Follow-up Project: Freeland's Cave Sinkhole Clean-up-Saturday, APRIL 24, 1999
The OVR 1998 Annual Conservation Project was held at Freeland's Cave in Adams County, Ohio (near Serpent Mound & Peebles) on November 14-15 of last year. After successfully removing nearly 10 tons of trash and recyclable metals, there was still another day's work remaining to finish removing fill debris and restore the sinkhole to its natural condition. It was the general consensus of the 60+ project volunteers, matched by the unanimous agreement of the OVR Executive Board, that the Ohio Valley Region should sponsor a follow-up project in the Spring of 1999 to complete the job. Please join us Saturday morning, April 24, to restore the sinkhole and re-open an entrance into Ohio's longest surveyed cave (2,323 feet). This entrance has not been negotiated since 1961! The project will begin at 8:00 a.m., but volunteers are welcome throughout the day. However, the earlier you can get there, the better. There is still an entire day's hard work remaining. Camping will be available from Friday night through the weekend at Lance & Carol Copas' farm within a five-minute drive of the project site. Directions to the Copas farm and to the project site are included on a separate sheet with this mailing. Any tools, supplies, or vehicles that you can provide that would be helpful in a project of this scope are welcomed & encouraged
# Annual Conservation Project:
Freeland’s Cave Sinkhole Clean-up
Adams County, Ohio
Garden Rakes needed for April 24th cleanup!
November 14, 1998
Report by John LaMar Cole
The 1998 cave conservation project of the Ohio Valley Region was a huge success! About 60 volunteers from 10 grottos showed up to tackle removing 40 years of garbage from a sinkhole that feeds into Ohio’s longest surveyed cave, Freeland’s Cave. This stream cave, a few miles south of Peebles (in Adams County), courses through heavily sculpted dolomite and has a current surveyed length of 2,323 feet. As was stated in a letter from Dr. Horton H. Hobbs III supporting the project, Freeland’s is definitely a "caver’s cave". Its passages are only rarely of standing height, with many a dousing bathtub along the tortuous routes toward its furthest reaches. Vandalism in the cave is relatively minor, given the limited appeal of its sopping, narrow crawlways, though there is evidence of some water contamination from the surface, primarily entering the cave from the sinkhole chosen for this year’s clean-up ef forts.
Freeland’s cave possesses a diverse fauna, including Pseudonophthalmus ohioensis Krekeler, a troglomorphic beetle found nowhere else in the world. During the project, Dr. Hobbs & a couple assistants installed charcoal bugs to monitor contaminants that may enter the cave as a result of the sediment & debris disturbance that is inevitable from such a project. Dr. Hobbs additionally installed a thermometer to see if the increase in visitation from the weekend project had resulted in a rise in temperature in the cave.
While undertaking this research Saturday afternoon, Dr. Hobbs was disturbed to discover that someone had been smoking inside the cave; whether or not this was a project volunteer is unknown. Although the actual impact of smoking inside a cave is a subject of heated controversy, the lethal effect of nicotine upon delicate insects is unquestionable. In a cave of such tight confines as Freeland’s, comprising the habitat of rare wildlife, smoking is an unconscionable risk. If visiting Freeland’s in the future, please respect this advisement: No Smoking! Besides this singular impropriety, Dr. Hobbs, who suggested the site, was very pleased with the sinkhole restoration efforts. Mr. Russell Piercy, the landowner of the sinkhole (who worked alongside us throughout the long day), was also very happy with the results. However, there is still more to do to restore the sink thoroughly; a follow-up project will be slated for a weekend in the next few months.
The project began shortly after 8:00 a.m. and ended at dusk, around 7:00 p.m. The only snafu of the day occurred at the very beginning: the Rumpke landfill had not delivered their roll-off box per our agreement. However, it is to their credit that the oversight was expeditiously resolved and the box was delivered within a couple hours. Dan Wickerham, however, brought the Adams Brown recycling box as promised, as well as sorting bins for glass, aluminum, & st eel, so there was never any waiting for containerization. The weather was exceptionally accommodating as well. Though cloudy, the expected rain never fell and the temperature remained in the mid-sixties all day--ideal for manual labor.
