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The Lure of Lava Tubes: Exploring Lava Tube Tourism on the Big Island of Hawai‘i 71

Table 4.1 The range of human threats to Hawai‘i Island lava tube resources
Category Threat

Total or partial physical destruction l Road works & construction
l Subdivision development
l New lava flows
–
Major land or hydrologic disturbance l Ohi‘a tree removal & general land clearing
l Hotter & more frequent fires from introduced grasses killing trees & causing erosion issues
l Invasive species such as pigs, goats & fire tree that destroy or out compete surface
vegetation and cause erosion
Pollution l Raw sewage
l Gray water
l Solid waste dumps
l Toxic & hazardous substances such as pesticides, herbicides, agricultural & automotive
chemicals placed or leaked into lava tube
Physical impacts resulting directly from Vandalism of archaeological artifacts & cave features
l
human visitation/alteration l Accidental destruction of tree roots & cave features
l Tampering or trampling of archaeological artifacts & deposits
l Trampling of cave flora & fauna
l Introduction of invasive species including microbes
l Creation of new entrances or the modification of existing entrances (addition of doors, etc)
changing air flow and humidity in the cave causing deep cave areas to become drier; thus,
further limiting habitat for deep cave species
l Particle contamination (smoke, ash, dust, etc.)
Source: Table categories adapted from Watson et al’s 1997 classification. Data compiled from Allred and Allred, 1997; Watson et al, 1997; Halliday,
2003; Hamilton-Smith, 2004; Mitchie, 2004; Stone and Howarth, 2005; Stone et al, 2005; Shick, 2008

visited a cave without park knowledge or a local spelunker with prior experience in the
permission and ignorantly trampled a section cave, the situation could have been avoided.
of fragile ‘sand castle’ deposits. They had read
about the site in a German publication (Stone • Many casual cave tourists tend to leave rubbish
et al, 2005). This example illustrates the and other items in or near caves in ignorance
primary reason it is illegal to publish the and possibly indifference to the potential harm
location of any cave located on federal lands, as these items may eventually cause to the values
lack of knowledge of their exact location is a of the site.
mechanism to protect cave sites from such
situations. Stone and Howarth (2005) observe that many of
these threats can be reduced through education
• Unfamiliar with the famous Kazumura lava and legislation. However, they note that there:
tube, a recreational caver wrote the word ‘YES’
between two large horizontal arrows in cave is a dilemma posed with developing strategies for protecting
slime indicating the correct direction for cave resources: on one hand, one needs to make resources
cavers to travel (Shick, 2008). The graffiti was known so that they will be less likely to be destroyed
unnecessary and might take decades or longer through ignorance during land use changes; however,
for the cave ‘slime’ to obscure the unsightly publicizing the resources can lead to increased visitation
mark. If the caver had visited Kazumura with and subsequent increased rate of destruction’. (p24)

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