Kipuka Pu’u Huluhulu: A Bright Jewel In the Big Island’s Saddle
Kipuka Pu’u Huluhulu may be at once the most noticed and the most overlooked landmark on the Saddle Road connecting Hilo with the Kona side of the Big Island. Rising more than 200 feet out of the surrounding lava landscape, the wooded cinder cone is bordered to the east by the road going to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weather observatory on Mauna Loa and to the north by the Saddle Road. People coming down from the Mauna Kea observatory road would run smack into Pu’u Huluhulu if they overshot the Saddle Road turn. A hunter station with unisex latrine (of the sort to inspire bowel blockage) lies just west of the pu’u, between the perimeter fence and the Saddle Road.
Despite the pu’u’s prominence, its interior remains terra incognita to most passers-by. Thanks to the initiative of Patrick Thiele, one of two Na Ala Hele (trails) staff people at the Hilo office of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife, all that may soon change.
Thiele, with the blessing of his supervisor, Rodney Oshiro, has more or less adopted Pu’u Huluhulu as a personal crusade. “Rod and I recognized the potential of the hill as an environmental awareness opportunity for education,” Thiele told Environment Hawai’i. “We thought that, by using the excuse of our trail, we could do some trail beautification and coordinate with other programs for their assistance.”
Thiele recently drafted a field guide to Pu’u Huluhulu. According to material in that guide (now in press), the pu’u is a post-shield-stage vent of Mauna Kea that erupted more than 10,000 years ago. The surrounding lava flows are from Mauna Loa. “Because kipuka Pu’u Huluhulu lies at the transition between the montane and subalpine vegetation zones it supports a larger variety of native plants than might be expected in such a small area,” Thiele writes.
The name means “shaggy hill” in Hawaiian, and, as Thiele notes, “despite its lush appearance, much has changed since it was named. Alien weeds and animals have altered the density and distribution of the native vegetation, humans quarried cinder in the late 1940s for the Saddle Road and a fire swept the north side of the hill in the 1950s.”
In the late 1970s, the Department of Land and Natural Resources Youth Conservation Corps built the half-mile trail system that is still in use. The kipuka was fenced in the early 1980s to protect it from the depredations of feral sheep and goats.
Among the native plant species one can find in abundance along the trails are koa, ‘ohi’a, pilo (a member of the coffee family), pukiawe, ‘ohelo, ‘a’ali’i, naio, mamane, akala (the native raspberry), and kukaenene. One of the rarest trees in the kipuka is ‘iliahi, the native sandalwood.
The kipuka also boasts a healthy population of native birds, including the ‘Amakihi (Hemignathus virens), ‘I’iwi (Vestiaria coccinea), Apapane (Himatione sanguinea), ‘Io (Hawaiian hawk, Buteo solitarius), and ‘Oma’o (Myasdestes obscurus). Less frequently seen are ‘Elepaio (Chasiempis sandwichensis) and Pueo (the short-eared owl, Asio flammeus sandwichensis). Palila (Loxioides bailleui) are known to have frequented the kipuka, but have not been observed there for 15 years.
Volunteer Opportunity
Seven or eight years ago, the state, using volunteer workers, planted more than a hundred mamane trees on the steep slope of the quarry area. According to Thiele, at last count, 74 were still alive.
More recently, Thiele has coordinated volunteers from several environmental organizations, including The Nature Conservancy’s Hoa ‘Aina program for youth, the Hilo High School Greenpeace program, and others. Hoa ‘Aina members can take credit for planting mamane trees in an area near the quarry. (Thiele notes that all replantings are done with plants generated from seed taken on or near the pu’u.) The Greenpeace youth removed the alien German ivy from an area where it had out-competed the native cucumber- and the cucumber is now thriving, along with koa seedlings and other natives.
The mullein that is pervasive along the Saddle Road is well represented in the flora of Kipuka Pu’u Huluhulu as well. However, Thiele expresses hopes that it will be eradicated from the kipuka one day. “Mullein is conspicuous enough so that we can get rid of it,” he said. “One of the good things about the pu’u is that it’s so isolated from other weed sources, surrounded as it is by lava. If we can succeed in eliminating weeds, it may be years before any reappear.”
He is not as hopeful about the German ivy. “I don’t think we’ll ever get it out entirely,” he says. “My best hope is to select areas where there’s a good chance of native regeneration if we pull the ivy out. In that way, I hope to slowly rebuild the concentration of native plants in the hill.”
Last, but by no means least, Thiele has plans to put in a new restroom at the hunter checking station. The Division of Forestry and Wildlife has promised him it will do this, he said.
For more information or to volunteer:
Call Pat Thiele at the Hilo office of the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife: 808 974-4221.
Volume 8, Number 4 October 1997
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