Exploring what Game Pasture Cave is in San Antonio, Texas.

Game Pasture Cave is one of the lesser known caves of San Antonio, Texas. This news article will explain what Game Pasture Cave is.

Game Pasture Cave is located on a 197 acre tract of land which is a privately owned parcel containing King Toad Cave and Stevens Ranch Trash Hole Cave. Game Pasture Cave is located in the Game Pasture Cave Cluster which is a privately owned parcel. The surface and subsurface drainage basins are unaltered. This area has adequate undeveloped acreage to be considered a high quality KFA. (Ref: https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/Documents/R2ES/Bexar_County_Karst_Invertebrates_5-Year_Review_Sep2011.pdf)

There is a major roadway, Stevens Parkway, in this unit, and is in the process of being extended from the southwestern to western part of the unit. Some of the vegetation has been cleared in the past for ranching. Game Pasture Cave is known to contain R. infernalis and is occupied. Game Pasture Cave contains all the PCEs of the species. Game Pasture Cave requires special management because of potential future residential and commercial development and trespassing. Threats include the potential for destruction of surface vegetation and karst habitat, contamination of the subsurface drainage area of Game Pasture Cave, drying of karst features, reduction of nutrient input, and infestation of fire ants. (Ref: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2012-02-14/html/2012-2195.htm)

The cave is vadosely developed in the Austin Chalk. The main passages are developed along near parallel joints bearing 25º and dipping 89ºE, and the connecting cross-joint passages are formed along joints bearing 117º and dipping 82ºN. Surface water runoff within a 10-20 m radius of the entrance flows into the cave through its 4-m-diameter sinkhole and may sometimes fill nearly all the passages. Bottles floated up to high ledges mark the degree of flooding. The flood levels are inconsistent with the estimated size of the surface drainage area and suggest inflow from a larger groundwater drainage basin. That basin is estimated as extending for 80 m, about twice the end-to-end length of the cave, along the cave’s axis from its footprint and for 40 m from the footprint perpendicular to the axis. (Ref: https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/Documents/R2ES/Bexar_Cnty_Inverts_Delineation_of_Hydrogeologic_Areas.pdf)

Game Pasture Cave is located near Stevens Parkway and Potranco Road, San Antonio, Texas, US.