by Mike Leonard
Hoosier Times
May 7, 2006
It wasn't long ago that Cindy Basile happened across a newspaper article extolling what was described as the remarkable discovery of more than 20 new species of plant and animal life in California.
"I thought, 'Huh? We've found more than 30 in Indiana,'" said Basile, a wildlife biologist for the Hoosier National Forest. "That was a clear indicator to me that we need to do a better job letting people know what remarkable work is being done right here."
A handful of scientists and hundreds of volunteers are helping Indiana map, study and document the singular life forms that exist in the remarkable karst topography that reaches from Putnam County south through a south-central Indiana swath that stretches to Mammoth Cave, Ky.
There are karst regions throughout the world. But none of them has been well-studied or popularly appreciated because the caves beneath the surface that prove so fascinating are difficult and uncomfortable to explore. In contrast, mountains are easy.
The initiative to document and educate the public about the regional subterranean ecosystem has progressed through a partnership among the federally supported Hoosier National Forest; the Indiana Karst Conservancy, a volunteer organization; and Ravenswood Media, a private media production company in the Chicago suburbs.
With the help of biologists, scientists and a slew of cave-knowledgable volunteers, Ravenswood Media owner Dave McGowan has been journeying into southern Indiana caves, setting up cameras and lighting and doing the painstakingly difficult and time-consuming "filming" that one would associate with a National Geographic production.
He's captured on digital video some remarkable things, including a blind cave fish that exists only in the labyrinth of underground streams that stretch from south of Bloomington to Mammoth Cave, Ky.
"It actually evolved with no pigment, no eyes. It's totally bizarre - as bizarre as anything you'd find in the tropical rainforest," McGowan said.
The filmmaker, with the help of the forest and karst conservancy advisers, seeks out scientists familiar with cave ecology and biology and edits their comments down into manageable video clips. Many segments already are posted on the Cave Biota site at www.cavebiota.com. The site is mostly built, up and running. But McGowan expects to spend the upcoming summer heading back into the caves of southern Indiana to complete the Cave Biota.
Basile is ecstatic at what has been accomplished so far.
"I'm the karst coordinator for the Hoosier National Forest and the only person who has time dedicated to doing karst stuff. And that's like 10 percent of my job. If it weren't for the hundreds of hours volunteered by people from the IKC and the cavers in the region, we could not do what we've done."
It was the IKC that spearheaded the Cave Biota project. It proposed to the Hoosier National Forest that a portion of its educational mission could be dedicated to investigating and documenting the forest's untold story of karst topography.
Karst refers to "regions characterized by the presence of limestone or other soluble rocks, where drainage has been largely diverted into subterranean routes," according to the IKC. "The topography of such areas is dominated by sinkholes, sinking streams, large springs, and caves."
"In this region, it's nature's storm sewer system," explained Kriste Lindberg of the IKC. "That's why we try to educate people, don't trash your sinkholes. Whatever you put in there just drains to an underground stream.
"We work with developers to help them understand these things," she said. "Recently we've worked with Renwick (a developing housing project in Bloomington) on their sinkholes. The idea is to turn what is there into an asset. If you have a sinkhole, turn it into a park instead of parking."
"What amazes me is how fragile the system is," said McGowan, the videographer and producer of Cave Biota. "One gasoline truck could turn over on the highway, drain into a cave system and destroy it."
A Michigan City native once nominated for a short subject documentary Academy Award, McGowan admits he never appreciated southern Indiana so much until he took on this project. "I think southern Indiana is this weird secret to the rest of the country. The landscape, above and below the surface, is just gorgeous," he said.
Making the Cave Biota documentary, or "webumentary" as it's being called, has been challenging, even for a motivated media producer.
"It's incredibly difficult to carry gear down into caves, set up everything and then wait to capture something of value," McGowan said. "We've hauled gear down passageways 3 1/2 feet high, stooped over for a mile. And that was just part of the way."
On one "filming" expedition, McGowan and a partner bought a raft to carry gear through an underground river to reach a location.
"Some of the things we're getting, the average person would never see if we didn't film it," he said. "I know that some of it, I'll never see again because it's just so hard to get to."
The beauty of the Cave Biota project, all parties agree, is that the technology of digital media and the reach of the Internet has made what might be seen as an esoteric nature documentary readily available to anyone with a relatively up-to-date computer and Internet access. No major investors or distribution channels required.
"Our original goal was to make a 30-minute DVD to educate people about our karst resources and the incredible things that exist in our cave systems," said Basile, the Hoosier National Forest wildlife biologist. "But the Web site is doing so well and we're getting so many hits (viewings) that this has exceeded all expectations and much, much more. Our goal now is to eventually make that DVD but in the meantime direct people to this wonderful resource, where people can view the amazing things Dave has captured. He's a true artist. Even those of us who know something about these things are amazed at what Dave has done."
Karst Web sites
Cave Biota video clips: www.cavebiota.com
National Speleological Society: www.caves.org
Indiana University Caving Club: www.indiana.edu/~iusc
Indiana Karst Conservancy: www.caves.org/conservancy/ikc
Indiana Cave Survey: www.caves.org/survey/ics
Hoosier National Forest: www.fs.fed.us/r9/hoosier/
Project Underground: www.dcr.virginia.gov/underground
National Caves Association: www.cavern.com
IMAX: "Journey Into Amazing Caves": www.amazingcaves.com
Karst, ground water model ordering: groundwater.unl.edu/karst.htm
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