Russell Cave National Monument - Cave shelter site

Over the course of the last few decades, erosion at this cave has increased with several feet of debris including rock, sand, and silt from upstream deposits making their way into the dry creek stream bed associated with this cave system. Land management practices further upstream and beyond park boundaries, such as timber harvesting, are impactful and accelerate these erosion processes. Serious undercutting continues to occur at the cave entrance, as well as erosion that has occurred within the shelter floor and along the walls, with potential loss and impact to archeological materials. Using a combination of survey strategies including terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and imaging techniques, our project design examined the conditional and management concerns, and is providing baseline and comparative analytics for stabilization and monitoring strategy efforts. These newly collected imaging and spatial data will be used to examine areas of change and delineate areas where stabilization efforts have recently occurred. The project is a collaborative effort between researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) and the National Park Service Southeast Archeological Center (NPS SEAC).