Each NCKMS conference includes at least one regional field trip to local cave and karst features. In 2025, we plan to tour the Lehman Caves at Great Basin National Park and explore some surface hydrology features.
Read MoreHeld every 2 years, the National Cave & Karst Management Symposium is designed to provide an opportunity for cave and karst management professionals to discuss and explore solutions to help protect and conserve caves, karst, cave ecosystems and underground water resources across North America.
Led by a consortium of governmental agencies, each NCKMS conference enourages participation from professionals of diverse backgrounds, working in various fields and with interests spanning a broad range of cave and karst management issues.
The first NCKMS was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975, and symposia have been organized on a regular basis since then.
Each symposium publishes the papers presented during the event as a formal proceedings. These have become important references for those involved in cave and karst management. From 1999 onwards, the proceedings are available in various digital formats, and often also as hard copies.
The best resource for finding the proceedings of the NCKMS symposia is to access the Karst Information Portal.
Our NCKMS Steering Committee was formed in 1990 to ensure that a NCKMS is held biennially. The committee selects a group to host each symposium from bids presented, and provides guidance for developing the event. It also offers scholarships to enable attendance to symposia. The committee comprises a representative from each of the organizations and agencies that have a formal interest in, or responsibility for, managing cave and karst resources on a nationwide basis. The committee offers a structure for these influential groups to share ideas and experiences, and to work together to address issues arising in managing caves and karst.
In July of 1986, Life magazine dubbed Nevada's Highway 50 the "Loneliest Road in America." The article claimed there were "no points of interest" along the route and "warned" readers not to risk traveling it unless they were confident of their survival skills. However, Nevada adventurers knew better then - and still do. Sure, a road doesn't get much more wide-open than Highway 50. But that's exactly why we dig it!
Burrowed in the Toquima Range in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Toquima Cave holds massive cultural importance to Native Americans. This sacred site was utilized by the Western Shoshone tribes as a temporary dwelling between 3,000 and 1,500 years ago.
A large number of pictographs adorn the north and south walls of the cave. As one of many pictograph sites in Nevada, Toquima Cave and the surrounding 40 acres were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.