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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
Neglect of the islands’ forests would be “suicidal,” for “everything fails with the failure of our water supply”. (Lyon; DLNR)
“Not enough rain and not enough water in the streams are great evils”.
“It appears to me to be unnecessary to again go deeply into the theory of the relation between forests and rainfall when all intelligent and observing people admit that the decrease or increase of rainfall goes pari passu (‘hand-in-hand’) with the decrease or increase of the forests.”
“The forest, which not only produces rain, but also retains the rainwater, holding it among its leaves and branches, its undergrowth, its myriads of roots and rootlets and its fallen debris, letting the rainwater trickle down slowly to the water streams and keeping them supplied for a long time”.
“(T)hat forest is not there. Rain pours down, the water rushes in torrents through the streams to the sea and soon after everything is dry again.” (Gjerdrum to HSPA, 1897)
Prior to 1820 all of Honolulu’s domestic drinking water was obtained from natural springs and the small river that runs through Nuʻuanu Valley.
Honolulu with its deep water port, abundant natural resources and friendly people soon became a favorite way station for whalers and traders crossing the Pacific Ocean.
The requirements of supplying these ships caused a waterfront storage tank to be installed at the lower end of Nuʻuanu Street. The water for that tank came from a taro patch on Emma Street.
The demand for drinking water from various springs and the Nuʻuanu Stream spurred the development of a public water supply distribution system that, upon its completion in 1862 provided water to the residents and businesses in downtown Honolulu. (DLNR)
“The water is pure, sweet, cool, clear as crystal, and comes from a spring in the mountains, and is distributed all over the town through leaden pipes.”
“You can find a hydrant spiriting away at the bases of three or four trees in a single yard, sometimes, so plenty and cheap is this excellent water. Only twenty-four dollars a year supplies a whole household with a limitless quantity of it.” (Twain, April 20, 1866
However, there was concern about the diminishing forests … and, with it, a crisis in the availability of water.
By the 1830s, forested lands in the Islands were in decline. The sandalwood trade had reduced sandalwood populations to such an extent that in 1839, Hawaii’s first forestry law restricted the harvest of sandalwood.
Cattle (which had been introduced in the late-1700s) continued to cause widespread destruction of native forests. (Idol) For many years, cattle were allowed an unrestricted range in the forests so that in many sections the forest is either dead or dying. (Griffith)
The almost total destruction of the undergrowth has allowed the soil to bake and harden thus causing the rainfall to run off rapidly with the resultant effect of very low water during the dry season. (Griffith)
“We are in trouble because we have no firewood and no la‘i (ti leaf,) and no timber for houses, it is said in the law that those who are living on the land can secure the things above stated, this is all right for those living on the lands which have forests, but, we who live on lands which have no forests, we are in trouble.”
“The children are eating raw potato because of no firewood, the mouths of the children are swollen from having eaten raw taro. We have been in trouble for three months, the Konohikis with wooded lands here in Kaneohe have absolutely withheld the firewood and la‘i and the timber for houses.” (Letter from Hio et al to House of Representatives, 1851; Hulili, Ulukau)
It reached a maximum by the late-1800s/early-twentieth century owing to burning of the forests to locate the sandalwood trees, demand for firewood, commercial logging operations, conversion to agricultural and pastureland, the effects of grazing and browsing ungulates (including cattle, goats, and pigs) and increased fire frequency. (Woodcock)
The sugar industry, still concerned about water shortages due to forest decline, sought and succeeded in establishing the forest reserve system, which instituted partnerships between public and private landowners to protect forests.
Due to the cooperation between public and private landowners, and another tax break for conservation of forests on private land in 1909, large scale reforestation, fencing and feral ungulate eradication efforts occurred across the islands.
The forests were transformed during this time, as millions of fast-growing nonnative trees were planted throughout the islands to quickly re-establish watersheds denuded by logging and ungulates.
