Bog | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

The Cowardin Classification System is a descriptive method developed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service that categorizes and defines wetlands according to their landscape position and water source.

Within these broad classes fall types of wetlands known by common names, such as marshes, bogs, and swamps. (DLNR, FWS)

Hawaiian bogs occur primarily in montane zones (a mosaic of rainforest and shrublands) as isolated small patches on flat or gently sloping topography in high rainfall areas in cloud forests and other wet forests on all of the high islands between 3,500-5,500 feet elevation.

These bogs also occur in the subalpine zone 7,446 feet elevation on Maui, and as a low-elevation bog at 2,120 feet on Kauai. Soils remain saturated on a shallow to deep layer of peat (0.01-5 m), underlain by an impervious basal clay layer that impedes drainage.

A few sloping bogs occur on steeper terrain were precipitation is extremely high, such as in North Bog in the Wai‘ale‘ale summit region of Kauai, where soils remain saturated despite adequate drainage.

Two bogs are believed to have formed in former small lakes, one along the Wailuku River, Hawai`i (Treeless bog), the other the subalpine bog on East Maui (Flat Top bog). The low-elevation bog on Kauai occurs on shallow, poorly drained acidic peat. (NatureServe Explorer)

Bogs are one of the most distinctive kinds of wetlands. They are characterized by spongy peat deposits, acidic waters and a floor covered by a thick carpet of moss. They are typically treeless areas, surrounded by cloud forest.

Bogs receive all or most of their water from precipitation rather than from runoff, groundwater or streams. As a result, bogs are low in the nutrients needed for plant growth, a condition that is enhanced by peat mosses.

Bogs serve an important ecological function in preventing downstream flooding by absorbing precipitation. (EPA)

Hawaiian bogs are characterized by an extremely dwarfed growth of the species represented in the surrounding forest, and by a number of species practically endemic to the bogs.

Most of the plants are deeply embedded in cushions and hummocks (ground rising above a marsh) of mosses, hepatics, and turf-forming grasses and sedges. The area is saturated with water and there are often channels and pools. (Fosberg & Hosaka)

The more familiar bogs of the islands are those in Alakai swamp, Kauai; Kawela Swamp, Molokai; Puu Kukui, west Maui and northeastern Haleakalā, Maui; Kaala Bog, Kohala Mountains, Hawaii; and in the Koolau Mountains on Oahu. (Fosberg & Hosaka)

These marshes and bogs are found in depressions where rain or groundwater collects. Hawai‘i’s rare montane bogs take millions of years to form. (DLNR)

Ninika (a boggy region in the Laupāhoehoe-Maulua forest) (Maly) is at the seaward end of the Hakala Forest refuge in Honohina. This name was recorded by the surveyor D.H. Hitchcock (1874) based on information from his two informants.

Ku and Kalaualoha (both Boundary Commission witnesses for Piha and Honohina); he says “I found that most of the [coastal] gulches ended at Ninika, and [upland] gulches from mauka ended at swamp.”

Kalaualoha testified that from its upper point of origin “Nauhi gulch only runs a short distance into woods and there spreads out all around;” for the Honohina testimony, he states that the coastal “Nanue gulch ends at Ninika.” Kapou (witness for Hakalau Nui) also mentions Ninika: “I have heard that Kaiwiki reaches to the Ninika.” (Tuggle)

The Waikaumalo/Piha boundary runs “up gulch to Ninika to where Puuohua ends and Mauluanui bounds it to the mountain. Bird catchers from these two lands used to catch in common … Ninika is at mauka end of Puuohua, Kumuohia is on Piha.” (Hawaiian Place Names)

When we think of Hakalau Forest Refuge, we typically think and see native ohia and koa forest and lots of forest birds. However, below where people go, but still within the Refuge, is a somewhat different story. As described by Myra Tomonari-Tuggle in a report she did for the Refuge:

“The wet ‘Ôhi‘a zone covers essentially the entire seaward half of the refuge and is characterized by a forest dominated by ‘Ôhi‘a trees. … The groundcover is primarily ferns.”

“This low elevation area is cut by numerous streams and gullies and the ground surface is often bog-like, described by Stine as:”

“At the lowest elevation of the [Refuge] is the bog – ohia dieback community. This unit is actually a mosaic of open bog, matted fern and native shrub communities, and open to scattered wet ohia forest with many standing dead or partially defoliated trees.”

“The forest dieback in this area is believed to be a result of the poor rooting conditions found in this extremely wet habitat … The wet open boggy areas are dominated by introduced grass and sedge species with scattered native shrubs.” (Stine)

“Soil samples from the bog in the southern half of the refuge suggest that the bog may range from 8 to more than 12 feet deep; these samples were collected from six sites ranging in elevation from 4,405 to 5,040 feet asl.”

“A 19th century map of Honohina, one of the traditional Hawaiian land units within the refuge, gives the name ‘Ninika Swamp’ to this lower elevation bog.”

“This zone corresponds to the lower range of McEldowney’s montane rainforest zone, which she describes as an area largely used as a source of specialized forest resources such as a forest birds for feathers and dry or mesic hardwood species for crafts or construction.”

“Historically, the bog at the seaward edge of the refuge was called Ninika Swamp; it is probable that this swamp extends at this elevation across all of the ahupua‘a in the refuge.”

