EDITORIAL
If our forests vanish, so eventually do we

The state Legislature has declared 2003 the "Year of the Hawaiian Forest" to mark the centennial of the state's forest reserve system.

And to recognize this momentous milestone, The Honolulu Advertiser and the Nature Conservancy have published a section titled "Last Stand: The Vanishing Hawaiian Forest," which you will find in today's paper.

Read it. It's a spectacular reminder of how our forests create the watershed that provides us with fresh water; how they keep runoff and sediment from spoiling our beautiful beaches; and how they shelter a fragile ecosystem consisting of more than 10,000 unique species.

Whatever we're doing to protect these forests, it's not enough.

According to the Nature Conservancy, forests account for about 1.5 million acres, or one-third of our state land. Yet the state, which is responsible for almost half of these lands, is spending less than 1 percent of its budget to protect and manage all of its natural and cultural resources.

Hawai'i's state-owned forest reserve system is the 11th largest in the country in actual acres, yet we rank a pitiful 48th in the nation for state spending on fisheries and wildlife.

If you treat forest management as a type of environmental luxury, that might make sense. But as the Nature Conservancy section makes clear, these forests are vitally important to the overall environmental health of the state.

Before the first humans arrived here some 1,500 years ago, the Hawaiian Islands were richly forested. Cattle and other livestock brought over in the 1900s destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres, and in 1903, the Territorial Legislature created Hawai'i's forest reserve system.

Imagine Tantalus and the hills behind Honolulu barren and brown and devoid of trees. That's where we were headed.

Funding for the reserve program has dropped precipitously, leaving forest managers struggling to sustain watersheds and fight off invasive species.

Non-native critters such as goats, rats and wild pigs ravage the habitats of native species and spread diseases. Plants such as the banana poka vine and miconia have smothered acres of native forest lands that are home to rare birds and plants.

Forest managers spend more than 75 percent of their resources trying to control these invasive pests.

They need help. Plus, we clearly have to make the long-term preservation of our forests a priority for the simple reason that they sustain us and thousands of other species on these fragile islands. When the forests go, so do we.