Outwardly, Pu`u Wa`awa`a has not changed much in the last century or so. The furrowed cinder cone once known as Muffin Hill remains one of the most prominent landmarks in North Kona. Even in dry times, the vegetation in the creases remains verdant, making the hill appear painted with dark green stripes.
But the changes that have occurred since the last lessee, F. Newell Bohnett, packed up and left are dramatic. Not all of them are visible; many, if not most, have to do with the way the ahupua`a, or land division, is managed. For these changes to become apparent at a landscape scale will take decades.
Other changes may not be visible so much as they are felt. The public, which, except for hunters, was shut out for nearly a century, is now welcome to pass through the gates that link Pu`u Wa`awa`a Ranch to the Mamalahoa Highway. Hiking trails lead to the summit, with its breathtaking panoramic views. A printed visitor guide points out the unusual plants and geological features of the area.
Most of the mauka areas of the vast area once known as Pu`u Wa`awa`a Ranch remain off-limits. But first-hand looks at these places, where many of the rare plants of the area are showing signs of a comeback, often await people who volunteer on scheduled work days.
An advisory council meets regularly, discussing volunteer projects and possible fund-raising events. For the last couple of years, a run-for-the-dry-forest has been held in the fall. At the January council meeting, ideas for future fund-raisers included a camp-under-the-stars night and possible use of the several houses Bohnett built as vacation rentals.
A Slow Comeback
Mike Donoho is proud of the accomplishments that are occurring at Pu`u Wa`awa`a. “We’ve got $32,000 from the Hawai`i Tourism Authority for fencing and $127,000 from the Natural Resources Conservation Service” for relining a reservoir, he says while driving a visitor around the upland areas of what was once the largest single tract of land leased out by the state.
At the summit, Donoho, who is the on-site manager for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife, parks the truck and we walk over to an area on the north slope of the furrowed cinder cone. The summit itself is grassed over and free of trees, but on the north slope, below a fence to keep out the sheep and pigs, a forest is taking shape. Hundreds of individuals of native trees found only in the North Kona area are thriving, though only a few years old.
Near the forest bird sanctuary, carved out of Pu`u Wa`awa`a Ranch in the late 1980s, a new cabin accommodates staff and volunteers, allowing them to work full days instead of having to drive hours each work day simply to get to and from the remote site. In yet another fenced-off tract, barely an acre in size, some of the rarest, most endangered dry forest trees are flourishing.
Changing Regimes
As Bohnett’s lease with the state, which owns almost all of the ahupua`a, neared its conclusion in 2000, members of the community who were concerned about the decades of abuse that this area had seen pulled together and formed an association to protect Pu`u Wa`awa`a. With the backing of scientists, such as Peter Vitousek of Stanford University, and prominent native Hawaiians, such as Hannah Springer, they were able to obtain commitments of millions of dollars for managing the 100,000-plus ahupua`a.
The plans hinged on the state granting the group a lease. And while some in the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife were encouraged by the prospect of a new lessee who would restore the land, rather than ravage it, a number of DOFAW staffers were outraged, regarding it as a slap in their collective face.
When the proposal came before the Board of Land and Natural Resources for a decision in November 2001, it failed, and the funds that had been promised for improvements vanished. The board did, however, transfer management of the area that once made up the ranch from the DLNR’s Land Division, which oversees its leases and most other unencumbered lands, to DOFAW, which received the bulk of it to manage as a forest reserve, and to the Division of State Parks, which received the coastal portion, at Kiholo Bay.
DOFAW and State Parks then prepared an ambitious management plan, but without the needed funds to carry it out, Pu`u Wa`awa`a was again a stepchild of the state, full of promise, but poor in prospects.
Boom Times
Nowadays, funds still fall far short of what is needed to manage Pu`u Wa`awa`a, much less restore the former dry forests that once led botanist Joseph Rock to rhapsodize over its incredibly rich flora.
But the land is benefiting, not only from Donoho’s 24-7 presence (he lives in one of the ranch houses), but also from a work crew hired (with state funds) by a watershed partnership called the Three Mountain Alliance. (The alliance was formed by members of the highly successful Ola`a-Kilauea Partnership, whose members decided last year to expand its scope to more than a million acres on the slopes of Mauna Loa, Kilauea, and Hualalai. Members of the alliance include the state departments of Public Safety and Land and Natural Resources, the National Park Service, landowner Kamehameha Schools, the Nature Conservancy of Hawai`i, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.) In addition, the state and the Forest Service have signed an agreement making Pu`u Wa`awa`a part of the Forest Service’s experimental forest, which means it stands to benefit from the research and management expertise and resources that the Forest Service can bring.
To be sure, thousands of sheep still fearlessly roam Pu`u Wa`awa`a’s arid lands and invasive plants – silver oak, fountain grass, apple of Sodom, lantana, kalanchoe, to name but a few – are abundant.
But in a few areas, one can glimpse what Pu`u Wa`awa`a was in its glory days – and, with luck, hard work, and generous funding – may yet become again.
— Patricia Tummons
Volume 18, Number 11 May 2008
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