A haven for partiers and vandals, this cave has taken an incredible amount of
abuse. It's walls blackened by a tire fire in the main room, it's air poisoned by decaying bails of hay (since painstakingly removed), and its formations smashed
and stolen by the hordes of vandals who come here to party, this cave would almost be considered a lost cause. It's proximity to the road makes gating almost
impossible, and cleanup efforts are endless.
Why not write this cave off? Because this is the home of the endangered Dolloff Spider, found only in Santa Cruz caves, and the unique Empire Cave Pseudoscorpion, found only in Empire Cave! Our efforts here are not just to save a cave, but to save two species from extinction!
Halloween is particularly hard on Empire Cave. The parties are non-stop, drugs and alcohol are a constant presense, and more destruction occurs on this one
night then most caves suffer in an entire year. One year, bails of hay were dragged into the cave to make their activities more comfortable. This hay was left in
the cave, and soon after began to decay. The resulting CO2 from the decaying hay nearly killed all the native cave life and made cleanup trips
hell! There was so much CO2 that even the flame of a cigarette lighter was unable to be sustained. We still haven't seen any of the unique Empire
Cave pseudoscorpions return, but thankfully at least one Dolloff Spider has been spotted.
The November 1st 1997 cleanup was mostly hands-and-knees work, picking
broken glass out of the muddy floor and pulling cans out of every little crack or hole in the wall.
Empire Cave is on University of Santa Cruz property, and is thus owned by the University. Gating was at one point attempted, but since the cave is so close to
the road, each gate has been destroyed as fast as they can be installed. The University finally gave up their gating attempts and actually installed a ladder to
ease entry! Not only has the University opened themselves up to epic lawsuits, but they have also made it an order of magnitude easier for vandals to destroy the
cave and cause the extinction of two archnid species.
Every year, on the day after Halloween, the SFBC organizes a cleanup trip to Empire Cave, in hope of giving this cave just a little more chance at life. Other
cleanip trips are also run whenever we get a chance and the situation has been determined to be particularly bad. Every extra set of hands we can find are
very welcome to help--this is an endless task involving hard work and a strong stomache. If you would like to lend a hand, please drop by one of the SFBC monthly meetings. The October meeting is the best time to show up, since it is less then a week from the cleanup trip
and preparations are frantically being completed. This is an "easy" cave so no prior caving experience is required. Just the desire to lend a hand! If
you need a helmet and head lamp, please be sure to let us know at the October meeting.
This is your chance to give back to the cave and the caving community! Please help us save Empire cave before it is too late!
Empire Cave Trip Report by Lysa De Thomas
Empire Cave Cleanup Trip Report by Robert Mudry
The Empire Cave by UCSC
The Subterranean Amphipod Database by Dr. John R. Holsinger
Photo: (Top)November 1st, 1997 Empire Cave cleanup
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