Israel's National Infrastructure Committee has decided to save the Ayalon Cave from development, preserving not only the third-largest limestone cave in the country, but also saving a few species found nowhere else on earth from extinction.
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Plans had been submitted to the committee for a project to divert rainwater from the Ayalon Creek into the cave, which would have wrecked its ecosystem.
The Ayalon Cave was discovered during work at the Nesher-Ramle quarry in 2006. The first researchers from the Israel Cave Research Center who spelunked in were astonished to discover its dimensions (the cave extends for some 2,700 meters, or 8,900 feet); the delicate ecosystem inside it, and the lifeforms that exist in the cave completely independent of the outside world.
Thus far, scientists have discovered eight species in the cave that were previously unknown – four aquatic crustacean species and four species of terrestrial crustaceans and springtails. All the species unique to the cave are eyeless.
The cave is not open to the general public, and only a handful of researchers have been given permits to enter it.
The NIC issued a statement explaining that after the plans to divert rainwater runoff to the cave had been presented to the public, responses had flooded in about the damage it would do to the ecosystem at the bottom of the cave.
According to the NIC, numerous researchers from Israel and abroad had pleaded the case to the NIC, prompting the committee to give Netivei Israel-National Transport Infrastructure Company, the author of the plan, six months to suggest a different destination for rainwater runoff.
Cave researcher and geologist Professor Amos Frumkin welcomed the decision "to prevent harm to the Ayalon Cave and its unique ecosystem."
"We hope that environmental considerations will continue to guide government and public authorities in Israel and lead to a higher-quality world for us to leave to future generations. We thank everyone who took part in the fight and the public who supported it," Frumkin said.
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