To explore, survey, connect, document and protect the flooded underwater cave systems of North Florida’s Woodville Karst Plain. To this end, the WKPP promotes public awareness, education and scientific discovery through exploration and research support within these flooded cave systems. Through partnerships with state, federal and private landowners, the WKPP is uniquely positioned to facilitate scientific research and the gathering of valuable data. In turn, researchers, resource managers, policy makers and landowners can formulate necessary and responsible land use decisions to protect these unique and treasured resources for future generations.
A changing external environment has made it more difficult to carry out our mission. The WKPP has seen member’s outlays, team materials, and operational costs significantly increase over the past five years. At the same time, programs we lead and participate in are increasing in scope and complexity, necessitating us to broaden our approach to deliver meaningful and impactful outcomes. Program requirements are only likely to increase in the future. To ensure continued project success, we will need to harness new innovative technologies, groundbreaking survey methods, and integrated imaging techniques to continue to deliver for our stakeholders.
In the recent past, we relied on our operation excellence, along with our pioneering exploration standards and procedures, to guide us to noteworthy achievements. Our self-funded approach allowed us to forge new efficient gear configurations and a team approach to techniques, skills, and safety systems. Regrettably, this alone will not be enough to ensure future success forcing us to rethink of our long-held strategy.
In the future, we must broaden our approach by embracing both exploration and science to enable future discoveries. We must take an integrated approach utilizing the latest technological innovations combined with rigorous scientific methods. Only by leveraging our fundamental strengths and building on our rich foundational history, will we be able to place ourselves at the forefront of underwater science and technology enhancing further exploration gains. This integrative approach will enable us to unlock further mysteries of Wakulla Spring Cave and the Woodville Karst Plain. Our approach and methodology will be a model for applications in other parts of Florida and the United States.