Impending crisis also led to the development of groundwater wells (today’s primary source of drinking water in the Islands.) The McCandless brothers started drilling the first artesian well in the Hawaiian Islands in the rear of the James Campbell Ranch House at Honouliuli, Ewa District, on the flat land close to the sea.
“Mr. Wilder (then-Minister of the Interior under King Kalakaua) helped us in securing contracts for five wells, to be drilled for His Majesty, King Kalakaua: one in the Palace grounds, one at his home in Waikiki, and three others located on his properties in the outside districts.”
Over the next 55-years, McCandless Brothers drilled more than 700 good wells across the Islands. Their wells helped support and water the growing and expansive sugar and pineapple plantations including ʻEwa, Kahuku, Oʻahu, Waialua and other large producers, and also on the Islands of Maui, Hawaiʻi, Kauai and Molokai.
We are fortunate that 100-years ago (April 25, 1903) some forward thinkers had the good sense to set aside Hawai‘i’s forested lands and protected our forest watersheds under the State’s forest reserve system.
While I was at DLNR, we oversaw nearly 1-million acres of mauka watershed. Healthy forests are a goal for all of us in Hawai‘i, it’s as much about fresh water, erosion control, protected reefs and economic opportunities as it is about trees. (I am proud and honored to serve on the Board of Directors of the Hawai‘i Forest Institute.)
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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
The name Koʻanakoʻa literally means the settling of coral, referring to Maro’s expansive coral reefs. Another name, Nalukakala, describes surf that arrives in combers, such as the surf that froths over shallow reefs. (PMNM)
In 1820, the ships Maro and Rambler of Nantucket, commanded respectively by Captains Joseph Allen and Benjamin Worth, in company with the Syren of London, rendezvoused at the Sandwich islands.
At this same time, Honolulu was described as a scattered, irregular village of thatched huts, of 3,000 or 4,000-inhabitants. (Maly)
Here they met Captain Winship of the ship O’Cane, a veteran northwest coast merchantman, who informed them that while crossing on his many voyages from the Sandwich Islands to Canton, China, he observed a great number of sperm whales off the coast of Japan. (Allen on the Maro is credited with discovering the “Japan Grounds.”)
One of the principal benefits to the economy of the Islands was the rendezvousing of the Pacific whaling fleets from the US and other countries at the various ports of the islands for many years, and the transshipment of oil and bone from these ports.
By 1820, the calls of whalers at Honolulu were quite frequent. Americans were quick to see the superiority of the islands for recruiting and refitting over other stations in the Pacific, and very soon all the American vessels in the Pacific, and quite a few from other countries, were touching at the islands regularly. (US Commission of Fish and Fisheries, 1901)
It was that year, after his discovery of Gardner Pinnacles, that Captain Joseph Allen on the Maro, sighted and named the reef after his whaling ship, Maro.
Maro Reef has less than one acre of periodically emergent land; at very low tide, only a small coral rubble outcrop of a former island is believed to break above the surface. As a result, Maro supports no terrestrial biota.
In contrast, the shallow water reef system is extensive, covering nearly a half-million acres and is the largest coral reef in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.)
It is also one of the chain’s most ecologically rich shallow water marine ecosystems, with 64-percent coral cover over the entire area, among the highest percentage observed in the Monument.
Unlike the classic ring-shaped atoll, Maro is a complex maze of linear reefs that radiate out from the center like the spokes of a wheel.
The documented marine biota at Maro Reef includes 37-species of corals and 142-species of reef fish. Fish species endemic to the Hawaiian Archipelago make up half of all fish recorded here.
Maro’s reefs are intricate and reticulated (like a net or network,) forming a complex network of reef crests, patch reefs and lagoons. Deepwater channels with irregular bottoms cut between these shallow reef structures.
