PRESERVING LOCAL GEOHERITAGE SITES

Many international, national, regional, and state heritage sites are well known and receive considerable support for preservation. Unfortunately, there are also many outstanding sites at the local level that are significant geologically, environmentally, and historically, and they too deserve consideration for preservation. Without grass roots efforts, these sites, which can make an important contribution to our science as well as our history, will be lost forever. This paper discusses one such effort and how it was used to preserve a site in Lexington, Kentucky. It has become an outstanding urban, geological, environmental, historical, and educational park. Prior to this preservation effort, the site, a karst valley known as McConnell Springs, had become both literally and figuratively, an urban dump. Thanks to the efforts of one city council person, a geologist, a member of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Division of Planning, and the help of many volunteers, this site has been cleaned up, preserved, and enhanced into an outstanding environmental education park. Trails and modern educational facilities have now been constructed at this park, which lies within 5 minutes of the center of town. Travel time, a critical element to teachers, makes this an import contribution to earth science education. Incidental to this project was the preservation of a groundwater system and prevention of potentially extensive groundwater contamination and sinkhole flooding. It is hoped that this effort, which emerged because of a few individuals, can serve as an example and model for similar sites throughout the world.