Bigfork High School's Cave Club honored

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized a group of local high school cavers for their environmental efforts.

Bigfork High School’s Cave Club received a 2009 President’s Environmental Youth Award for its commitment to cave conservation and awareness on federal lands, including Glacier National Park, according to a press release from the EPA.

The agency was particularly impressed with the club’s “Conserving the Hallowed Ground” project, which helps restore and protect caves. Students have removed trash and graffiti from caves, studied aquatic cave invertebrates and monitored and modeled cave data on computers.

The club has established resource monitoring in two sensitive caves in Glacier Park. Students are monitoring visitor impact points and temperature and are taking photos to monitor these caves. They have also provided specific recommendations on resource protection measures.

High school science teacher Hans Bodenhamer started the club in fall 2007.

Since its inception, Cave Club has received attention from organizations such as Best Buy, which awarded the group a $10,000 grant. That money allowed Cave Club to set up a GIS lab complete with seven high-powered laptop computers and a desktop server to help the group’s monitoring efforts.

EPA honored the group last week.

“The President’s Environmental Youth Award recognizes young people from across the United States who have stepped up to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink and the communities where we live,” agency administrator Lisa Jackson said in a press release. “Our winners represent the future of environmental innovation. We’re proud to recognize their incredible work and thrilled to have their invaluable help in taking on the environmental challenges of today and tomorrow.”

Nine other individuals or teams of students also received the award. Award-winning projects included collecting cooking oil to recycle into biofuels, designing and building an environmental education center made entirely from earth-friendly materials, and starting a recycling program and class on recycling.

The President’s Environmental Youth Award has been presented annually since 1971 to honor students from kindergarten through 12th grade who design and implement innovative environmental projects.