Because the outermost reefs absorb the majority of the energy from the open ocean swells, the innermost reefs and aggregated patch reefs are sheltered and have the characteristics of a true lagoon. Given the structural complexity of this platform, its shallow reefs are poorly charted and largely unexplored. (PMNM)
While Maro Reef has very healthy reefs, it may be ‘on the verge of drowning’ because the reefs are narrow, unconnected, and unprotected from storm waves. Others feel that the health of the corals suggest that Maro Reef is a complicated reef system on a large seamount, living in balance with the elements. (FWS)
As Chair of the Board of the Land and Natural Resources I made the recommendation to the rest of the BLNR (and we then voted unanimously) to impose the most stringent measures to assure protection of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
In helping people understand why, I have referred to my recommendation to impose stringent protective measures and prohibit extraction as the responsibility we share to provide future generations a chance to see what it looks like in a place in the world where you don’t take something.
That action created Refuge rules “To establish a marine refuge in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for the long-term conservation and protection of the unique coral reef ecosystems and the related marine resources and species, to ensure their conservation and natural character for present and future generations.“ Fishing and other extraction is prohibited.
The BLNR’s action started a process where several others followed with similar stringent protective measures.
Koʻanakoʻa (Maro Reef) is now part of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a State and Federal (State of Hawaiʻi, Department of the Interior’s US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) co-managed marine conservation area.
The monument encompasses nearly 140,000-square miles of the Pacific Ocean – an area larger than all the country’s national parks combined.
On July 30, 2010, Papahanaumokuakea was inscribed as a mixed (natural and cultural) World Heritage Site by the delegates to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO.) It is the first mixed UNESCO World Heritage Site in the US and the second World Heritage Site in Hawaiʻi (Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park was inscribed in 1987.)
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“If the learned and worldly-wise men of this age were to allow mankind to inhale the fragrance of fellowship and love, every understanding heart would apprehend the meaning of true liberty, and discover the secret of undisturbed peace and absolute composure.” (Bahá’u’lláh)
Bahá’í’s believe God has sent to humanity a series of divine Educators – known as Manifestations of God – whose teachings have provided the basis for the advancement of civilization.
These Manifestations have included Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad.
The Bahá’í Faith is an independent religion founded in Persia by Mirzá Husayn Alí (1817‐1892,) known as Bahá’u’lláh. It has its own sacred literature, religious and social tenets, as well as practices.
Bahá’u’lláh, the latest of these Messengers, explained that the religions of the world come from the same Source and are in essence successive chapters of one religion from God.
Bahá’í’s believe the crucial need facing humanity is to find a unifying vision of the future of society and of the nature and purpose of life. Such a vision unfolds in the writings of Bahá’u’lláh.
The Bahá’í commemorate May 23, 1844, when the Bab, the herald of the Bahá’í Faith, announced in Shiraz, Persia (now Iran,) that he was the herald of a new messenger of God. It is one of the nine holy days of the year when work is suspended.
Dr. Augur, Disciple of ’Abdu’l-Baha was born in New Haven, Connecticut and educated at Yale University. In 1898 Dr. Augur and his wife Ruth and their son Morris moved to Hawaii. Sometime in 1909 the Augur’s became Bahá’ís.
On December 26, 1901 Agnes Baldwin Alexander, a native of Hawaii, returned to Honolulu from a trip to Rome where she discovered the Bahá’í Revelation, and Hawaiʻi’s first Bahá’í.
She rejoiced that she was continuing work begun by her distinguished grandparents (Rev. Dr Dwight and Charlotte Baldwin and Rev. William Patterson and Mary Ann Alexander) who were in the fourth and fifth companies to bring Christianity to the Hawaiian Islands.
Miss Martha Louise Root, was born in Richwood, Ohio in 1872 encountered the Bahá’í Faith and became confirmed shortly thereafter. For the next twenty years she roamed the globe interviewing the famous and powerful while spreading the teachings of Baha’u’llah.
She was the first to travel and teach in South America. When Martha Root passed away in Honolulu on September 28, 1939, it was noted that, “unnumbered admirers throughout Bahá’í world lament … the earthly extinction of her heroic life.”
