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AcTIVIST SPOTLIGHT


What It Takes to Save a Cave

“Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen were always looking for holes in the ground, and on a Saturday in November 1974, they found one.”

And what a hole it was — in fact, it was an entrance to Kartchner Caverns, a breathtaking limestone cave near Tucson, Arizona, which is now a state park. But this amazing site wasn’t always protected. After Tufts and Tenen first crawled into this cave — hundreds of thousands of years old — the men spent a quarter-century struggling to safeguard it from the vandals and looters who had defaced walls and destroyed ancient mineral formations in so many other caves.

The new book Kartchner Caverns: How Two Cavers Discovered and Saved One of the Wonders of the Natural World, by Center member Neil Miller, reproduces Tufts’ and Tenen’s thrilling moment of discovery, their hard work to save the cave, and their ultimate success. With personal interviews, biographical information, political maneuvering, and geological facts, Miller weaves an absorbing tale and presents an educational account of the importance of preserving unique underground caverns so they can “live” and their formations can grow for thousands of years to come.

Read more about Miller’s Kartchner Caverns (and how you can get a copy).

Want to share your story in our Activist Spotlight?
A sea change can begin with a cave conservationist— or maybe, it can begin with you. If you or someone you know has found a creative way to turn concern for the planet — and for endangered plants and animals — into change for the better, we'd like to share your story with the world. Send us your spotlight idea here.

And check out other activists we've honored here.

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Kartchner Caverns courtesy Wikimedia Commons/Mike Lewis with permission of Gary Tenen, under the GNU Free Documentation License