Professional Publications

I completed my Master’s by writing Geomorphic History of Martin Ridge Cave, KY from Western Kentucky University in 2000.  The project involved mapping the cave’s stratigraphy, structure, and passage orientations to piece together the geomorphic history of how the cave system developed.  

My paper, Studying Cave Visitation Trends, was published in the 2005 National Cave and Karst Management Symposium Proceedings.  The paper showed my two different techniques to study visitation use at cave tour operation at Timpanogos Cave National Monument and Utah most visited wild cave Nutty Putty Cave.  At Timpanogos Cave NM, using their tour schedules I could study the visitation trends to show seasonal visitation peaks, tour size frequencies, and average daily visitation peaks.  By defining the use, the hope was to be able to better manage and model visitation of the cave.  The main objective was to increase resource protection and visitors experience by decreasing tour size without changing the amount of cave tour revenue.  Nutty Putty Cave visitation was collected using a hidden light intensity datalogger within the cave.  The logger recorded the maximum light intensity every 15 minutes.  If the light intensity was above the ambient readings of total darkness it was counted as a visit.  With this data, daily visitation trends could be observed.  The data from the study helped persuade the Utah State Trust to allow the Timpanogos Grotto to gate and manage its cave.

My paper, Removing Graffiti using Sandblasting in Bloomington Cave, was also published in the 2005 National Cave and Karst Management Symposium Proceedings.  This paper outlines the successes of funding, removing graffiti in Bloomington Cave, and continuing action to restore the public options of the “trashed” Bloomington Cave.  I also created a video and website to advertise the project’s progress and successes. 

I made an exchange with a friend working at ESRI that if he gave me a free license to ArcPad, I would give presentations to promote how it could be used in managing caves. I gave a presentation on mobile mapping technologies at the NSS convention and presentation and paper on Inventorying Cave Features Using ESRI’s ArcPAD at the National Cave Management Symposium.

Teamed with B. E. McNeil, D. A. Lushsinger and M. V. Rainsmier, our article, Implementation and Application of GIS at Timpanogos Cave National Monument, Utah was published in the April 2002 edition of the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies and ESRI’s ArcNews.  The article reviewed the completion of a rockfall model, a virtual cave website, and creation of cave inventory system using up-to-date GIS technologies. 

I have had photographs published in the Journal of Petroleum Geologist, Cincinnati Enquirer, and Living Karst.  I also assisted my friend, Terry Acomb, in developing Comet photographs that were published on the cover of Time magazine’s special publication Great Discoveries: An Amazing Journey through Space and Time and Reader Digest’s astronomy publication.  I am expecting quite a few of my slot canyon photos to be used in Michael Kelsey’s Technical Hiking Guide to the Colorado Plateau.