Team members on the Earthwatch-supported Kentucky Mountain Elk project were based at a field station in Robinson Forest, one of the best-preserved forest remnants in Appalachia and home to several state threatened and endangered species. Now the University of Kentucky, which owns the 15,000-acre Robinson Forest, is considering mining portions of the land to save a financially troubled scholarship program.
"Robinson Forest increasingly has become an isolated refuge, as strip-mining for coal has continued to damage adjacent lands," said John Cox (University of Kentucky), principal investigator of Kentucky Mountain Elk in 2001 and 2002. "Further mining within the forest would cause irreparable harm to this unique refuge for biota and important ecological processes that have been compromised or lost elsewhere."
Given to the University of Kentucky in 1923 by a former timber baron, Robinson Forest has evolved into one of the leading facilities for training natural resource students and professionals in the region. In 1991, the University of Kentucky used revenues from a controversial sale of timber and coal on 4,000 acres of Robinson Forest to establish a scholarship program for students from Eastern Kentucky. However, mismanagement of the scholarship fund has resulted in a recent shortfall in the program, prompting the university to consider further mining of Robinson Forest.
In response to the threat of further mining in Robinson Forest, Students to Save Robinson Forest, a coalition of students, faculty, and concerned citizens, has formed to oppose these potentially destructive actions.
"We believe that our university has a moral obligation to be responsible heirs in upholding Mr. Robinson's wishes to benefit future generations of all Kentuckians," said Cox. "Such actions would establish the university as a leader of land stewardship rather than liquidation, and perhaps foster the reintroduction of absent biota and processes to complement the reintroduction of the elk."
Earthwatch teams on Kentucky Mountain Elk helped monitor the habitat choices of nearly 1,600 elk translocated to southeastern Kentucky, the most ambitious elk reintroduction effort in eastern North America. They found that although elk favor areas of forest edge, herbaceous scrub, and grassy openings, they often avoid human disturbance. For instance, a majority of elk released onto a strip-mine during the first year dispersed to older reclaimed areas that with less human disturbance.
"Although elk seldom venture into the interior of Robinson Forest, this may change in response to a growing elk population unchecked by large predators and through fragmentation caused by mining within the forest," said Cox. "The additive effects of elk herbivory and mining could ecologically devastate the forest in short order."
By seeking alternative sources of scholarship funds and opting against any further mining of Robinson Forest lands, the university could set the stage for restoring the full complement of the forest's former species. Cox and other members of Students to Save Robinson Forest see their actions as in keeping with Mr. Robinson's wishes to further both education and conservation in this critical forest resource.
For more information about Students to Save Robinson Forest, see www.robinsonforest.org
For more information on Kentucky Mountain Elk, click here
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