“A multitude of stream channels enter from the upper slopes, dissipate in the bog, then exit as new channels to the lower coastal slopes.” (Tomonari-Tuggle)

Hawaiian bogs occur primarily in montane zones as isolated small patches on flat or gently sloping topography in high rainfall areas in cloud forests and other wet forests on all of the high islands between 3,500-5,500 feet elevation.

These bogs also occur in the subalpine zone at 7,446 feet elevation on Maui, and as a low-elevation bog at 2,120 fee) on Kauai. Soils remain saturated on a shallow to deep layer of peat, underlain by an impervious basal clay layer that impedes drainage.

Two bogs are believed to have formed in former small lakes, one along the Wailuku River, Hawai‘i (Treeless bog), the other the subalpine bog on East Maui (Flat Top bog). The low-elevation bog on Kauai occurs on shallow, poorly drained acidic peat. (NatureServe Explorer)

The Treeless Bog was a large, open bog that lacked woody vegetation. Annual precipitation in this part of the island ranges from approximately 100-200 inches per year, but we had no rainfall data for the individual sites. (Wakeley, 1994)

All of the following is a description crossing the bog by Wm E. Oleson (with D Howard Hitchcock), October 20, 1884, as noted in the Guest Book from Pua Akala, typed by June Humme …

I left Hilo for the purpose of exploring the bed of the Wailuku, and for a tramp for health reasons.

Rode on ‘Grit’ from Hilo to Fuka Maui falls, sending the horse back to Hilo, and starting from that point on foot with four strong school boys, Kapewa from Waipio, Aina from Kohala, Haalilio from Waimanu, and Sidney Smith from Kaawaloa.

We packed our food and clothing on our backs. At noon we struck a trail into the woods above the point where the ‘56 lava stream came into the river, and after walking an hour or more, came to what I suppose was the Honolii stream.

We worked up-stream with great difficulty, water very deep, banks very high, and the land on both sides quite swampy.

At last we left the stream and followed my pocket compass in a southerly direction right through the swamp. Night came on with us when in the boggiest place and we camped under the lee of a fallen tree.

It had rained all the afternoon and we hadn’t a dry thing in the company. After vainly trying to light a fire, using up all but three matches, we crouched down in the rain and cold with a vivid realization that we were out on a tramp.

Next morning early we kept on through the swamp and in half an hour came to the Wailuku. If I were an Englishman I would say that the swamp is the ‘nastiest’ place on Hawaii.

It is like a jungle, and one feels that it takes about a minute a step to get through the tangle of ie ie and to pull one’s feet out of the bog.

If one wants to find out what a victory of mind over matter is, he can find no better proof at the adage is true and in what sense it is true, than by an hour’s pull through this miserable swamp.

We stripped and partially dried our clothes on the rocks of the Wailuku, and at about eight oclock started up river with new courage and an emphatic purpose not to leave the stream to follow the most inviting trail.

At night we made a fern hut and then took our three matches and stood around to see what the result would be of their lighting. No, 1 lighted but burned out before igniting the dry fern leaves. No. 2 wouldn’t light at all. No. 3 made a sickly sputter, and then went out.

We turned in, with wet clothes again, but with the mountain wind blowing right at us, so that this second night was not exactly like unto the first! To cap the climax it poured torrents all night long, and we huddled up like frogs, each in his own pool, and waited for the day.

In the morning we wrung about a bucket of water out of each blanket, and something less from each garment, and shivering and rheumatic we started again for the source of the river. We did some famous climbing, hanging by finger-nails over undesirable places, and ’chinning’ it in one especially difficult place.

Garments failed to stand the strain of so much soaking, and stretching, and gradually separated, so that on finally reaching the edge of the woods, and the source of the river, we felt quite unpresentable.

Three of us went to work on a hut for the night’s camping, getting wood for our fire and grass for our bedding, while the other two went on to Puakala for matches and a supply of edibles, ours having suffered from being too much diluted.

It was not long before Mr. Edw. Hitchcock with extra mules came over and took our entire party to Puakala, for the first time in three days showing us a bright fire and giving us the luxury of dry clothes.

There are occasions when a man doesn’t care whether his clothes and slippers were made for another man, and this was such an occasion.

I am profoundly thankful that inasmuch as there is a Wailuku river and an adjoining swamp, there is also such a hospitable home as Puakala, and such good Samaritans as the Hitchcocks. The original Samaritan just happened across the needy man in the parable, but this Hitchcock Samaritan came out with horses to search for the needy ones.

One thing I want to caution all hapless travelers through the swamp against, and that is, don’t let the host roast you out with his rousing fires, when once you reach Puakala.

The contrast is too overcoming, and after such an experience one needs to get used to fires, as the starving man does to food before he can get back to his normal condition of enduring ordinary supplies of each.

My impressions are that there is such a thing as the Wailuku River, and that it has one source about a mile to the southwest of Puakala, that it has some three or four other sources to the south extending as far as Hale Aloha …

… but that I shall probably never trace any of the other sources unless I get a government appointment and can afford to do the job by proxy. (Wm E. Oleson with D Howard Hitchcock, October 20, 1884, as noted in the Guest Book from Pua Akala, typed by June Humme)