Science Flourishes at Makauwahi Cave, from Smoke Sensors to Satellites

January 12, 2025

The US Fire Administrator, Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell of FEMA, gets an explanation of the workings of an N5 Sensor deployed to detect wildfires near Makauwahi Cave, from engineer Brian Thomson of N5 Sensors.
(Photo by Lida Pigott Burney)

Major advances in science and science applications continue to develop at Makauwahi Cave, as they have since the inception of research there in 1992. Publications in historical fire ecology from the cave sediments and other sites we studied around Kaua`i have seen renewed interest since last year’s tragic wildfires on Maui. Thinking about wildfire again led us to ask what other states and nations were doing to improve wildfire detection. In the fall of 2023, we used equipment loaned to us by N5 Sensors of Rockville, Maryland, to install a prototype system with these sensors, beginning near the cave and including sites in Poipu and Koloa towns. We demonstrated this state-of-the-art wildfire sensor system at the Hawaii Fire Chiefs’ Conference in November, 2023. Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell, the U.S. Fire Administrator for FEMA, toured Makauwahi Cave Reserve with us to see the detectors at work and learn about fire-wise landscaping in Hawaii. She announced at the meeting that FEMA was donating 80 of these sensors to fire departments throughout the Hawaiian Islands. These are now deployed, including 20 more on Kaua`i in addition to our original five sensors, the first in the state.

In the course of decommissioning our extensive plant propagation facility in October, 2024, we also donated hundreds of native and Polynesian plants to a wide range of conservation organizations and schools on the island, for use in their own fire-wise landscaping projects. Meanwhile, a new scientific publication has come out using satellite data from the cave reserve’s restored forests and other sites to calibrate and evaluate LANDSAT imagery of native, non-native, and restored dry forests in the state.