Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Whose Footprints Are These?

Geologic evidence suggests that the modern caldera of Kīlauea formed shortly before 1500 AD. Repeated small collapses may have affected parts of the caldera floor, possibly as late as 1790. For over 300-400 years, the caldera was below the water table.

Kilauea can be an explosive volcano; several phreatic eruptions have occurred in the past 1,200 years.  (Phreatic eruptions, also called phreatic explosions, occur when magma heats ground or surface water.)

The extreme temperature of the magma (from 932 to 2,138 °F) causes near-instantaneous evaporation to steam, resulting in an explosion of steam, water, ash and rock – the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was a phreatic eruption.

The 1924 eruption at Halemaʻumaʻu documents and illustrates the explosive nature of Kilauea.  However, the 1924 explosions were small by geologic standards and by the standards of some past Kilauea explosions.

The hazards of larger explosions, such as those that took place multiple times between about AD 1500 and 1790, are far worse than those associated with the 1924 series.  (USGS)

There were explosions in 1790, the most lethal known eruption of any volcano in the present United States. The 1790 explosions, however, simply culminated (or at least occurred near the end of) a 300-year period of frequent explosions, some quite powerful.  (USGS)

Keonehelelei is the name given by Hawaiians to the explosive eruption of Kilauea in 1790.  It is probably so named “the falling sands” because the eruption involved an explosion of hot gas, ash and sand that rained down across the Kaʻu Desert.  The character of the eruption was likely distinct enough to warrant a special name.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

At the time, Kaʻū Chief Keōuakūʻahuʻula (Keōua) was the only remaining rival of Kamehameha the Great for control of the Island of Hawaiʻi; Keōua ruled half of Hāmākua and all of Puna and Kaʻū Districts.  They were passing through the Kilauea area at the time of the eruption. The 1790 explosion led to the death of one-third of the warrior party of Keōua.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

Camped in Hilo, Keōua learned of an invasion of his home district of Kaʻū by warriors of Kamehameha. To reach Kaʻū from Hilo, Keōua had a choice of two routes one was the usually traveled coastal route, at sea level, but it was longer, hot, shadeless and without potable water for long distances.  (NPS)

The other route was shorter, but passed over the summit and through the lee of Kilauea volcano, an area sacred to, and the home of, the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele. Keōua chose the volcano route, perhaps because it was shorter and quicker, with water available frequently.  (NPS)

In 1919, Ruy Finch, a geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory discovered human footprints fossilized in the Kaʻū desert ash. Soon, this area of the desert became known as “Footprints.”

Barefoot walkers left thousands of footprints in wet volcanic ash within a few miles southwest of Kīlauea’s summit.

Many historians and Hawaiians believe the footprints were made by Keōua and his warriors.  Keōua was known to be in the area at the time, and previous thought suggested this part of the desert did not have pre-contact use, so it was narrowed down to them.

Scientists later investigated – one approach was to look deeper at the evidence.

Forensic studies indicate that the length of a human foot is about 15% of an individual’s height. A man’s foot may be slightly more that 15%, a woman’s slightly less, but it is possible to estimate the height to a couple of inches.  (USGS)

They measured 405-footprints to determine how tall the walkers were.  The average calculated height is only 4-feet 11-inches, and few footprints were made by people 5-feet 9-inches or more tall. Early Europeans described Hawaiian warriors as tall; one missionary estimated an average height of 5-feet 10-inches. Many now believe that most of the footprints were made by women and children, not by men, much less warriors.  (USGS)

Meanwhile, Keōua’s party was camped on the upwind side of Kīlauea’s summit – perhaps on Steaming Flat – waiting for Pele’s anger to subside. They saw the sky clear after the ash eruption and began walking southwestward between today’s Volcano Observatory and Nāmakanipaio.  (USGS)

Suddenly, the most powerful part of the eruption began, developing a high column and sending surges at hurricane velocities across the path of the doomed group. Later, survivors and rescuers made no footprints in the once wet ash, which had dried.  (USGS)

Then, archaeologists looked for other evidence to help identify who the footprints may have belonged to.  Contrary to general thought that the area was not used by the Hawaiians, archaeological investigations discovered structures, trails and historic artifacts in the area.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

Most of the features were along the edge of the Keʻāmoku lava flow.  Several of the trails converge south of the flow, suggesting a major transportation network.  The structures are likely temporary, used as people were traversing through the desert on their way to/from Kaʻū and Hilo.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

The sheer number of temporary shelters along the Keʻāmoku flow, as well as the trail systems and quarry sites, strongly suggest that this area was frequently used by Hawaiians travelling to and through the area – before and after the 1790 eruption.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

If the footprints aren’t Keōua’s warriors, then how did one-third of his warriors die?

