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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, March 25, 2005

Replanting of koa goal of fund-raiser

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

Koa trees may be among Hawai'i's most renewable resources, and one of the Isles' leading cultural and environmental foundations is setting out to help renew it.

Koa trees once covered the uplands of the Islands. A Moanalua Gardens Foundation project seeks to help restore the forests.

Advertiser library photo • March 2002

The Moanalua Gardens Foundation has launched a fund-raising campaign to support a replanting project in the hills of Manana, above Pearl City, in the hopes of re-establishing the native forests that once covered the uplands of the Islands.

"It's at threat for all kinds of reasons, everything from the commercial value of it, to the depletion of its natural environment, to ranching, agriculture and development," said Samuel Gon, a foundation consultant and senior scientist and cultural adviser for The Nature Conservancy of Hawai'i. "There are also twig bores, pests and fungus that attack the plant."

It is certainly not the first reforestation effort: Kamehameha Schools has spearheaded planting projects on the Big Island, and a landowners' group called the Leeward Haleakala Watershed Restoration Partnership formed in June 2003 to plan ways of recreating a koa forest on about 43,000 acres on Maui.

However, the foundation's project affords a rare opportunity for the public to pitch in with a replanting effort on O'ahu, said Marian Leong, school programs director.

The foundation this week began collecting donations of $10 per koa seedling and has set a goal of raising $50,000 that will help support the planting of 5,000 koa seedlings at Manana.

But because the seedlings and much of the labor have been donated, Leong said, the money will benefit the foundation's educational programs, including those on koa and other native species.

How to help

The Moanalua Gardens Foundation is accepting donations for its koa reforestation project. Donations by credit card can be taken at 839-5334 from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Checks, made payable to the foundation with "Koa Project" noted on the memo line, can be mailed to: Moanalua Gardens Foundation, 1352 Pineapple Place, Honolulu, HI 96819-1754.

Groups interested in assisting in the planting can contact Kapaliku Sherman at nativehiplants@aol.com.

A touring display on the issue will be installed first at the Keawe Street office of the Hawaiian social services agency Alu Like, she said.

The seedlings are being provided by the Waimanalo nursery and environmental company Hui Ku Maoli Ola.

The nursery crews will be doing much of the planting, but can involve some limited volunteer assistants, said company owner Kapaliku Sherman, who also is a foundation board member.

Sherman said the state is in the process of acquiring about 80 acres of land where the trees are being planted, adding that his company secured permission from the private landowner for the reforestation to begin. The first young trees were planted about a week ago, he said, but work really will begin in earnest in about two weeks.

The site was cleared by a brush fire about five years ago, Sherman said.

Koa trees take about 20 to 30 years to reach maturity, he said.

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.