TY - BOOK AU - Taylor,Michael Ray TI - Hidden nature: wild southern caves SN - 9780826501028 PY - 2020///] CY - Nashville, Tennessee PB - Vanderbilt University Press KW - Caves KW - Tennessee KW - Caving N1 - Includes bibliographical references and index; Near Spencer -- Florida-Georgia line -- Bat season -- Finding caves -- Secret squirrel and the deep biosphere -- in Xanadu -- Graffiti -- The bridge -- The source -- On Tarball Pond -- TAG on steroids -- Caver Tree -- Goat's Paradise -- Saving secrets -- Slow going -- Back door -- Crapshaw -- Convention N2 - "More than 10,000 known caves lie beneath the state of Tennessee according to the Tennessee Cave Survey, a nonprofit organization that catalogs and maps them. In this book, Taylor tells the story of this vast underground wilderness. In addition to describing the sheer physical majesty of the region's wild caverns and the concurrent joys and dangers of exploring them, he examines their rich natural history and scientific import, their relationship to clean water and a healthy surface environment, and their uncertain future"-- ER -