Several suggestions have been made: suffocation due to ash; lava, stones, ash and other volcanic material; or strong winds produced by the eruption, asphyxiation and burning killed them.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

A more recent suggestion is that a “hot base surge, composed primarily of superheated steam … (traveling at) hurricane velocity” was the cause of death.  The wind velocity prevented the people from running away; they probably huddled together, then “hot gases seared their lungs.”  (Moniz-Nakamura)

Some now suggest that, if these observations and ideas are correct, the footprints were made in 1790, but not by members of Keōua’s group.  (USGS)

A reconstruction of events suggests that wet ash, containing small pellets, fell early in the eruption, blown southwestward into areas where family groups, mainly women and children, were chipping glass from old pāhoehoe. They probably sought shelter while the ash was falling. Once the air cleared, they slogged across the muddy ash, leaving footprints in the 1-inch thick deposit.  (USGS)

On August 1, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the country’s 13th national park into existence – Hawaiʻi National Park.  At first, the park consisted of only the summits of Kilauea and Mauna Loa on Hawaiʻi and Haleakalā on Maui.

Eventually, Kilauea Caldera was added to the park, followed by the forests of Mauna Loa, the Kaʻū Desert, the rain forest of Olaʻa and the Kalapana archaeological area of the Puna/Kaʻū Historic District.

In 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.) (Lots of good information here is from USGS, NPS and Jade Moniz-Nakamura.)

© 2023 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Crusades

In about 1095, Alexios I Komnenos, the Byzantine emperor, sent to the pope, Urban II, and asked for aid from the west against the Seljuq Turks, who taken nearly all of Asia Minor from him. (Fordham)

At the Council of Clermont (in what’s now southern France), Pope Urban II called for peace among his audience, for them to unite against a common enemy. (Forbes)

“All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested.”

“O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ!” (Pope Urban II, Fulcher of Chartres, Fordham)

“Of holy Jerusalem, brethren, we dare not speak, for we are exceedingly afraid and ashamed to speak of it. This very city, in which, as you all know, Christ Himself suffered for us, because our sins demanded it, has been reduced to the pollution of paganism and, I say it to our disgrace, withdrawn from the service of God.” (Pope Urban II, Balderic of Dol, Fordham)

“Let us suppose, for the moment, that Christ was not dead and buried, and had never lived any length of time in Jerusalem. Surely, if all this were lacking, this fact alone ought still to arouse you to go to the aid of the land and city — the fact that ‘Out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem!’” (Pope Urban II, Guibert de Nogent, Fordham)

“And you ought, furthermore, to consider with the utmost deliberation, if by your labors, God working through you, it should occur that the Mother of churches should flourish anew to the worship of Christianity, whether, perchance, He may not wish other regions of the East to be restored to the faith against the approaching time of the Antichrist.”

“For it is clear that Antichrist is to do battle not with the Jews, not with the Gentiles; but, according to the etymology of his name, He will attack Christians. And if Antichrist finds there no Christians (just as at present when scarcely any dwell there), no one will be there to oppose him, or whom he may rightly overcome.” (Pope Urban II, Guibert de Nogent, Fordham)

Pope Urban II called for defense of his fellow Christians who were under threat, and to retake Jerusalem that he said was rightfully theirs. (Forbes)

Thus began the crusades – a holy war.  The aristocracy of 11th-century Europe was indeed prepared to kill, if in service of the ‘right’ cause. And this was the ‘right’ cause for many of them. This warrior culture overlapped already with religion. They fought for family and for themselves, and certain types of warfare (in defense of the defenseless) could even lead to salvation.

