Sediment Stop

Stopping the flow of sediment into Pelekane Bay:  that is what all our work is all about. The axiom is: the bay won’t heal until the sediment stops flowing into it.  Question: how do we do that?  Answer: until our out plantings grow mature enough to assume that job, we have to create temporary abatements. Installing  Sediment Stop fabric is our first step.

From Sediment Stop blog 7.10

 

What we start with are deeply eroded gullies that are formed by the un-impeded, overland rush of water. These gouged gullies get progessively longer and deeper with each storm and produce the vast volumes of sediment that flow into Pelekane Bay. By breaking the slope into shorter segments, the sediment stop fabric keeps the rainfall, that flows across the soil surface, from gaining too much speed.

From Sediment Stop blog 7.10

Our crew first needs to reshape the vertical sides of these gullies into more softly sloping edges. Gentler slopes allow plants to more easily colonize and further slow the flow of water. Because these areas are remote and the terrain is treacherous, this is all hand work. I am told this goes faster than one would imagine.

From Sediment Stop blog 7.10

The fabric itself  consists of a 70% straw and 30% coconut-fiber matrix reinforced with 100% biodegradable netting. It lets the collected water flow through while catching and holding the sediment. Our crew un-rolls and then re-rolls the fabric to specified widths, embedding it will PILI, a native grass seed. The hope is that the seed will not only sprout within the rolls, but will be carried downstream with the flow and also seed in the gullies. The grass will then act as a longer-term, living sediment stop that will repropagate itself and become well established.

 The spacing of the rolls is determined by the gradient slope: the steeper the surface the closer the rolls are placed.  At a 30% slope the rolls are set about 25′ apart and held into place with 18″ wooden stakes. Because all of these materials are biodegradable, in time, they will be absorped into the landscape as a carbon nutrient.

From Sediment Stop blog 7.10

This finished installation took our crew of 5 an entire day, from beginning to end. That is actually not long given that it is all done by hand. 

We have yet to have enough rainfall to test their efficacy but are looking forward to that moment.  Even better is when we will see thousands of tiny, sprouting PILI seedlings meandering down the gullies.

Senator Takamine & Representative Nakashima

As I said, when Melora and I greeted Senator Dwight Takamine and Representative Mark Nakashima, it took 3 women six months to get them there (hearty laughs all around). These are busy men with full and constantly changing schedules. So finally, on Sunday at 9am, there they were, ready to walk the shoreline of Pelekane Bay. Little did they know that we had anything but Pelekane Bay on the tour!  I give them full credit for being flexible, curious, supportive, engaged, and very good natured about everything!  They truly wanted to see what we had been doing with our three crews, over the past couple years.

The most important thing we wanted them to know was that, without continued State funding, our work cannot happen. Even though our funding has been impacted, with less money each year, for the previous three years, the State’s support is critical. And as Dwight said more than once: until you can walk the land and experience it, there is no way to truly understand the beauty, the uniquness, and the challenges of this watershed.

 That is exactly why it was so important to get them there. History runs deep through this corridor and all of it is etched into the landscape.

Dwight also stressed the importance of collaboration as the key to bringing the community on board with our efforts. Because our work intersects with private land owners, state and federal agencies, hunters, foresters, and volunteers, to name a few, he reminded us how crucial clear and proactive communication is. He should know better than most about collaboration: he took his father’s seat in the House of Representatives in 1984 and is now a first term  Senator. Mark Nakashima won Dwight’s vacant seat and is in his first term as representative of District 1, on the Big Island.

At the end of the 3 hours, they had seen the huge contrast between the lower elevation, parched stream corridors, where our restoration crew is focusing their outplantings, to the lush, protected, wet forest of the Natural Area Reserve (NAR), near the summit of Kohala Mountain.

 

We hope they left with a fuller appreciation of not only the majesty of the mountain but a more intimate connection to our vision of restoring a functioning, balanced watershed.

Naio Thrip

We have a very new threat to our native Naio (Myoporum sandwicense): the thrip species, Klambothrips myopori. And, I am sorry to say, the thrips are spreading, literally, like wild fire. The thrips’ conquer- and- succumb pace has been quite amazing and alarming. We have now identified the presence of these thrips in Waimea and within the Pelekane Bay Watershed. And, as I work at the Waimea Nature Park and walk around my neighborhood, I find the thrips are also in full presence there.

Myoporum thrips were first discovered in Orange County, California, in 2005, and have rapidly spread to many different parts of California. Their method of arrival to California and subsequently to Hawai‘i is unknown, but the current belief is that thrips originated in Australia.

The University of California Integrated Pest Management Program describes thrips this way:

“Most adult thrips are slender, minute (less than 1/20 inch long), and have long fringes on the margins of both pairs of their long, narrow wings. Immatures (called larvae or nymphs) are similarly shaped with a long, narrow abdomen but lack wings. Most thrips range in color from translucent white or yellowish to dark brown or blackish, depending on the species and life stage. In many species, thrips feed within buds and furled leaves or in other enclosed parts of the plant. Their damage is often observed before the thrips are seen.”

