WCC cavers working on a clean-up of a threatened cave in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park. Photo by Kelley Prebil.
The Western Cave Conservancy started with an idea: around 1994, Dan Syder suggested that the Mother Lode Grotto should start a cave conservancy in order to acquire a notable cave, Black Chasm, that was then available. That plan didn't materialize and Black Chasm became a show cave under private management. The cave wasn't acquired but its availability did provide the germ of a plan.
Fast forward a few years, to 2001 and the dot-com boom: Martin Haye received a windfall from the sale of a company he partially owned, and wanted to donate a nice chunk of it towards buying Rippled Cave. Originally, the idea was to have the Mother Lode Grotto do the purchase, but it didn't have the 501(c)(3) status needed for the donation to be tax-deductible.
As a result, a group of California cavers got together in 2002 to form the Western Cave Conservancy as an all-volunteer nonprofit, with an inaugural party at the 2003 NSS convention in Porterville, CA. We didn't have any caves yet, but we had a lot of possibilities...
From 2003 to 2005, a lot of research was done into possible cave acquisitions (mostly in California), but for a variety of reasons, none panned out in the short term. Keep in mind that in the West, a lot of karst landscape is on public land, rather than private. In keeping with our mission of "securing responsible access to threatened caves," this often means working with other land-management agencies to secure long-term access, rather than directly acquiring property.
Finally, in 2005, another potential buyer for Rippled Cave appeared, leading to the real possibility of losing access to the cave; this was the forcing factor that led the WCC to finally make its first cave purchase.
Also in 2005, the WCC was approached by cavers from the Diablo Grotto about the possibility of reopening and managing Windeler Cave, which had been sealed for years to prevent vandalism. This cave is located on USFS land, so a purchase was out of the question; after some negotiation, the WCC entered into an MOU to manage the cave for the Forest Service. (It took several years of work to reopen and re-gate the cave in a manner that ensured its safety; regular caver trips to this exquisitely decorated cave finally resumed in 2010.)
IXL Cave in California has suffered extensive damage over the decades.
Starting around 2004, the WCC got involved with trying to protect Avalanche Cave, a small but unique alpine cave in the northern Sierra Nevada. Many years of patient work with the Sierra Pacific Lumber Company and the USFS - plus some old-fashioned good luck - resulted in the Tahoe NF acquiring the land containing this cave (and several others) in 2016; this led to an official declaration by the USFS in 2018 that the cave would be freely available for responsible visitation.
Meanwhile, in 2010, the sale of a large tract of land near Davenport, CA to the Peninsula Open Space Trust and Sempervirens Fund opened the possibility of making legal access to some long-forbidden caves possible again. This took years of negotiation, but in 2014 the WCC signed an MOU with these organizations to allow limited visitation for research and mapping purposes; finally, in 2019, we were able to further expand this MOU to allow for recreational trips to these caves for local cavers.
In 2014, the WCC signed a lease for property containing Cave of the Catacombs, a small but historically interesting cave near Mountain Ranch, CA. In early 2020, we were able to purchase outright the bulk of this property, and continue to maintain a lease on the remaining area.
Shortly after acquiring Cave of the Catacombs, the WCC learned of another major karst property that was available for purchase: over 150 acres of karst and caves near Volcano, CA. Thanks to incredibly generous donations from cavers, we were able to successfully purchase this tract.
The Western Cave Conservancy has been protecting access to caves for cavers since 2002. Image courtesy of Dave Bunnell, Good Earth Graphics.
Registration for the 2025 symposium is now open! Early registration discounts end at midnight on September 15. After that, registration packages increase by $50.
After registering, be sure to book your hotel room soon. Our hotel discounts will expire in mid-September. See our host hotel page for more details.
The Cave Research Foundation is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to:
Facilitating research, management and interpretation of caves and karst resources; Forming partnerships to study, protect and preserve cave resources and karst areas; Promoting the long term conservation of caves and karst ecosystems.
Scattered snow showers before 4pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 39. North northwest wind 15 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 50 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than half an inch possible.
Partly cloudy, with a low around 17. North northwest wind 15 to 25 mph.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 42. North northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.
Next to the Lehman Caves Visitor Center sits the historic Rhodes Cabin. The cabin was built in the 1920s by Clarence and Bea Rhodes, who were US Forest Service custodians of Lehman Caves at the time. It is one of several cabins built to provide accommodations for visitors to Lehman Caves. Today it contains interpretive exhibits.
2025 NCKMS T-Shirts
Of course we'll have t-shirts! What would a caver event be without them?
It might look like this thing that an AI system suggested, but we're having real humans dress it up a bit. Might look completely different by the time our humans are done with it.
Our theme at NCKMS this year is "Hidden Waters - Hidden Life". So, we have a concept at least!