In the end, Urban’s preaching tour inspired men to leave home, walk 2,500+ miles to Jerusalem, to kill people they’d never met and hardly heard of before. (Forbes)

The Crusades were waged by Christians against Muslims, Jews and fellow Christians. They were launched in the Middle East, in the Baltic, in Italy, in France and beyond.  (Smithsonian)  Between 1095 and 1291 there were seven major crusades.

Victorious leaders promptly divided up the territory into a small group of principalities that modern European historians have often called the “Crusader states.”

Crusading, or the idea of taking a holy vow to engage in military activity in exchange for spiritual reward, was refined over the next century, redirected to apply to whoever the pope decided might be an enemy of the faith (polytheists and Orthodox Christians in the north, Muslims in Iberia, heretics or rival European Christian powers in France and Italy).

In the Middle East, Jerusalem fell back into Islamic hands with the conquest of the city by the famed sultan Saladin in 1187. The last “Crusader” principality on the eastern Mediterranean coast, based out of the city of Acre, fell to the Mamluk ruler Baibars in 1291. (Smithsonian)

At this same time, stuff was happening in the Pacific, as well.

Using stratigraphic archaeology and refinements in radiocarbon dating, recent studies suggest it was about this same time that “Polynesian explorers first made their remarkable voyage from central Eastern Polynesia Islands, across the doldrums and into the North Pacific, to discover Hawai‘i.”  (Kirch)

“Most important from the perspective of Hawaiian settlement are the colonization dates for the Society Islands and the Marquesas, as these two archipelagoes have long been considered to be the immediate source regions for the first Polynesian voyagers to Hawai‘i. …”

“In sum, the southeastern archipelagoes and islands of Eastern Polynesia have a set of radiocarbon chronologies now converging on the period from AD 900–1000.”  (Kirch)

Research indicates human colonization of Eastern Polynesia took place much faster and more recently than previously thought. Polynesian ancestors settled in Samoa around 800 BC, colonized the central Society Islands between AD 1025 and 1120 and dispersed to New Zealand, Hawaiʻi and Rapa Nui and other locations between AD 1190 and 1290.  (Hunt; PVS)

With improved radiocarbon dating techniques and equipment to more than 1,400-radiocarbon dated materials from 47 islands, the model considers factors such as when a tree died rather than just when the wood was burned and whether seeds were gnawed by rats, which were introduced by humans.  (PVS)

“There is also no question that at least O‘ahu and Kauai islands were already well settled, with local populations established in several localities, by AD 1200.”  (Kirch)

Late and rapid dispersals explain remarkable similarities in artifacts such as fishhooks, adzes and ornaments across the region. The condensed timeframe suggests assumptions about the rates of linguistic evolution and human impact on pristine island ecosystems also need to be revised.  (PVS)

So, as the holy wars of the Crusades were waging into the Middle East, the Polynesians were first arriving and settling in what we refer to as the Hawaiian Islands.

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

James Magee

A “convivial, noble-hearted Irishman,” James Magee was born in 1750 and appears to have emigrated shortly before the American Revolution.  Boston town records for 1768 note the arrival of a James Magee with a group of Irish fishermen from Newfoundland (it’s not clear that that’s the same person).

Captain James Magee, of Boston, rose to eminence in maritime pursuits; he helped establish the first American commercial house in China; and he was one of the first in the East-India trade.

During the American Revolution, Magee commanded the privateer (privately owned armed vessel commissioned to attack enemy ships, usually vessels of commerce) Independence, which captured and brought into Boston harbor the British ship Countess.

From 1779 to 1783 Magee was master of at least three vessels: Amsterdam, Hermione and Gustavus.  With the war over, he married Margaret Elliot of Boston in October 1783, the youngest daughter of Simon Elliot, a well-known tobacco and snuff dealer.

Post-war Yankee ships expanded their reach and found their way into the ports of the Baltic, the Mediterranean and even around the Cape of Good Hope to the Indies.

In 1784, as part of this probing operation, Major Samuel Shaw sent the Empress of China to Canton with a cargo of ginseng. The Empress of China arrived at Macao on August 23, 1784, six months out from New York.

Later, after receiving the honorary title of American consul at Canton, Shaw, Isaac Sears and other New York merchants arranged for the ship Hope to both Batavia (Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, Indonesia) and Canton (Guangzhou, China).

