IKR was formed by Martin Davis in 1993 as a vehicle for conducting cave and karst inventories, cave exploration, karst research and for developing equipment relating to cave exploration. It has since branched into bat research and development of electronic devices applicable to this work.
Martin has been an active caver for more than 35 years and has been involved in exploration across Canada, the Eastern United States and Central America, the latter including one expedition sponsored by the National Geographic Society. He has been involved in karst related work since 1978. He is a member of the the Vancouver Island Cave Exploration Group and the British Columbia Speleological Federation, of which he is the chairman of the Cave/Karst Conservation Committee. He has also been active in cave rescue and has completed the BC Cave Rescue course. He is based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and can be reached at iskar@telus.net.
To date, Island Karst Research has conducted cave/karst inventories and other cave related research or consulting under contract to the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Canadian Forest Products, Pacific Forest Products, Science Council of BC, Forest Renewal BC and the BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks.