Ed Schoenfeld

PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND, ALASKA (2008-08-05) Southeast scientists are depositing dye into holes in the ground to learn more about how water flows beneath the surface. The research is turning up unexpected information about the cave mazes underlying parts of Southeast Alaska. What they’re learning could protect salmon and trout. And it could help manage logging and other development in the porous landscape known as “karst.”

Click on "more" to see photos, read a scientific report on the topic and learn more about Southeast Caves.
Read a report on Jim Baichtal and Katherine Prussian’s research: "Delineation of a Karst Watershed on Prince of Wales Island, Southeast Alaska."

Connect to the Forest Service website on the Beaver Falls Karst Trail.

Take an audio tour of El Capitan, one of Southeast Alaska’s largest caves.

Read more about Southeast Alaska caves from Tim Heaton’s website.


Geologist Jim Baichtal and Hydrologist Katherine Prussian watch water from
 a nearby muskeg bog cascade down Beaver Falls and into a cave.


Prussian stands on the Beaver Falls Karst Trail and looks down into one of
many pits, sinkholes and other underground entrances into the network of
Prince of Wales Island caves.


Jim Baichtal and Katherine Prussian stop to view an interpretive sign along
the bog near Beaver falls.


One of the signs along the trail.


A hole into the ground. What goes in here can come out miles away.