Sears chose James Magee to Captain the voyage, and on February 4, 1786 Hope sailed from New York carrying both Sears and Shaw as passengers and established the first American commercial house in China

By summer, Magee was back in Boston, and in September a portion of Hope’s cargo was offered for sale at the store of his nephew, Simon Elliot.

“As the first Boston captain to visit either Batavia or Canton, Magee must have been a source of keen interest among the town’s merchants and his voyage an important stimulant to those mulling the prospects of Oriental trade.”

Although America was outstripping every other nation in China trade, save Britain, she could not long compete with Britain without a suitable medium. The Canton market accepted little but specie (a silver coin, as distinguished from bullion or paper money) and eastern products.

Ginseng, the typical exchange, could be procured and sold only in limited quantities.  The ship Columbia was fitted out by a group of Boston merchants who believed the solution of the problem lay in the furs of the Northwest Coast.

The first association of Boston with the Northwest Coast was in 1787, when Joseph Barrell and his co-adventurers sent out the Columbia and the Washington.  (Howay)  John Kendrick commanded both the expedition and the ship Columbia.

The Columbia left Boston on September 30, 1787; that voyage began the Northwest fur trade, which enabled the merchant adventurers of Boston to tap the vast reservoir of wealth in China.

In the summer of 1789, before a full cargo of skins had been obtained, provisions began to run low. Captain Kendrick therefore remained behind, but sent Gray in the Columbia to Canton, where he exchanged his cargo of pelts for tea, and returned to Boston around the world. Her rivals were quick to follow.

Following this, Lieutenant Thomas Lamb and his brother James, merchants, joined Captain Magee in building the ship Margaret, one hundred fifty tons, which was commanded by Magee on December 24, 1791, “bound on a voyage of observation and enterprise to the North-Western Coast of this Continent.”

The Margaret was under command of Captain James Magee, one of her owners; David Lamb, first mate; Otis Liscombe, second mate; Stephen Hills, third mate, and John Howell, historian.

The Margaret was, says Haswell, “as fine a vessel as ever I saw of her size, and appeared exceeding well fitted for the voyage and I believe there was no expense spared.”

The captain, Magee, was Irish; Mr. Howel was English; there were two Swedes and one Dutchman before the mast; but all the remainder of her officers and crew were American. Including the boys, the total number on board was twenty-five.

About July 19, 1792, the Margaret sailed to the Columbia River in search of furs. On her return she reported little success. Magee got sick, and on August 12, Lamb, the first mate, took command of the Margaret and had sailed in company with the Hope.

Magee got sick to such a degree that he was intensely anxious to put foot on shore, in the hope that change of scene and the land air might prove beneficial. The men were set to work to build a house for his temporary residence.

When Vancouver anchored there on August 28, 1792, he found Captain Magee living on shore with his surgeon and John Howel. 

Captain Magee appears to have steadily improved in health after leaving the coast.  On November 8, while off Hawai‘i, where the Margaret was busy buying supplies, Captain Barkley of the Halcyon went on board.

Captain Magee received his visitor in a friendly manner and they soon agreed to go in company to Waikiki Bay, Oahu, to procure water. The three vessels, Halcyon, Margaret, and Hope anchored at Waikiki about a mile and a half off shore. The water was so clear that lying in ten fathoms they could plainly see the bottom.

The next night, fearing that the natives had some scheme to capture them, they set sail and, on the morning of 11th, arrived at Kauai. Late that afternoon they anchored in Waimea Bay. On the 13th the Halcyon sailed for China. The Margaret followed her ten days later, and reached Macao January 3, 1793.

Returning to the Islands, Magee wrote the following on behalf of one of his crew who was to stay in Hawai‘i: “Ship Margaret at Anchur, Whahoo, Oct’r 6th 1793. This may certify that the bearer, Oliver Holmes, having ever behaved himself with great propriety, as an honest and active man, towards his duty while on board the Margaret, under my command, and was discharged, by his own desire, to tarry on shore at the Island. James Magee.”

