Bats, Beer and Bluegrass at Frick’s Cave Preserve
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, Southeastern Caving Conservancy Inc. is hosting an evening concert at Frick’s Cave — the first event of its kind. Live bluegrass music will be presented by Barefoot Nellie & Co., food will be catered by 212 Market Restaurant and, at dusk, guests will have front-row seats when thousands of endangered gray bats flap from Frick’s Cave to hunt.Concert and dinner tickets are $50 per person. Concert-only tickets are $25 per person. All proceeds go to SCCi’s Stewardship Endowment fund, which is used to maintain cave preserves.When: Sept. 24, 5-9 p.m.Where: Frick’s Cave Preserve, Chickamauga, GeorgiaGet tickets: squareup.com/store/southeastern-cave-conservancy-inc
Balancing Conservation and Recreation
SCCi’s New Permit SystemCurrently, only some of SCCi’s preserves require visitors to obtain permits. Frick’s Cave, Stephens Gap and Snail Shell Cave are included in those. But beginning Jan. 1, 2017, all preserves managed by SCCi will require permits.The process is simple — and free: Prospective visitors will go to SCCi’s website, enter where and when they wish to visit, review preserve rules and sign a release. Then, the permit will be automatically emailed.The new permitting system will help SCCi balance recreation and conversation by helping to prevent caves from becoming “over-loved,” Knott says. “We can look at the numbers and say, ‘OK, if 50 [visitors] a day caused damage to cave fauna or flora, then let’s throttle that back [and] just allow 25 [visitors] a day.”
Noteworthy Numbers
10,000: number of endangered gray bats living in Frick’s Cave8: number of caves in the world in which 90 percent of gray bats are found170: number of caves managed by SCCi1,400: number of acres of land owned by SCCi16,475: total number of acres owned and/or leased by SCCi$2 million: value of owned land assets20: number of cavers who came together to form SCCi in 19911,000: number of SCCi members as of 2015$300,000: purchase price of most expensive cave acquisition$50,000: stewardship budget for 2016, which must cover preserve maintenance, signage, cleanups, environmental protection, taxes, insurance and more for all preserves managed by SCCi$2.5 million: SCCi’s five-year fundraising goal, the campaign for which kicks off on Sept. 24 with the Bats, Beer and Bluegrass event
There is a cave in Trenton, Georgia, alongside a two-lane highway. Its entrance appears beneath a limestone ledge – a shadowy gap through which people have crawled for thousands of years. Maybe more. In one of its many underground rooms, a Civil War signature dated 1858 is carved into the rock. In another room, mysterious Cherokee syllabary is scrawled.
Today, the cave, known as Howard’s Waterfall, is one of the most visited caves in the region. In 1991, it was the first cave acquired by Southeastern Cave Conservancy Inc., a Chattanooga-based nonprofit organization founded that same year by cavers to protect access to caves. Twenty-five years later, SCCi owns or leases 170 caves – many of which host rare and threatened ecosystems – on 30 preserves in six states, making it the largest land conservancy dedicated to protecting caves in the country.