Largest limestone cave in Hawaiʻi to close to public after nonprofit’s lease ends

The Makauwahi Cave Reserve, home to the richest fossil site and largest limestone cave in the state of Hawai‘i, is closing 20 years after its opening on the South Shore of Kaua‘i due to uncertainty about the future use of the property by its landowners.

On Oct. 31, the land lease ends for accomplished scientists David Burney and Lida Pigott Burney, who founded the Makauwahi Cave Reserve in 2004.

Management of the 17-acre reserve will be returned to its landowner, Grove Farm, a company comprised of three former sugar plantations and with reported total landholdings of about 38,000 acres on Kaua‘i.

Since word got out about the impending closure of the reserve to the public, three beloved resident tortoises have disappeared, with two reported stolen.

David Burney said they did not want to end the lease, but Grove Farm officials were uncertain about their future plans for the property and therefore forbid future grant funding for the reserve to eliminate any “grant encumbrances.”

“We were informed in October last year that we had been converted to a month-to-month lease,” David Burney said in a written statement to Kaua‘i Now. “Nobody can ask for grant funds or major donations when they don’t even know if they will be around in another month or two.”

The Makauwahi Cave Reserve was recently awarded a $2.3 million Department of Defense environmental grant via the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kekaha, but receipt of that grant, and a $260,000 state grant for community forestry and wildfire safety initiatives, was blocked by Grove Farm leadership, according to David Burney.

David Burney stated the planning for the above projects had been negotiated in advance with
management at Grove Farm, but staff turnovers at the company have led to many changes.

Grove Farm did not respond to an emailed interview request pertaining to the closure of the cave reserve.

The Makauwahi Cave Reserve was created when Grove Farm offered a free lease to the Burneys in exchange for taking care of the cave and purchasing liability coverage. Up to 80,000 people, from local school groups to international tourists, annually visit the cave and its surrounding trails.

The foundation of the reserve, according to David Burney, was the culmination of a large research project they began on-site in 1992 with colleagues from the Smithsonian Institution and the late archaeologist Pila Kikuchi of Kaua‘i Community College.

Major outlets and programs including National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Nova and National Public Radio have profiled the Makauwahi Cave Reserve, located in the Māhāʻulepū section of the Kōloa district.

Surrounding the cave, on abandoned farms and quarry lands that also make up the reserve, are native plants and animals that have returned due to innovative restoration techniques, according to the reserve’s website.

“Acres of restored forest land, dune vegetation, and wetland habitat feature almost 100 species of native plants, including many endangered species, as well as endangered waterbirds and even an underground ecosystem of blind cave invertebrates,” the website said.

Past findings in and around the reserve’s limestone cave have included fossils of insects, birds and fish, as well as artifacts like bone and shell fishhooks, a stone mirror and canoe fragments.

In his 2010 book “Back to the Future in the Caves of Kaua‘i: A Scientist’s Adventures in the Dark,” David Burney said: “Makauwahi Cave may be as close as some of us will ever get to time travel, I suspect.”

The Burneys, now in their mid-70s, undertake frequent journeys to Kaua‘i while making their home in North Carolina. There, the scientists are 5,000 miles closer to other research projects, which include initiatives on the islands of Madagascar, Mauritius and Rodrigues in the western Indian Ocean.

Grove Farm staff have not shared their plans for the Makauwahi Cave Reserve property, according to David Burney, who said: “It’s sad for Lida and me to give up after 33 years of working here, but it’s time, we feel, to shove this canoe offshore and see who paddles.”

The Makauwahi Cave Reserve includes several tortoises living in large paddocks outside of the cave site itself. There, the tortoises function as nature’s lawnmowers, serving as contemporary replacements to a now-extinct species of flightless “turtle-jawed” duck that once lived in the area.

The Kaua‘i Humane Society, as a courtesy to an unknown individual who was later revealed to have acted without the knowledge of cave reserve management, recently advertised on social media the availability of the reserve’s tortoises for adoption. The posts appear to have since been deleted.

Kaua‘i police officers responded on Oct. 6 to a complaint regarding the apparent theft of a 30-year-old, 60-pound tortoise named Lilly and a 56-year-old, 200-pound tortoise named Thor from the cave reserve property. The animals are valued at $1,000 and $2,000, respectively, according to a police report. The third tortoise is known to hide and could be somewhere at the reserve.

A police department spokesperson said due to these reports being under investigation, it could not share more information. But anyone with relevant information is encouraged to submit an anonymous tip via Crime Stoppers Kaua‘i at 808-246-8300 or visit crimestopperskauai.org.

Local resident Candice Myhre was walking her miniature horse near the cave reserve on the evening of Oct. 4 when she noticed five middle-aged men in dark clothing lingering by a tortoise paddock. She said she found this behavior odd because most tourists only pause to greet the tortoises and swiftly keep going.

“I literally almost took a picture of the turtle with them in the background, just because I didn’t like the way they looked,” Myhre said. “But … I have no idea. Sometimes people look a certain way and they are exactly the opposite of what they look like.”

South Shore resident Keala Lambert, a self-described animal and nature lover, was set to adopt one of the tortoises now reported missing from Makauwahi Cave Reserve, which she frequently visits with her six children.

“As a tortoise lover, I would bring my kids from when they were really little down there, and we would feed them and just interact,” Lambert recalled. “We fell in love with all of those beautiful creatures.”