(Holmes became one of the first dozen foreigners (and one of the first Americans) to live in Hawaiʻi (he lived on the island of Oʻahu.)  Holmes married Mahi i, daughter of a high chief of Koʻolau who was killed in the battle of the Nuʻuanu Pali. Holmes made his living managing his land holdings on Oʻahu and Molokai, providing provisions to visiting ships. (Oliver Wendell Holmes was born August 29, 1809 in Cambridge, Massachusetts – Oliver Holmes was in Hawai‘i at the time.))

By this time, the trade route Boston – Northwest Coast – Canton – Boston was fairly established. Not only the merchantmen of Massachusetts, but the whalers balked of their accustomed traffic by European exclusiveness, were swarming around the Horn in search of new markets and sources of supply.

To obtain fresh provisions and prevent scurvy, the Northwest traders broke their voyage at least twice; at the Cape Verde Islands, the Falklands, sometimes Galapagos for a giant tortoise, and invariably Hawai‘i (which proved an ideal spot to replenish supplies).

The Northwest trade, the Hawaiian trade, and the fur seal fisheries were only a means to an end – the procuring of Chinese teas and textiles – to sell again at home and abroad. China was the only market for sea otter, and Canton the only Chinese port where foreigners were allowed to exchange it. Magee was part of the origins of the China trade.

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Halepōhaku

As part of the New Deal Program, to help lift the United States out of the Great Depression, Franklin D Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. The CCC or Cs as it was sometimes known, allowed single men between the ages of 18 and 25 to enlist in work programs to improve America’s public lands, forests, and parks. (NPS)

President Roosevelt proposed that the CCC “be used in simple work, not interfering with normal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control, and similar projects …”

… and argued that “this type of work is of definite, practical value, not only through the prevention of great present financial loss, but also as a means of creating future national wealth”.

On March 31, 1933, Congress passed a bill under the title “Emergency Conservation Work” (ECW) and on April 5, 1933, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6101 which officially established the ECW Program, administered under the auspices of the CCC.

The CCC had two main objectives – to employ hundreds of thousands of unemployed young men in conservation work and to provide vocational training, and later education training, for enrollees. (PCSI, OMKM)

Enrollment periods lasted six months and enrollees could opt to re-enroll for additional six-month periods for up to two years. Four distinct enrollment categories existed – Junior enrollees; Local Experienced Men; World War I veterans; and American Indians and residents from US Territories.

Juniors comprised 85% of enrollees and were single men between the ages of 18 and 25, whose families were on relief aid. Two groups of older men, Local Experienced Men and Veterans of World War I each comprised 5% of enrollees.

Territorial enrollees comprised 1% of total CCC enrollment and were not subject to age or marital status restrictions and were permitted to live at home and work on nearby projects

For many, just the prospect of three meals and a bed were enough to get young men to enroll. As jobs and income were incredibly scarce, the CCC for a lot of these young men was their first job.

The CCC provided room, board, clothing, transportation, medical and dental care, and a monthly salary of $30 per enrollee, $25 of which would be sent straight to their families, while the other five was for the worker to keep. (NPS)

The CCC was officially inaugurated in 1933 in the Hawaiian Territory under the supervision of the Territorial Forestry Commission and the Hawaiian National Park, but the first Corps work projects were not begun until 1934. (PCSI, OMKM)

Frank Harrison Locey, the President of the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry, wrote that: “It appears to me that the CCC camp is a kindergarten in a way.”

“They take young boys in, do not work them too hard but harden them for normal employment. That is why I call it a kindergarten or a stepping stone to future labor.”

The CCC aimed to supplement on-the-job training with a formal educational program. Approximately half of the CCC enrollees had less than an eighth-grade education and suffered from illiteracy. To remedy this situation, evening instruction in the camps taught remedial reading and writing skills, general education courses, and specialized vocational classes.

Acting Territorial Forester, Leicester Winthrop Bryan, reported that: “In addition to the good done to the youth of this Island through giving them an opportunity to earn money we have tried to teach them to live together, to work, to learn some useful trade, to continue their education, to improve their health and to become better citizens.”

“We feel that a large number of these boys have left our camps in a much better condition to go out in the world and earn their living and be better citizens.”  (PCSI, OMKM)

The stone cabins at the present location of the mid-level astronomy facilities on the Mauna Kea Access Road (the Halepōhaku Rest Camp) were constructed by members of the CCC in Hawai`i in 1936 (Rest House 1) and 1939 (Rest House 2). (The Comfort Station was constructed by the Territory of Hawai‘i’s Division of Forestry in 1950.)

