As legend goes, a submerged cave along Molokai’s northwest coast was the source of a stony sponge valued for its medicinal properties. Only the bravest of souls attempted to gather the sponge because a fearsome moo (lizard) with iridescent eyes guarded the cave’s entrance. Hence the name of the area — Moo­momi, meaning "pearl-eyed lizard."

At first glance the 921 hot, dry, salt-sprayed acres that make up Moo­momi Preserve look like the stark kind of place where such a creature would exist. Sand dunes stretch about 2.5 miles long and a half-mile wide. Constantly shaped and reshaped by strong northeast trades, they are partly blanketed by low-growing shrubs and grasses that have survived in this challenging environment for centuries.

There are no lights, no buildings and no paved roads in the rugged, remote landscape, making the preserve one of the last intact coastal dune ecosystems in the main Hawaiian Islands.

Moomomi harbors more than 22 native plant species, four of them considered globally rare or endangered — akoko (coastal sandmat), enaena (cudweed), ohai (river hemp) and pamakani (dune Tetramolopium), a member of the sunflower family found only at Moo­momi.

Fossils indicate at least 30 bird species once inhabited this area, about one-third of them now extinct. One was a flightless duck that stood 4 feet tall and laid eggs the size of ostrich eggs.

To protect its natural and archaeological treasures, Moo­momi Preserve was created in 1988 by the Nature Conservancy, which manages it in partnership with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

"It’s raw, wild beauty that you seldom see anywhere else in the inhabited Hawaiian archipelago because so much of our coastlines have been developed," said Russell Kall­strom, information coordinator for the conservancy’s Molo­kai office. "Moo­momi is a place of solace and resilience. Only when you walk among its dunes are you able to fully appreciate the value of its resources and the significance of its stories."

On hikes that volunteers lead into the preserve eight times each year, participants learn that as early as the 11th century, villagers from Molokai’s wet north shore valleys spent summers at Moo­momi to gather seaweed, make salt from seawater, and catch and dry fish, which they ate during the winter months when conditions were too rough to venture into the ocean. Along the trail are vestiges of an ancient house site and chips of dense basalt, used to make adzes and other tools.

From April through November, the dunes bordering Kawa­aloa Bay serve as the most important nesting sites in the main Hawaiian Islands for the endangered honu (green sea turtle). Native birds populating the preserve include the pueo (Hawaiian owl), huna­kai (sanderling), kolea (Pacific golden plover), iwa (great frigatebird) and uau kani (wedge-tailed shearwater).

Because the conservancy controls predators such as rats, mongooses and feral cats and dogs, Moo­momi claims the largest nesting colony of wedge-tailed shearwaters on Molo­kai. Those seabirds nest in burrows in the dunes. In 1999, Moo­momi had only three such burrows; today the count is more than 700.

"There are so many burrows, they’re visible on Google Earth," Kall­strom said. "From July through October, you can see hundreds of shearwater chicks nestled in the burrows. They look like puffy balls of down."

The dunes have hardened into sandstone in spots, sometimes around plant roots that later died and decayed, leaving behind cylindrical "casts." Those intriguing formations and tree snail shells scattered on the beach suggest forests once extended close to the shoreline.

Just as the Hawaiians of old likely did, hikers can admire large meadows of aki­aki grass, sprawling pau o Hii­aka vines and carpets of golden ilima. Aggressive non-native species such as kiawe and lantana, however, have invaded the landscape over the past 150 years, threatening the native plants.

"We’re addressing this through a technique called passive restoration," Kall­strom said. "We cut the invasive stand, run it through a chipper and blow the wood chips back on the removal site as mulch. Over time the native plants grow back on the site. It’s hard work, but since the 1990s we’ve restored about 10 acres of native vegetation this way."

The conservancy’s fieldwork also includes pulling weeds, monitoring rare plants and honu and shearwater nests, and keeping predators in check.

"Hawaii is the most isolated landmass in the world," Kall­strom said. "Many plants and animals got here on their own by wind, wave and wing long before humans arrived. On our Moo­momi hike, participants learn about some of those native species and the importance of protecting them because they’re rare, fragile clues to the past. Moo­momi is one of the last remaining doors to ancient Hawaii."

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Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.