Fury as stunning limestone cave is forced to shut to tourists after billionaire landowner’s shock move

A beautiful limestone cave in Hawaii was forced to close after its billionaire landlord blocked subsidies to continue funding the cave.

Located on the coastline of Kauai’s south coast, Maauwahi Cave Reserve has been a popular tourist destination since paleoecologist David Burney and his wife Lida Burney founded a nonprofit nature park on the site in 2004.

The two had transformed it from a graffiti-covered, neglected site into a thriving oasis with more than 10,000 native and Polynesian plants surrounding the cave, while providing tours for up to 80,000 visitors annually. according to the San Francisco Gate.

But in late October, the Burneys announced they had to sell the preserve after their landlord, Grove Farm, blocked a $2.3 million grant for conservation initiatives from the Department of Defense Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative Challenge program, as well as a $260,000 state grant.

The land management company, owned by billionaire Stephen Case – co-founder and former CEO of AOL – had said it did not want any “encumbrances” on the property following staff changes and after switching its lease to monthly last year. .

“The closure is financial in nature,” Burney told the Gate. ‘Without subsidies we simply cannot run the building.’

He noted that he and his wife were able to keep the cave sanctuary open for almost a year by expanding two pre-existing grants from the Hawaii Tourism Authority and Pacific Birds and Habitat Joint Venture.

They also had to use some small donations and work with a skeleton staff to keep it running.

‘It takes more to pay your staff to provide tours for 200 or more people a day, while maintaining the toilets, native plant nursery and more than 10,000 native and Polynesian plants transferred from abandoned quarries and farmland around the cave,” Lida explained.

“All the money has now been spent and as people in our mid-70s we can’t afford to dip into our personal savings to keep it going while Grove Farm decides what to do with the site.”

Her husband added: ‘It’s sad for Lida and me to give it up after 33 years of working here, but it’s time, we’re excited to push this canoe to shore and see who paddles. ‘

Stephen Case – co-founder and former CEO of AOL – owns Grove Farm, the land management company that owns the cave property

The company said it did not want any “encumbrances” on the property following staff changes and after switching its lease to monthly last year.

The Burneys have since rehomed their 2,000-pound tortoises and given away thousands of native plants as they plan to transfer the property.

The paleoecologist noted that Grove Farm has not told them what it plans to do with the property and so “after nurturing this place, studying it in detail, publishing extensively about it and presenting it to more than to have explained a million visitors since we opened there, we’ve been worrying a lot about, you know, what’s going to happen next.

“Our main concern is that the site will now be neglected,” he said.

But a spokesperson for Grove Farm said the “intent is to continue to conserve this important resource,” noting that the land management company “has formed a nonprofit organization that will oversee the cave to continue providing access to educational institutions ( including school groups), scientific and cultural research.

“We have reached out to current faculty members to continue their exceptional expertise,” the spokesperson told the San Francisco Gate.

“The tenant has chosen to terminate the lease, which had been running on a month-to-month basis since 2019, without penalty,” it added.

David Burney (pictured) and his wife were able to keep the cave sanctuary open for almost a year by expanding two existing grants from the Hawaii Tourism Authority and Pacific Birds and Habitat Joint Venture

A spokesperson for Grove Farm told the San Francisco Gate that it will continue to offer educational opportunities

Kaui resident Elizabeth Okinaka, who has worked as a teacher for more than two years, said she will ask to be involved in the future plans the Grove Farm has for the property.

“Places like Maauwahi Cave Reserve are truly like no other,” she said. “Visitors walk away with so much knowledge and more respect for the island, and that’s what we need for tourism in Hawaii.

“There has to be a balance, and that is a huge loss,” Okinaka added. ‘Hundreds of visitors are trained every day.’

She went on to say that if the Burneys had not been initiated, the cave would have been destroyed long ago.

“Everyone should be grateful for the work that Burney and Lida have done, including people like Pila Kikuchi and Kapaka, who were founding members of the reserve and spent part of the last years of their lives there.

“In the end, I think it’s a shame that it had to end this way,” Okinaka concluded.

“I am hopeful that the legacy of Dr. Burney will be honored if the cave is ever used again in the future,” she said.