WAILUKU, Maui — A woman who set up a cozy home in a Makena lava tube said yesterday she plans to protest any attempt by the state to remove her belongings from the site.

Karen M. Rodriguez, 51, had been living in the lava tube at the 'Ahihi-Kina'u Natural Area Reserve for several months when she received a citation in December alleging illegal camping, disturbing geological features and littering. She had furnished the cave with a table, bed, carpets, wall decorations, tiki torches, butane camp stove, dishes, wind chimes, hanging crystals and other belongings. A makeshift outhouse, complete with toilet seat, was set up in a lava field.

A Maui judge dismissed the case Sept. 1 at the request of Maui prosecutors, who said they were giving Rodriguez the benefit of the doubt because of questions about public use of public land and whether signs clearly identified the area as a reserve.

Then last Friday, officers with the Department of Land & Natural Resources' natural area reserve system posted a notice at the lava tube informing Rodriguez that she is violating reserve rules by littering, and has to remove her things by this Friday or they will be confiscated. An officer personally notified her of the pending action when the woman went to the cave Sunday.

Rodriguez said yesterday that since the first charges against her were dropped, she had been living off and on in the lava tube until Oct. 7, when someone apparently doused the site with an insecticide. She said the "poison" made the cave uninhabitable. In the meantime, vandals ransacked her belongings.

She said she wasn't sure how far she would go to push her claim that she has a right to live on the land as she pleases. Rodriguez invited reporters to visit her there Thursday and plans to have supporters with her Friday in case officers come to remove her belongings.

'Ahihi-Kina'u is a sparsely vegetated area on the dry south flank of Haleakala that includes a marine area with anchialine pools and coastal lava tubes that provide habitat for native cave animals. The tubes also were used by Hawaiians as burial sites.

State deputy attorney general Colin Lau said yesterday that authorities are pursuing the littering case because of the need to keep the area in a natural state.

"We need to clean those things out," Lau said. "It's a lava tube that is culturally and biologically sensitive."

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.