To Restore the Watersheds: Early Twentieth-Century Tree Planting in Hawai‘i

Abstract

The forest reserves of Hawai‘i were established in the early 1900s in response to concerns about supplies of freshwater in the islands and the degraded condition of the native forests protecting the watersheds. Tree-planting was a coordinated effort involving both Harold Lyon and the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association and Territorial Forestry under the direction of R. S. Hosmer. The early foresters planted many types of trees on an experimental basis, but concluded that native species were of limited utility and turned largely to introduced species for large-scale reforestation efforts. The number of trees planted rose to many millions by the 1930s, when Depression-era labor was available for planting. Lyon envisioned the plantations as a buffer zone that would be established between the remaining native forests and the lower-elevation agricultural lands to protect the native forests and perform the functions (maintaining input of water to aquifers) that native forest no longer could. This large-scale attempt to engineer nature was probably the largest environmental project ever carried out in the islands. Forestry introductions have been a significant contributor to Hawaii's alien-species crisis, with many of these tree species now problem invasives.

Key Words:

• alien species
• Hawaiian Islands
• tree plantations
• watershed

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Lydon Wester and Kristin Pelzer for their comments on the manuscript.

Notes

Source: (Nelson 1965,; 16).

1. Thomas Cox (1992) notes that conservation efforts dating from the period of royal rule are left out of many later accounts and questions various other aspects of the narratives dealing with territorial forestry written by principals in those efforts.

2. The midelevation slopes are now largely wooded, but the vegetation of the drier, low-elevation areas is much as F. E. Egler (1947) describes it.

3. Sumner LaCroix and Chris Grandy (1997) detail the political and economic factors leading to overthrow of the monarchy and the emergence of a sugar economy.

4. The Planters' Labor and Supply Co. later became the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association; The Planters' Monthly continued as The Hawaiian Planters' Record.

5. Lyon's views on native vegetation can certainly be disputed.

6. Rock was employed by Territorial Forestry from 1907/08 through 1911/12 and became Honorary Consulting Botanist after joining the faculty of the College of Hawai‘i, continuing to collect for Territorial Forestry through 1919/20 (see Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry 1907 through 1919/20).

7. Judd (1929,; 38) discusses the difficulties in propagating native species.

8. For the status of fig-wasp introductions, see Wagner, Herbst, and Sohmer (1999,; 924).

9. Pigs remain the bane of Hawaii's forests. Difficulties in eliminating them have both a practical and social dimension.

10. Various forestry reports discuss problems with the fern (Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry 1925/26, 25; 1927/28, 29; 1931/32,; 29).

11. For information on the war years, see (Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry 1941/42, 33, 35, 38; 1943/44, 17, 40, 41,; 42).

12. Information about plants from Smith 2001; nomenclature according to Wagner et al. 1999.

13. Colin G. Lennox was president of the Board of Agriculture and Forestry at this time.

14. Perhaps a clearer example of the hydrological effects of the plantings is the lowered water table in areas such as the valley bottom of Nu‘uanu on O‘ahu, where there are extensive stands of Eucalyptus. Additional issues include the effect of the plantations on native forest regeneration (Harrington and Ewel 1997; Woodcock, Perry, and Giambelluca 1999), nutrient-cycling (Mack, D'Antonio, and Lev 2001), and native bird populations.

15. Kaho‘olawe, a small island in the rain shadow of Maui, was heavily affected by goats and used as a bombing target and is now public land. Ni‘ihau, lying off the coast of Kaua‘i and also dry and low-lying, is privately owned.