Myoporum plants that have experienced damage by thrips have curled or swollen leaves or galls caused by the thrips’ feeding off of the plants. This may also be caused by adult thrips laying their eggs in the leaves. The plant itself will become twisted and, depending on the number of thrips feeding off of the shrub, may die.

Research is currently underway. We are in touch with the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, but the pace of research is being out-stripped by the pace of damage. The Naio’s future is uncertain.

Trials in California have been underway with several chemical controls (Conserve, Merit, Avid) but no clear leader has yet emerged. One study concluded that control of the Klambothrips myopori and reduction in damaged Myoporum will most likely involve the use of insecticides and that other beneficial insects, resistant cultivars, and other IPM methods may be available in the future.

In the meantime, all we can do is observe and keep in touch with current information.

Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project

We like to get our Restoration crew out into the worlds of other dryland restoration projects. There is so much we all have to learn. Watersheds and ecosystems are complex, multi-layered, and diverse. Only by seeing how others are doing it and by asking questions and brain-storming, do we contine to solve the puzzles that terra-firma continues to throw at us.

Our most recent trip joined Rob Stephens, restoration coordinator, and his crew on Pu‘u Mali, at 6,000′ elevation on the slopes of Mauna Kea. It was a 90 minute drive from Waimea, through multiple gates and wide open pasture land. Parker Ranch was branding some cattle in a paddock, but other than that, it was just us, the occassional pueo (native owl), pasture fowl, and lots of cows. Really lovely.

This part of the Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project is an effort to re-establish native habitat for the Palila, an endangered native Hawaiian bird, whose main source of food is from the Mamane tree, which is now threatened. Rob’s crew had already previously prepped rows in the pasture grasses and had marked off the four corners of the quadrant to be planted.  The rows were to be  mixed species using ‘A‘ali‘i, Mamane and occassionally Koa. By the end of the day, we had planted almost 300 seedlings and shared a lot of information along the way.

As kokua ( in- kind help) Rob’s crew will be joining us in June to do a similar day of out planting and sharing, but in much different conditions!! Rob’s site has rich, moist, loamy soil. We do not. We look forward to their help.

Boy Scouts from Troop 12

Two resourceful Scout Troop leaders were not content to let their cubs sit idle on mandated “Furlough Fridays” when our public schools were forced to close their doors due to budget constraints. These Scout leaders have been taking their cubs all over this beautiful island of ours in search of good deeds to do. These good deeds include service learning projects such as cleaning lo‘i (terraces of taro) in Waipi‘o Valley, making thatching for Ahu ‘ena Heiau by the King Kamehameha Hotel, and clearing out anchialine ponds along the Kona coast. If furloughs continue into the next school year, these two leaders will continue to expose their cubs to great, educational experiences while making valuable contributions along the way.

The cubs most recent “free” Friday was spent with me at the Koai‘a Sanctuary on Kohala Mountain. Some had never even been on the Kohala  Mountain road, much less in this forest. On this particular day, the entire area was shrouded with thick, blowing mist, making it both cool and cozy while lending a mystical quality to the stream bed where we were working.

The focus of the morning was to clear the three of the four invasive species that are the most pervasive: ginger, prickly pear cactus, and lantana.  I gave them appropriate tools of destruction, and if you want to imagine 12 totally enthusiastic boys and girls hurling themselves into the job, complete with shouts of glee at pulling ginger tubers up by the roots, you will have the right picture. Two hours later, they were wet, muddy, and not wanting to stop.

And here are the pictures to prove it:

After that, two visiting Kohala Center interns from Cornell University led a tutorial on GPS and GIS. They had GPS units and explained how they work and how we use them. The cubs had hands-on experience. But, I think, the cubs secretly just wanted to get back to killing invasive species.

As Shari Jumalon, the den leader for the Bears, said: “The kids of Troop 12 had so much fun in Kohala. It was beautiful! They wanted me to extend a BIG mahalo for hosting us for the day. The boys and the two girls enjoyed attacking the ginger and cactus and we would love to return to do more service learning.”

They really were a joy. I’ve encouraged them to return next year if the furloughs continue.

A Volunteer

On one of our recent volunteer work days, a young woman showed up. She is a senior at Kanu o ka ‘Āina, a New Century Public Charter School that is Hawaiian-focused and bilingual. It serves 220 students in grades K-12.

The school’s Web site says: “Our name kanu o ka ‘āina literally means ‘plants of the land’ and figuratively refers to ‘natives of the land from generations back.’”

This student has chosen “reforestation” as her senior project, and this is a topic that has sparked her intellectual and cultural passion for conservation work.

She has started an e-mail dialogue with the coordinator of our project, asking deep questions about the interactions between people and nature. Here is how the most recent exchange went:

Student: What did the native forest look like? What plants contributed to the forest being so in sync? How did the plants all live together without taking from one another?

