Posted on: Sunday, June 1, 2003
Group launches 43,000-acre koa project on Maui
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
It was once home to one of Hawai'i's tallest and most extensive forests of koa, the prized hardwood used in the carving of traditional Hawaiian canoes and crafts.
Today on the leeward slopes of Haleakala, relatively few koa trees remain, the remnants of a forest that succumbed to the pressures of harvesting, grazing and invasion of non-native weeds and animals. Most people now view the south slope as a desert.
But imagine vast koa forests above the 3,500-foot elevation, from Makawao to Kaupo, supporting the watershed, attracting native wildlife and allowing sustainable harvesting of koa.
This is the vision of the Leeward Haleakala Watershed Restoration Partnership, a newly formed group largely made up of the owners of huge tracts of land on the upper south and west slopes of Haleakala.
The 10 members of the partnership, including the James Campbell Estate, Haleakala National Park, Haleakala Ranch and Department of Hawaiian Homelands, are scheduled to attend a signing ceremony tomorrow at 'Ulupalakua Ranch, at the center of the region.
The pact will launch the newest of the state's watershed partnerships. But instead of trying to protect an existing watershed forest, it will try to create one, covering about 43,000 acres, said Art Medeiros, a U.S. Geological Survey biologist and the driving force behind the partnership.
Medeiros, who will serve as the group's first coordinator, said historical sources indicate that leeward Haleakala and the Kona and Ka'u regions of the Big Island produced most of the canoes found throughout the Islands.
"It is clear that without some conservation measures, the koa logs that are being harvested today and in the near future to make canoes are likely to be the last ones ever gathered," he said.
These regions were once some of the most biologically rich forests in Hawai'i. Medeiros said fossil evidence suggests that many rare Hawaiian birds now restricted to remote northern Haleakala rain forests were once common in forests near 'Ulupalakua and Kahikinui. That includes the po'ouli, with only three known to exist, and the Maui parrotbill, with only about 500 birds.
Today, koa occupies only about 5 percent of its former range on leeward Haleakala, and those fragments are rapidly disappearing.
Even so, according to Medeiros, the region is ideally suited for restoration because of the absence of major forest weeds and because of koa's nitrogen-fixing abilities (a potent natural fertilizer) and rapid growth rate.
"If it wasn't for the species koa, we wouldn't even be thinking about it," Medeiros said.
Under the right conditions, koa grows fast, about two feet a year. In 20 years, a koa tree will be about 40 feet tall with a canopy of equal size. The seeds live a long time, and new trees seem to pop out of the ground with ease.
"If we protect the trees from animals (such as wild pigs and goats), we'll have a hard time not having koa grow," he said.
To protect the trees, Medeiros is looking at a tried-and-true method of Hawai'i reforestation: A fence. An effort to erect a fence on the leeward slopes will be among the first projects for the group.
In addition to being a new source for the cultural use of koa for canoes and woodworking, the koa forests will provide homes for native plants and birds as well as enhance the area's watershed potential.
"We've been talking about the concept for a long time, because we have to do something to get the water cycle back," said Sumner Erdman of 'Ulupalakua Ranch. "One of the oddities about this place is that everyone wants to drill a well. But the water has to come from some place."
The forests should also create financial benefits to the landowners. Erdman said the ranch is looking at opportunities in ecotourism and the sustainable harvesting of wood. But it will be 50 years before any substantial results are realized, he said.
