Steve Pitts has spent much of his 25-year caving career working as a steward for the Fern Cave System in Jackson County, Alabama (managed by Wheeler Wildlife Refuge and the SCCi). Steve first visited Fern Cave in the 1970s and was fascinated by the complexity of the cave system and the endless opportunities for exploration. As of July 2005, Steve has visited the cave 267 times.

Starting in the 1980s when he moved to Huntsville, Alabama, Steve began taking a very personal interest in the cave system. He visited the cave often, but many of his trips to the cave involved working on improving the road (a continual, ongoing task) and maintaining the trails. He kept a constant lookout to make sure visiting cavers had permits. This is very important for Fern Cave since it is the winter home of over 1.5 million endangered gray bats, the endangered Heart’s Tongue Fern, plus some of TAG’s most fantastic cave formations. As such, the cave system requires a great deal of protection.

Steve also kept a constant eye on the bat population and let JV (Fern Cave access coordinator from the 1980s to 2001) know when he encountered gray bats in unusual areas. As a result of Steve’s observations, several areas of the cave are now seasonally closed to protect the bats. In 2002 Steve led a team of biologists to the cave’s hibernacula to conduct the first winter bat count in over 25 years. The bat count provided extremely useful data about the overall health of the gray bat population (the population in Fern is doing very well) plus verified that current access rules for this portion of the cave are in fact protecting the bats. Monitoring and protecting the bat population continues to be one of Steve’s top priorities.

When JV became ill in the late 90s, he asked Steve to join him as co-access coordinator for the cave system. Steve readily accepted. As co-coordinator, he worked with JV to issue permits to cavers and continued his work maintaining the property. When JV died in 2001 Steve took over the role of access coordinator for both Wheeler Wildlife and the SCCi. He talks to cavers interested in visiting the cave system about where they want to visit, ensures they have the proper caving skills to visit the cave, then issues permits. He also makes sure cavers do not visit sensitive areas of the cave (such as gray bat roosts and hibernation areas) and makes sure cavers are conservation-minded during their visit. He then ensures that each trip leader submits an access report listing each caver on the trip and the areas the cavers visited. Using this information, Steve compiles a detailed report about cave use for Wheeler and the SCCi once a year. Steve’s efforts protect both the cave and cavers, and have helped hundreds of people experience a safe, low-impact, and enjoyable trip to Fern.

Steve works hard to maintain excellent relations with Wheeler Wildlife Refuge. He submits annual reports about visitation to the cave and is always available to assist the Refuge staff. Steve has also worked diligently to foster and maintain good relations with all of the landowners in the area surrounding Fern, resulting in continued open access to the cave.

In 1992 Steve found the Bone Dome area of the cave that contained major deposits of very old Pliestocene bones. Steve worked with local caver-archaeologists to carefully remove, with the required permission and permits, a small amount of bone material for analysis. Upon learning that the removed bone material contained human remains and to preserve the area, he and JV promptly closed this section of the cave. This was not a popular decision among cavers wanting to explore the new area, but was the correct decision to preserve and protect the area for future studies.

In addition, Steve was an active member of the Fern Cave Project in the 1990s and was instrumental in revitalizing the mapping efforts over the last few years. Cavers from all over the country are participating in the new mapping effort. The mapping project will ultimately result in a world-class map of the cave, which will give cavers, biologists, and land managers a more thorough understanding of the entire cave system and how to effectively protect it well into the future.

Steve Pitts truly loves Fern Cave and has dedicated years of his life to preserving and protecting it. His stewardship has ensured that the cave remains a sanctuary for a variety of endangered animals and plants, while still providing a place where cavers can explore, survey, and experience truly pristine underground wilderness.