Pu'uwa'awa'a: What "endangered" means

As I wrote on Monday, I went up to Pu'uwa'awa'a (Furrowed hill) Ranch on Monday to hike and get some pictures of the native forest. I parked my truck and was about to set out when another truck came down the trail and stopped. An older Japanese man asked me, politely but with some authority, what I was doing. When I told him I was going to take pictures of the native plants he asked me which ones. I told him I thought I saw some Kuaila in the area I was in. He told me he was making his rounds on the ranch and if I wanted to come along with him he could show me a lot of native plants.

He introduced himself, although I had figured out who he was before he said it. Mikio Kato is a legend in Kona. He was a cowboy on Pu'uwa'awa'a Ranch for many years, and he now shares the lease on the ranch from the state of Hawai'i.

The dryland forest around Pu'uwa'awa'a is about as endangered as it gets. Mickey (as he introduced himself - though possibly spelled Miki) was checking mongoose traps. The mongoose love to eat the native birds, like a little elepaio foraging in a lama tree about three feet above my head. I guess the native birds are still not as wary as they need to be. Miki drove his truck to the various traps: when he saw that a mongoose was in the trap, he took a 22 cal. rifle out of the truck and dispatched the bugger with one shot.

The biggest danger to the forest in Pu'uwa'awa'a is fire. The fountain grass grows right under the trees. Huge areas of rare forest have been lost. The most recent bad fire was 5 years ago. That fire started by the lower highway, near Kiholo, and a strong wind built into a wall of flame that Miki said they were "lucky" to stop at the upper highway. In addition to the fire, the imported goats, sheep and cattle eat the young native plants. So years ago, they fenced off what miki said was the "nicest" part of the native forest for 7 years. The forest came back, but the fountain grass was also unchecked. A fire from the highway, again, took out the protected forest/ Now they graze cattle along the highway to keep the fountain grass down. Miki said that almost all of the fires are due to arson. "They put a lit cigarette in a pack of matches and toss it in the grass," Miki said. The capacity of humans for stupid and senseless acts is truly amazing.

I mentioned that when I hike in lama forests, I never see any baby lama trees. Miki said that that's because the rats eat the seeds. Another imported danger.

For all the dangers facing it, the forest is wonderful. I learned that some of the trees I had thought were kauila were actually maua. The leaves of both are shiny, but the kauila's are more yellow, and the trunk of the maua has lots of little round knobs protruding. Miki said that the knobs made the maua trunks sought-after for lamps and such. Poachers used to cut them down before the gates were locked. Man, of course, is the biggest danger to the native forest (and the one who imported the goats, sheep, cows, rats, mongoose and fountain grass) even when we're not starting fires for fun.

I learned that what I'd suspected were ili'ahi (sandalwood) actually were, and that the grey-trunked shapely trees with cherry-sized yellow fruit and reddish undersides to the leaves are ala'a. But the most astonishing thing I saw were the wiliwili trees. Below the upper highway, Miki unlocked the gate and we descended down to where the more or less gentle slope of the Hualalai flows meets the gigantic Pu'u Anahulu flow, the hill that Puu Lani Ranch and the Big Island Country Club sit on, which is actually a 900 foot thick(!) single lava flow. The land is quiet and the huge red trunks of the wiliwilis seem to churn out of the rocks like tormented giants. God, they're awesome. Pictures will follow. I'm without a home computer at present.

All in all, a great Labor Day.