Coordinator: The key thing to understand is that any system, including an ecosystem, eventually finds a state of equilibrium.  The forces are in balance. There is enough sunlight, food, and water for everyone.  The nutrients and water are recycled through the system, and are never used up. If something changes, then equilibrium can be re-established, but in order to do that, everything changes a little to make up for it. So if a new plant entered the ecosystem, everything will eventually find a new balance in competing with and interacting with that new plant.

What humans have done is to create an imbalance in the system that is never allowed to rebalance. We haven’t just changed one thing, we are constantly changing everything. When we turned forest into pasture, we changed not only the plants, but also the soil, the humidity, the blasting wind, the trampling from animals, the amount of nutrients, etc. What we are doing in reforestation is trying to reintroduce the key elements that are needed to rebalance the system ( native plants) and remove the key elements that are keeping it out of balance (feral animals.) We then must depend on the system to find its new equilibrium, because we cannot do it without the amazing forces of nature at work. We just set it up for success and stand back and watch it work. Makes one humble.

Irrigation

While many other parts of the globe are experiencing storm events that are producing unusually heavy volumes of water and snow, Hawai‘i is 6 years into severe drought conditions. Because of our topography, each island has windward (wet) sides and leeward (dry) sides. The leeward sides are in such need of rainfall—and that is where the Pelekane Bay watershed sits. And that has been playing havoc with our planting schedule. We were counting on the winter rains—that normally start in November—to irrigate the thousands of seedlings we were going to have ready. Without the rains, we have had to delay that plan and jump into Plan B: design and install a cost-effective, efficient, and temporary irrigation system.

The site provides many challenges. So, the system had to take all of those into account: slope, volume of flow, source of water, wind, streambeds, long distances between planting pods, fences and grazing cattle. Today we tested the first segment of our system. One should never underestimate the thrill of seeing water drip through little holes. It was a good day.

Ka‘ūpūlehu Dryland Forest

Along the leeward Kohala coast of our island, a lei of pearls is being strung. The pearls are dryland restoration projects. The lei begins on the coastal slopes of Hualālai with the West Hawai‘i Veterans’ Cemetery. It travels upslope to the Pu‘u Wa‘awa‘a Wildlife Sanctuary and the Ka‘ūpūlehu Dryland Forest, on the ancient lava flows of Mauna Loa. It continues north and up the coast to our project on—the oldest lava flow—Kohala Mountain.

Because there is so much to learn from those who have preceded us, our restoration crew spent the day with the three who lead the restoration at Ka‘ūpūlehu. This is the last, intact, native dryland forest in the entire state. There are trees 30′ tall that most of us have only occasionally seen as 2′ shrubs  in local nurseries or as charred stumps after a fire; some, we have never seen.

The project leaders, along with scores of volunteers, have been clearing the land, planting native species, and developing their educational program since 1999. The depth of their knowledge is humbling and their love and respect for the land is inspiring. They are problem-solving the same challenges we face: invasive grasses and vines, lack of water, threats from ungulates, and the ever-present danger of fire. So, we walked and talked for 6 hours, listening hard and asking many questions.

Here is a sampling from our day:

The Koai‘a Sanctuary

Over 60 years ago, while Hawai‘i was still a Territory, a visionary forester fenced a 13-acre parcel of land. The surrounding hundreds of acres were already used as pasture for cattle and that was putting pressure on the existing native trees. The fence would not only protect the existing plants but would also allow the regeneration of what previously occurred there naturally.

For the ensuing decades, the fence has been maintained, but the sanctuary has basically been left to its own devices. The trees have grown thick and mature. The intermittent stream that bisects the corridor is home to a varied collection of native trees in various states of viability and stability. There is a massive native tree, an ‘ōhi‘a, that is 50′ tall and hundreds of years old. But there are also very established populations of three nasty invasive species and they are thriving: lantana, prickly pear cactus, and ginger. Removing them is high priority.

 

A few of the existing native Hawaiian trees are shown below: halapepe, koai‘a, mamane, hoawa, and olopua. All of these produce viable seed, and we are collecting seed from the ones that are not federally listed as endangered to grow and out-plant into our restoration corridor.

 

This is a really sweet enclosure that is striking in its contrast to the surrounding open grasslands that are basically void of trees. It is also  perfect as an outdoor laboratory and for student field trips and learning events. It has awesome views of three Hawai‘i Island summits: Hualalai, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, as well as the sweeping plains down to the Kohala coastline.

 

In partnership with the Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW), we have just begun active work: trailblazing, pruning, and invasive species control. Our vision is to include signs for the plants, informal benches, and safe, sturdy trails so that we are not creating erosion. We have just instituted a monthly volunteer work day that is open to the public to join in. It’s amazing what just a few people can accomplish in a partial day’s work.

Sediment Dams

The pictures tell the story here:

 

 

Our two crews build dams about 6-8 times a month. All the rocks are gathered from the immediate area with the formation being individually designed according to the depth of the head-cutting gullies and breadth of the erosion.

We are still waiting for a significant rainfall event that will literally pressure test the dam’s effectiveness and stability. And as soon as that happens, some of our crew will begin gathering measurements that will tell us how much sediment was trapped and successfully diverted from Pelekane Bay.