Georgetown Cave, Colbert County, Alabama

February 2022

Gate Types: CHUTE and BASIC

Georgetown Cave was another historic roost for federally Endangered gray bats (Myotis grisescens), historically housing approximately 100,000. However, a series of poorly-designed and poorly-placed gates and fences had severe negative effects on the bats, and worse yet, did not stop human visitation. The cave is on National Park lands, and we were approached about correcting these problems in order to bring back the bats. We built a Chute Gate at the main entrance and a Basic Gate at the side entrance. All photos © Ethan Perrine, except 4, 6, and 7 © Jim Kennedy.

We would radio the needed lengths to the cutting team, which was set up right by a busy park road. They would then carry the steel along the steep river bluffs to the cave entrance.
Looking out the entrance, it is obvious why Native Americans used this site.
We took a quick look inside with the Park biologist before starting work. Only a few bats were present, such as this big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus).
We also saw a couple of tri-colored bats, which we were careful not to disturb.
Ethan has younger eyes, and was also looking down instead of up. He was rewarded with this tiny pseudoscorpion, a new site record.
Our welder Rebecca is connecting two pieces of sill plate to span the wide entrance. Two columns are already welded to the sill.
Now Rebecca works the big demolition hammer at the top of a column to make a hole for an anchor pin.
Rebecca’s husband Jonathan took over welding duties for the latter half of the week. He’s welding the lock protection box in place in this shot.
This photo should have come after the next one, but the orientation was wrong. Jonathan is welding one of the supports for the chute in this photo.
It’s starting to look like a gate! Jim is figuring out what the next pieces are to be measured and cut.
Skipping back to the normal order, we are now matching up the angles for the chute supports.
Jim is usually the one behind the camera, so it is rare that we have photos of him. This is a good one.
Here’s the final chute gate at the main entrance, with our man Ryan for scale. Both look rather nice!
After finishing the more difficult main gate, we moved to the second entrance.
It wasn’t quite as spacious, but that also meant that it wouldn’t take as long to build.
Shane and Ryan work the big drill again to anchor a column in the second entrance.