Two American Bahá’í, Mr Howard Struven and Mr CM (Charles Mason) Remey, were making a world trip in 1909 proclaiming the Faith; they first stopped in Honolulu. A local paper noted the following invitation for readers to learn about Bahá’í:
“The Bahá’í of Honolulu extend to all a cordial invitation to attend a lecture to be given at the Young Hotel on Monday night, at eight o’clock, by Prof CM Remey of the architectural department of the George Washington University, of Washington DC upon the history, teachings and reforms of the Bahá’í movement.”
“The object of the Bahá’í movement is the unification of all religions. Having had its birth in Persia over half a century ago, its truths have been taught the world over.”
“Mr. Remey and Mr. Struven, the Bahá’í workers, are now spending three weeks here, on a tour of the world which they are making in the interests of the Bahá’í cause.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 28, 1909)
Later (March 1915,) Remey returned to the Islands, with him were George O Latimer, a Portland attorney, and Miss Corrine True of Chicago.
While in the Islands, in addition to community gatherings to discuss the Bahá’í faith, Remey, Latimer and True met with former Queen Liliʻuokalani.
Click the following link to see a video of a reenactment of the meeting of the Bahá’í followers with Queen Liliʻuokalani. It was performed at Washington Place on March 25, 2015, the Centenary of the meeting with the Queen.
Today the Bahá’í communities can be found in over 200-nations. The voluminous Sacred Scriptures of the Bahá’í Revelation have been translated into more than 800-languages.
The spiritual heart of the American Bahá’í community is the Bahá’í House of Worship for North America, located in Wilmette, IL, just north of Chicago.
The Bahá’ís of Hawaiʻi are found on every inhabited island of the Hawaiian chain. Every race and ethnic group found in the islands is reflected in the Bahá’í community, as Baha’u’llah stated, we are all ‘fruits of one tree’ and ‘flowers of one garden’.
The Hawaiian Bahá’í community is a separate administrative community from the US Bahá’í community in the worldwide Bahá’í Faith. The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the Hawaiian Islands was established in 1964.
Its administrative association is Australasia and the Mother Temple of the Pacific is in Samoa. All temples are dedicated to humanity and open to all for prayer and meditation. (Rice) (Lots of information here is from Bahá’í and Hawaiʻi Bahá’í.)
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Mahalo ‘Aina: Give Back to the Forest is a program of the Hawai‘i Forest Institute (an entity established in 1989 to promote healthy and productive forests and a sustainable forest industry through forest management, education, planning, information exchange and advocacy.)
In partnership with the Hawai‘i Forest Industry Association (HFIA) and others, the goal of the Mahalo ‘Aina program is to expand community partnerships and gain support for the protection and perpetuation of Hawaiʻi’s forest ecosystems.
Click HERE to get to the Mahalo Aina website.
The philosophy of Mahalo ʻAina is simple: to help ensure a thriving future for forest restoration and education programs. The forest provides us with environmental, economic and cultural benefits, but we must also understand that we must give back to the forest.
Key Objectives of the Mahalo ‘Aina: Give back to the Forest program include:
This is a fundraising effort; please consider donating – click HERE to do so.
Funds raised through Mahalo ‘Aina are helping to support: Propagation, outplanting, and long-term care of plantings; Site maintenance; Cultural and environmental education programs; and Coordination and promotional activities.
Mahalo ‘Aina is not simply a tree planting program, in addition to planting trees, it is helping to support total ecosystem management and providing forest stewardship opportunities and educational programs at project sites throughout the state.
Mahalo ‘Aina will initially benefit the following projects:
Tune in to the Mahalo ‘Aina Hawaiʻi Public Radio (HPR) Radio Series on HPR-1 Monday through Friday at 8:18 am, now through Friday, July 31st.
Click HERE to catch up on prior broadcasts.
The 65 episodes will re-run on HPR-2 starting in August 2015.)
I am honored and proud to serve as a director on the Hawaiʻi Forest Institute (HFI,) an organization dedicated to promote the health and productivity of Hawaiʻi’s forests, through forest restoration, educational programs, information dissemination and support for scientific research.
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