Forest

The first objective of Ka Ohana O Kahikinui when resettling and restoring Kahikinui's Hawaiian Home Lands in the mid-90's was the protection and restoration of its forests. With the help of multiple partners, the community aims to carry out this goal - a goal that is vital to the health of their entire watershed. Located upland of the homestead tracts are over 7,000 acres of mesic koa forests. These forests were once among the most robust and diverse in the entire island chain, supporting an abundance of native plant and animal life, much of which could be found no where else in the world.

Over the last 150 years, ranching in the region has led to systematic deforestation due to overgrazing that has reduced forest cover to less than 10% of its former extent, none of it intact. Based on observations following similar efforts in the neighboring regions of Kaupo and Haleakala National Park, fence-construction and subsequent removal of feral ungulates will trigger spontaneous recovery of, not only the koa canopy, but a wealth of plant and animal life throughout all strata of forest; among them, the critically endangered Maui parrotbill, once presumed extinct and now numbering over 500 birds whose numbers can only strengthen with every acre of forest reclaimed. Outside of its function within the ecosystem, the abundance of native biota lends itself to the perpetuation of traditional landscapes through which Hawaiians continue to access their spiritual culture.

The kupuna (ancestors) had a saying, "hahai no ka ua i ka ululaau," that the rains always follow the forests. This understanding still holds water today. Along the arid stretches of lowlands across the leeward side of East Maui where rain-catchment systems are reliant on clouds ushered in by upland stands of trees and where groundwater is fed by fog interception in Haleakala's cloud forests, these old words are felt in full. The kupuna understood the value of water and the forests that captured it and protected them through the ahupuaa - a system of strict land management that recognized the interconnectedness of all natural systems from the mountaintops all the way to the shores and their fisheries. In this centuries-old design, we find the answers to so many of today's environmental concerns - water resources, carbon sequestering, productive agriculture, soil health and retention, as well as the health of reef and marine resources - each addressed and resolved through the diligent stewardship of our forests and the waters that follow them.