The 2011 John Van Swearingen IV Stewardship Award Winner:
Southeastern Regional Association Karst Task Force (SKTF)

The Southeastern Regional Association Karst Task Force (SKTF) is the winner of the 2011 John Van Swearingen IV Stewardship Award. The SKTF is a non-profit resource organization dedicated to karst conservation and the clean up of cave and karst features through the education of both the public and caving communities.

The SKTF has developed a planning process to assess and plan out projects. This procedure helps identify high priority karst features and/or caves. The Directors also get involved and employ a hands-on approach to karst and cave conservation. Advance planning enables the SKTF to restore karst features and/or sensitive caves to a more natural splendor as well as removing contaminates. Through our educational initiative we are able to reach out to others in the public and caving community and educate them concerning karst features, caves, large springs and sinkholes. The resources SKTF provides to our partners includes organizational skills, cave or karst clean up expertise, tools, supplies, and potential access to a dedicated volunteer base.

Over the last 10 years the SKTF has been involved in dozens of cleanups in multiple watersheds (watersheds are the areas of land that catch rain and drain the water into a stream, river, lake, or marsh). The biggest success story is the removal of over 100,000 pounds of debris from the Russell Cave Watershed over 5 years in conjunction with the Sewanee Mountain Grotto. The following is a listing of projects the SKTF has been involved with over the last 10 years:

Local communities in which the cleanups occur have been incredibly receptive to the clean up work the SKTF has performed. This has opened up new areas for cavers to explore with the good will generated. In addition, the fun and camaraderie cavers have when working on the clean up projects brings cavers together from all over the region.

However, the most important message the SKTF sends is how fragile our watersheds are. When people connect the roadside dump with the water quality downstream, they become much better stewards of our fragile cave ecosystems.