Wilderness cave plan rocks some landowners

By AL CROSS

Courier-Journal staff Writer



BLUE JOHN, KY. -- A proposal to turn one of Kentucky's largest but least-known caves systems into the nation's first official underground wilderness has sparked strong opposition from people living over the caverns and has posed a unique problem for the U.S. Forest Service.



The focus of the concern is the Cave Creek Run system in southern Pulaski and northern McCreary counties. The caves lie underneath the Daniel Boone National Firest, over which the Forest Service has jurisdiction.



Cave Creek Run has more than 15 miles of mapped passageways, making it one of the largest cave systems in the state. However, it is not widely known, even amount local residents, many of whom fear the wilderness designation would be the first step toward government takeover of their property. (One-fourth, or some 1,075 acres of the 4,300 acre area is privately owned.)



Forest Service officials say they are merely processing an amateur cave explorer's recommendation that the caves be declared a wilderness to protect them from abuse.



Somerset District Ranger Jack Steelmon said the Forest Service was obligated to nominate Cave Creek Run as a wilderness area because the idea was suggested at a public meeting, and the caves met federal wilderness criteria. The basic requirement is that an area should retain its primeval character, that is, that it should be essentially unmarked by man.



But the proposal has raised some thorny questions for the Forest Service, because it would create the first underground federal wilderness area in the United States.



The service's deeds to land in the national forest do not include underground mineral rights, wich apparently would apply to caves.



"Without jurisdiction, we could not protect it," Steelmon said. "This is going to be a problem if the thing is made a wilderness. We'd have a long row to how solving problems that may come up with minerals."



Also, the Forest Service is not sure what effect the designation might have on private property in the area.



Several owners of that land, along Blue John Road in soutern Pulaski County, have petitioned the Forest Service to reject the idea.



Betty Heath, one coordinator of the effort, said the petition contained almost 700 signatures.



She and her parents, Bob and Leatha Heath, said most of those opposed to the plan it would lead to an eventual takeover of their property by the Forest Service.



"They're wanting a toehold, and they're using the caves as an excuse," Ms. Heath claimed. "If they got the caves," she began, and her mother finished the thought saying, "how long will it before they ask for the land over the caves?"



The proposal is "absolutely not" a Forest Service idea, Steelmon said, adding that it could very well be left out of the wilderness plan for the Daniel Boone National Forest.



He said that decision will be made early next month by Forest Supervisor Richard Wengert and the regional forester in Atlanta.



Regardless of the decision, Steelmon said, Congress could add or delete areas from the national wilderness plan.



He said it also would be up to Congress to tell the Forest Service how to manage an underground wilderness and under what circumstances to condemn and to buy private land.



"Congress hopefully give us some broad guidelines," the ranger said. "Underground is so rare and unthought of as a wilderness, I don't know what concepts they might come up with."



But many in the area think the basic concept is unsound because the caves are often flooded by nearby Lake Cumberland.



To support that view, they cite the opinion of Paul Unger II, chairman of the Central Ohio Grotto of the National Speleological Society, who said he has seen almost all of the known cave system.



In a letter to one of the opponents of the wilderness plan, Unger wrote:



"The damage to the system in terms of siltation and deterioation (by the lake) is already total. That the government is even considering 'protecting' a system of this nature is thinking about building a septic tank after you have flushed the toilet."



Unger also wrote that other caves in the area "are fare more outstanding" and have suffered less damage from the lake. He also said "some huge caves of immense quality" will be included in the new Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, a fourth of which will be in McCreary Count.



He concluded: "One person not at all familiar with the system made the original recommendation that Cave Creek become an underground wilderness. That he would make a recommendation of this cave before recommending others is beyone of for explanation."



The recommendation was made by Eric Hovenmeyer, formally of Cincinnati and now of Hartford, Conn. He could not be reached for comment.



"I don't think anybody's against them exploring the caves," said Doffie Brewery, who lives near one of the cave entrances. "They just don't want to lose their property."



Drewery, a native of Wilder, Tenn., who worked in a rubber factory in Dayton, Ohio, for 32 years, said he retired at Blue John because "it's more like where I was born and raised than any place I know of."



His wife added, "We've both had to retire and found this little spot back here where we thought we'd be able to take care of ourselves and rest. Now we don't know."



But the Forest Service doesn't know either, Seelmon said, adding, "We're all just guessing at what the problems might be."