Hale Pohaku literally ”stone house,” refers to the two stone cabins constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936 and 1939 at an elevation of 9,220 feet on the southern slope of Maunakea. L. W. Bryan, who served as the Territorial Forestry Office and helped with the construction of the “stone houses,” also named them Hale Pohaku. (Cultural Surveys)

In the first entry of the Halepōhaku Register Log (1939) LW Bryan wrote that the “Halepohaku Rest Camp” was constructed by the CCC under the direction of the Territorial Division of Forestry by CCC Foreman Yoshinobu Hada. (The letters “Ha” and the date “1936” were inscribed into mortar near the doorway of Rest House 1 – presumably referring to Foreman Hada.)

In articles published in Paradise of the Pacific, Bryan described Rest House 1 and identifies its’ early usage, writing that: “Halepohaku is well named for the stone rest-house located there. This house is within the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve and is available for use by any one.”

“It is located in a sheltered spot, near 9,500 feet, at the upper edge of the timber line. Fire wood is plentiful and a 2,000 gallon water tank, fed by gutters from the house roof, furnishes a supply of good clean water.”

“A 3 x 5 foot built in stove furnishes ample warmth and a suitable place to cook and the size of the fire box is such that the cutting of fire wood is an easy matter. The house door is never locked and the only charge made is that each occupant is requested to leave the place clean, not to waste the water and to prepare a small supply of fire wood for the next fellow.”

“Aside from a stove, a table and benches, this building is unfurnished. … Halepohaku is only two miles from where the car is left and makes an excellent stopping place for the night.”

“The cabins replaced a complex of buildings near Ho‘okomo, at the 7,800 foot elevation, which had been used by Forestry personnel who were building and maintaining the Forest Reserve fence and by workers constructing the road to Hale Pohaku.”

“The cabins at Hale Pohaku were placed under the jurisdiction of the State Parks Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) in 1962. Hale Pohaku was never officially designated as a State Park.”  They later were included under the lease to the University of Hawai‘i.

Per the 1977 Mauna Kea Master Plan, “The Hale Pohaku facility will consist of mid-level facilities for necessary research personnel for the summit, a central point for management of the mountain, and a day-use destination point for visitors and primitive overnight camping facilities.” Master Plan 1977;7

While hunting on Mauna Kea as a kid, we overnighted at Halepōhaku (well before astronomy’s mid-level facilities were built (1983)), as well as in the Pu‘u La‘au cabin above the Kilohana Girl Schout Camp.

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Unintended Consequences

We generally note that ‘stuff,’ including unwanted pests, make it to Hawaiʻi on Wind, Wings and Waves.

Some seeds, spores and insects arrived on the wind.  A few birds flew or were blown off course; in them or stuck to their feathers were more seeds.  Some seeds managed to float here on ocean currents or waves.  Ocean currents also carried larval forms of fish, invertebrates, algae and other species.

Today, the pathways to paradise are diverse, including: air & ship cargo; ship hulls & ballast water; hand-carry/luggage; mail & freight forwarders; forestry activities; horticulture trade; aquaculture; pet trade; botanical gardens and agriculture experiment stations (or simply on you and your clothing.)

It is estimated that in the last 230+ years, as many as 10,000 plants have been introduced: 343-new marine/brackish water species; Hawaiʻi went from 0 native land reptiles to 40; 0 amphibians to 6 (including coqui frogs) and there is a new insect in Hawaiʻi regularly showing up.

With these pests, Hawaiʻi has the dubious distinction of being called the endangered species capital of the world and unfortunately leads the nation in endangered species listings with over 350-federally listed threatened or endangered listed species.

With only 0.2% of the land area of the United States, nearly 75% of the nation’s historically-documented plant and bird extinctions are from Hawaiʻi.  We have more endangered species per square mile on these islands than any other place on Earth.

Impacts from invasive species are real and diverse: Quality of life that makes Hawaiʻi a special place; Forests’ ability to channel rainwater into our watersheds; Survival of native species found nowhere else; Health of residents and visitors; and Tourism and agriculture-based economy.

