleaned up an old sinkhole dump near Hoge's Chapel in Giles County, extracting appliances and trash in the process.
"There's a very real need on the part of cavers to be active in the community," Luckins said. "The risk of polluting the water source is just enormous. It's our job to help them understand."
Virginia spelunkers are pacing the country in locating and mapping caves. Today, 3,232 caves of various sizes have been identified in the state, a 30 percent increase over the past 20 years.
"Discoveries are being made all the time," said Phil Lucas of Chantilly, president of the Virginia Speleological Survey.
In Pulaski County, the survey has identified 117 caves, including one near Fairlawn that is more than a mile long. Probably there are as many caves in the county undiscovered, said Andy Reeder, a Manassas spelunker who coordinates the Pulaski explorations.
Speleology is advancing as a science because of the vigor and commitment of cavers, if a walk around the convention exhibits is any indication.
There were rope climbing competitions in Memorial Gym, displays of caving literature and accoutrements in Donaldson Brown, a competition for map making and T-shirt designs at the Squires Student Center, and symposiums throughout the week on cave rescue operations. The gathering even had its own newsletter, the "Daily Rag."
No one relished the event more than Kastning and his wife, Karen, who met in a Texas cave and have attended each National Speleological Society Convention as a couple since 1975.
"They say there are about 1,200 people here, and I'm on a first-name basis with about 800 of them," Kastning said.
by CNB