The number of volunteers was unusually equal to the task and participants continued to show up throughout the day. Amazingly, the two 30 cu. yd. roll-off boxes (one for recyclable metals and the other for landfill waste) were filled to capacity just as the sun was setting--a remarkable agreement between the limits of daylight & dumpster. Thanks to Lance Copas (GCG) & landowner Russell Piercy we had two tractors & wagons, plus Craig Ham (DUG) provided a 4-wheel drive vehicle with a small wagon, making possible the arduous removal & hauling of the 20 or so large appliances and hundreds of trash bags of garbage pulled from the sink. About 15 feet of refuse was removed--roughly 4/5ths of the total volume of garbage within the sink—totaling almost 10 tons of waste & recyclables! Another 5 to 10 feet remain, but given the conical shape of the sink, this represents a considerably less volume of waste than what has been removed thus far. The visi ble difference of the sinkhole before & after the project was very impressive.
Toward the end of the day, longtime caver Ed Weeks showed up with some very interesting news: in 1961 he had exited Freeland’s cave via an entrance in the bottom of this sinkhole. This was the first confirmation that we’d had of a bona fide cave entrance awaiting us below. Apparently in 1961 there was no garbage in the sink, either. Naturally this produced a surge of excavation efforts by the volunteers, but the day was drawing to a close and the dumpsters were groaning at the seams. I can, however, think of no greater incentive for a follow-up project than the existence of an actual cave entrance just below the final layer of fill dirt and refuse. Thanks, Ed!
As the day drew to a close, Steve McCracken (REKT) took charge of cleaning up around the sinkhole as tons of garbage had been hauled up to the periphery and into the field for sorting & removal. He did a commendable job of restoring the area to pre-project tidiness. Scott Engel (WUSS) managed the bonfire throughout the day where low-risk combustibles were incinerated and Bill McCuddy (CRF) documented the day’s activities on film. On Sunday, several of us returned to rake the ashes, check for abandoned tools (there were none), and estimate the remaining work load. Mr. Piercy will not be planting soy beans this coming year and has expressed that we are welcome to return whenever suits us.
Lance & Carol Copas of the Greater Cincinnati Grotto hosted the project, providing very comfortable campsites & a much appreciated campfire on their farm a mere 3 miles from the project. Carol, a registered nurse, was on-site in the event of injury. Almost miraculously there were no injuries requiring aid--very surprising considering the high-risk environment of this steep sinkhole choked with rusted metal & broken glass. A great portion of the success of this project is due to their timely generosity & hospitality, without which the project could not have been anywhere near as "user-friendly" as it turned out to be. Toward this end, Don Conover (COG/WUSS et al) set-up & maintained a portable latrine near the project site—a much appreciated act of forethought.
Good spirits remained intact throughout the long, exhausting day. Teamwork was exemplary & jolly. If someone approached me with a good idea, I immediately put them in charge of implementing it. This worked very well. Management of such a project, relying upon an indeterminable number of participants, must remain free-form & adaptable. I have learned that, much to their credit, cavers are very resourceful, self-motivated taskmasters, requiring only minimal supervision to cohere them into a conservation team more than up to the challenge. No project has proven this more conclusively than the Freeland’s Cave sinkhole clean-up. All volunteers are to be highly commended for their efforts.
A million thanks to all of you who helped make this project a major success!
The list below represents only those volunteers whose names managed to get on the sign-in sheet. Given the all-day arrivals & free-form nature of the project, many more went unaccounted for, unfortunately. If you helped with this project and are not on this list, or know of someone who is missing from the list, please jot me a line and I'll add the names to the roster. Thank you. John Cole, 1196 Millcreek Dr., Lexington, KY 40517-2984; or call me at (606) 245-3383.
Steve Aspery Joe Gibson Steve McCracken Eli Sacksteder
Erin Athy Katie Gogolin Bill McCuddy Kim Sacksteder
Nicole Atrisson Beth Hagen Will McCuddy Allan South
Van Bergen George Hagen Michelle Miller Andy South
Dale Lofland Craig Ham Andy Niekamp Diana South
John LaMar Cole Mike Harrington Robert A. Payn Bob Stevenot
Don Conover Brian Heckman Russell Piercy Kevin Toepke
Carol Copas Kenny Hedges Megan Porter Mary Anna Volkert
Lance Copas Kim Hedges Dave Rice Steve Wathen
Scott Engel Andy Roberts Dan Wickerham Horton H. Hobbs III
Annette Summers Engel Matthew Beversdorf