Sims Sink Nature Preserve
KEY STATS
Suwannee County, Florida
2016
unknown
The Sims Sink Nature Preserve, Suwannee County, Florida, was established for the primary purpose of protecting the Santa Fe Cave Crayfish (Procambarus erythrops). This species is listed by the State of Florida as Threatened, Florida Natural Areas Inventory as Critically Imperiled, and IUCN as Endangered. In addition to being the species’ type locality, Sims is also its ‘mother lode,’ containing more individuals than all the other known habitat caves combined times ten or twenty. The cave is of moderately small size, so it is not available for recreational cave diving.
Altogether, the Sims Sink Nature Preserve supports several NSS missions. First, it preserves outstanding imperiled species habitat. Secondly, it offers research opportunities in an underwater cave and phreatic aquifer regarding water quality and troglobitic and stygomorphic crustaceans. Third, it preserves the cave itself and whatever other resources that may exist there. Fourth, it provides a service to the public in terms of green space and biodiversity. The society’s membership can be justifiably proud of this preserve, as it demonstrates to other parties that the NSS can and does care about caves for far more than just recreation.
Want to Visit?
Access to the preserve is limited to qualified cave divers only. Visitation will only be permitted for research, data collection, water sampling, or survey. All visitors must contact PreservesScience@caves.org for activity approval prior to requesting a permit.
1500s
This preserve had two plant communities in the sixteenth century when early Spanish explorers passed through Florida. The karst plain was dominated by a fire-adapted, somewhat open woodland dominated by longleaf pine with an understory of shrubby oaks and ground cover of wiregrass and wildflowers. Much of the sinkhole was probably vegetated by a mix of pines and hardwoods.
Pre-1937
Unknown persons converted the longleaf pine sandhill habitat to agriculture and constructed a coal-tar creosote-wood platform over the sinkhole that has become known as Sims Sink.
1937
Ebbie Sims’ family bought the larger property (70+ acres); the platform already existed, as did an adjacent tenant house; the tenants got their water from the sink with a bucket and pulley. Ms. Sims did not know when the platform was installed, recollected no irrigation pump being on it, the platform was there to keep people from falling in, and fish had been caught on hook-and-line from the sink but she thought they may have been brought in (personal communication, March 18, 1985). Corn, peanuts, and watermelon were cultivated on the 70+ acres by the Sims family and tenants.
1975
Procambarus erythrops formally described.
1982
Dick Franz estimated Sims Sink crayfish population at 500 individuals based on mark-recapture method.
Summer 1984
The property was occupied by a dense thicket of 5-to 10-foot tall, possibly 3-to 4-year old laurel oaks (Quercus hemisphaerica). The previous crop was planted slash pine (Pinus elliottii).
Dec. 14, 1984
NSS member Buford Pruitt bought 18+ acres surrounding Sims Sink.
Apr. 30, 1987
Pruitt donated 2-acre Sims Sink parcel to The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
1987
TNC constructed a chain-link fence around a 1-acre portion containing the cave entrance.
1996
Pruitt planted 12.5 acres of his 16+ acres in longleaf pine.
1996
William Streever estimated the Sante Fe Cave Crayfish (P. erythrops) average lifespan at 17 years.
2014
TNC transferred preserve to the NSS.
This karst plain is gently undulating with less than ten feet of relief. Its soils are very sandy, being composed of Appalachian silica sand. Clay in the soils ranges from nearly absent to being clayey-sand in description. The surface of the limestone is believed to have a cockpit topography, so soil depths range from thick to thin, say to 30 feet in depth. Like Sims Sink, most cave entrances in this region are vertical solution pipes that lead to water-filled caves. Most of the non-flowing karst window (phreatic) caves in the region lead to relatively small caverns and caves, but Sims Sink Cave is unusual in that it is a relatively large room.
The cave is a karst window into headwaters of the Floridan Aquifer, also known as the Southeast Principal Aquifer. The Miocene-aged limestone underlying the karst plain’s Holocene sediments is quite porous (≤ 30%) and cavernous.
Although larger aquifer voids tend to be interconnected, over geological time these connections are severed and reestablished by sediments filling in and washing out. The absence of fish in the cave indicates it currently does not have a direct connection to downstream waters, although water and dissolved materials certainly flow through pores in the rock. Regional piezometric maps indicate that groundwater from the preserve trends southward to the Santa Fe River.
Recreational cave diving is not allowed in Sims Sink Cave. Only monitoring and research staff will be allowed to enter by securing a permit to do so. Approval of all permits will be at the discretion of the Preserve Management Team. Full details can be found at this link: Preserve Access Rules
To request a permit, click on the button at the top of this page or go to the Permit System where you will be prompted to create a login and select the NSS Nature Preserve for which you would like a permit.
Requests for access can be made by applying for a permit through the Permit System where you will be prompted to create a login and select the NSS Nature Preserve for which you would like a permit.
For additional questions about this NSS Nature Preserve, please contact the Preserve Management Team via email at: SimsSinkPreserve@caves.org.
