As used in this chapter, the following words shall have the meanings stated unless the context requires otherwise:
(1) “Cave” means any naturally occurring void, cavity, recess, or system of interconnecting passages beneath the surface of the earth containing a black zone including natural subterranean water and drainage systems, but not including any mine, tunnel, aqueduct, or other man-made excavation, which is large enough to permit a person to enter. The term “cave” includes or is synonymous with “cavern.”
(2) “Commercial cave” means any cave utilized by the owner for the purposes of exhibition to the general public, whether as a profit or nonprofit enterprise, wherein a fee for entry is collected.
(3) “Gate” means any structure or device situated so as to limit or prohibit access or entry to any cave.
(4) “Person” or “persons” means any individual, partnership, firm, association, trust, or corporation or other legal entity.
(5) “Owner” means a person who owns title to land wherein a cave is located, including a person who owns title to a leasehold estate in the land and specifically including the Commonwealth and any of its agencies, departments, boards, bureaus, commissions, or authorities as well as counties, municipalities and other political subdivisions of the Commonwealth.
(6) “Speleothem” means a natural mineral formation or deposit occurring in a cave.
This shall include or be synonymous with, but not restricted to stalagmite, stalactite, helectite, shield, anthodite, gypsum flower and needle, angel’s hair, soda straw, drapery, bacon, cave pearl, popcorn, coral, rimstone dam, column, palette, flowstone, et cetera.
(7) “Speleogen” means an erosional feature of the cave boundary and includes or is synonymous with, but not limited to anastomoses, scallops, rills, flutes, spongework, boxwork, and pendants.
(8) “Material” means all or any part of any archaeological, paleontological, biological, or historical item including, but not limited to, any petroglyph, pictograph, basketry, human remains, tool, beads, pottery, projectile point, remains of historical mining activity or any other occupation, found in any cave.
(9) “Cave life” means any life form which normally occurs in, uses, visits, or inhabits any cave or subterranean water system, excepting those animals and species covered by any of the game laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
(10) “Troglobitic” means or refers to any form of cave life specifically adapted to the cave environment and which carries out its entire life cycle in the cave.
(11) “Troglophilic” means or refers to any form of cave life which, although lacking specific biological adaptations necessary for permanent residence in any cave, carries out at least a portion of its life cycle in the cave.
Effective: July 15, 1988
History: Created 1988 Ky. Acts ch. 168, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1988.