OK, other than negative impacts from the man in the mirror, there are a lot of nasty plants and animals that are wreaking havoc in Hawaiʻi.  Unfortunately, many were brought here on purpose; at times, without much thought about the unintended consequences.

Let’s look at a few dubious examples of ‘good ideas’ gone bad.

While the sugar producers saw a marked reduction in the pesky rats in their plantation following the importation of mongoose (starting with a few in 1883) to inflict this outcome, these rodents also harmed the native ecosystem.

In less than two years after the importation of the mongoose, the rats were so diminished that it was and is now a rare thing to see a stick of cane that is eaten, and the plantations have so extended their plantations that they now grind nearly all the year, giving employment to double and treble the number of hands with a corresponding benefit to the trade of Honolulu.  (Evening Bulletin, December 5, 1895)

“The drawback to the Mongoose is that he does not confine his menu to rats but varies it with all kinds of barnyard fowl and eggs and also ground-nesting game birds form a good part of his dietary. Another regrettable thing about him is that he is very fond of our field lizards or skinks which have an important part to play in the ‘balance of nature.’” (HA Baldwin – Maui News, August 5, 1921)

Unfortunately, the mongoose are targeting birds, including ground-nesters such albatross, petrels, boobies and shearwaters. They are considered to be the number one predator against the endangered Nene, eating the eggs and nesting females. They also eat the eggs and adults of many forest birds.

Another idea gone bad was the importation of fountain grass to be used as an ornamental plant around the house.  It joins a long list of other invasive plants that were first used to decorate a yard or home that have since dominated the landscape and devastated our native flora.

First collected in Hawaiʻi in 1914, fountain grass has been introduced to many parts of the world as an ornamental grass. It is a poor pasture grass and a serious weed in many dry habitats.

Over 200,000 acres of the original site of the plantings (the Kona-Kohala side of the Big Island) are now dominated by this invasive weed. It’s a fire threat and first survivor that expands its cover by rapidly reestablishing itself after burning.

We also have concerns in the ocean, too.

Roi, a grouper, is another plan gone wrong.  It was introduced to Hawaiian waters from Tahiti in 1956 to boost declining stocks for sport fishing, but never caught on as popular eating fish.

Added to that, roi is a high-risk fish for ciguatera poisoning.  Roi, which prey on juvenile parrotfish and surgeonfish, have become the dominant inshore predator in the main Hawaiian Islands.

Its partner, taape, a snapper, was introduced to Hawaiʻi from French Polynesia about the same time (1955) for the same reasons (to enhance fishing opportunities) and shares the same sad results (at least in the opinions of many fishers.)

Introducers first thought that since there is the lack of native, shallow-water snappers in Hawaiʻi, it seemed like a good idea to fill a “vacant niche” for the sport fishers.

Taape generally do not share the same depth and feeding habitat with most native species (the natives are deeper in the water column,) overlaps little in diet and is not a frequent predator or prey of the natives.  But some concerns remain (and the science differs from the negative attitudes from fishers.)

Unlike other Pacific Islands, many people in Hawaiʻi don’t like to eat taape. Largely due to the size, color and lower values in the market, taape is a not often fished and has thrived.

With the rapid and dramatic increase in numbers of taape, concern has been expressed that it may be producing negative effects on populations of native food fishes or otherwise disrupting the existing fisheries for native species.  (DLNR)

Finally, fortunately, we don’t have snakes … yet.  I had the chance to visit Guam on several occasions and was given a tour of that island’s ‘snaky’ areas – it looks just like anywhere in rural Hawaiʻi.

While living in Kailua, every time I rode home on Kalanianaʻole Highway above Enchanted Lake above Kailua, with the overhanging haole koa, I was reminded it took us only 15-minutes to find a snake in Guam in this identical habitat.  (In Guam, you unfortunately soon become aware of what it sounds like when there are no birds.)

There’s a long list of other ideas gone bad to our natural resources across the islands (I only mentioned a limited few, here,) in our forests, across the landscape, along our shores, in our streams and in the ocean.  Before we bring in the next thing in, let’s think beyond the goal and consider the unintended consequences.

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