ST. LOUIS - Save the caves? A Washington University professor in St. Louis warned Wednesday that Missouri, often called the Cave State, is losing too many of its caves to development. "A lot of caves have been filled in, or entrances blocked, or bulldozed over," said Earth and Planetary Sciences Professor Robert Criss. "As we develop, I just wish we'd give a little more thought to what we're doing to the natural world."
While many of Missouri's best-known caves are protected, there doesn't seem to be any established protocol for protecting hundreds of other caves from development, he said, a sentiment echoed elsewhere in the state.
Many times, "We look at caves as a way to entertain us, ...