DEVELOPING AN EDUCATIONAL SPELEOLOGY PACKET FOR GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI

Greene County, Missouri has numerous caves that are on public property. The Greene County Parks Board considers them a valuable natural resource. The caves are utilized by the Outdoor Initiatives program to educate the community. In an effort to better educate the public, the Outdoor Initiatives Director asked members of the Missouri State University's Speleology class to create an informative packet. The packet was created for a wide-ranging target audience running from elementary school students and their teachers to the general citizen with no previous knowledge of caves. The packet includes photos and information on cave history, geology, formations, biota, karst, groundwater, management, and safety. A seperate packet was also created for a 60-acre natural resource area that the park board was soon opening to the public. The natural resource area includes numerous caves and karst features, which required site visits and field notes taken as part of the process. The natural resource area packet includes previously created cave maps as well as the information on the formation and features of each of the caves in the area. This presentation will describe the process of preparing these educational materials and will include sample pages from the project.