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Working together to protect and sustain the forest, the water, and the people of Kohala Mountain

 

 

Protecting the Source of Water

The Kohala Watershed Partnership (KWP) is a voluntary coalition of private land owners and State land managers who joined together in 2003 to work across property boundaries to manage the forested watershed of Kohala Mountain and protect it from threats. The KWP has written a 20-year management plan which defines these threats and prescribes actions to address them.

Invasive alien plants, along with people and feral animals, are the greatest threats to the watershed. Plants like kahili ginger and strawberry guava change the forest by completely displacing native species, and altering the movement of water and sediments. Kohala’s native Hawaiian rain forests have a thick layer of ferns and mosses on the forest floor, which act like sponges to effectively absorb rain water and slowly allow it to infiltrate into underground aquifers. When this understory vegetation is uprooted by feral pigs or overrun by exotic plants, the forest loses its ability to hold water, resulting in a severe loss of topsoil, which runs off into streams and eventually into the ocean.

Partners

Kahua Ranch
Kamehameha Schools
Laupahoehoe Nui LLC
Parker Ranch
Ponoholo Ranch
Queen Emma Land Company
Hawaii State Dept of Hawaiian Home Lands
Hawaii State Dept of Land and Natural Resources
Surety Kohala Corporation

Associate Partners

The Nature Conservancy
County of Hawaii, Department of Water Supply

Watershed Management

The KWP has its own field crew, funded by grants and local donors. Plans for watershed management include fencing about 15% of the total land area of the mauka watershed. These fenced areas will be free of feral animals in order to protect habitat for native plants and animals. Traditional uses of the watershed, including gathering of native plants, will be enhanced by the protection of native forest, and pig hunting will continue to control feral animals in the forest. Invasive weed control will occur across the watershed, but will be focussed most intensively within these fenced areas.

 

Kohala Mountain: Like No Other Place on Earth!

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), montane cloud forests like those found on the summit of Kohala are globally rare, and contain a disproportionately large number of the world’s rare and endemic species. The native species of Kohala are truly unique; some of the plants and animals in our native forests are found nowhere else on earth. By protecting the last remaining forests where these species live, we help to ensure their long-term survival.

A huge range of environments in a relatively small area also sets apart Kohala from other tropical environments. In the eleven miles from Kawaihae at sea level, to the summit Kaumu o Kaleihoʻohie at 5400 feet elevation, the annual rainfall ranges from 4 inches to more than 150 inches!  This diversity of habitats creates a diversity of species, from dry forest trees to mosses, ferns and flowering shrubs of the cloud forest.

It may seem counter-intuitive to put a man-made structure within a wild habitat in order to protect it. However, there are examples from Kohala and across Hawai'i that demonstrate the effectiveness of fences in protecting native forest.  In the photo, the differences in just four years between the pig-free fenced area on the right and the unfenced area on the left are dramatic (Kilohana Stream, Kohala). Once pigs are removed from a fenced area, the native vegetation will often recover, and the spread of pest plants like banana poka will be slowed down.

Our dedicated group of volunteers supports watershed protection by controlling invasive weeds, building conservation fences, and collecting native seeds, and outplanting native species to restore the forest. We work once a month on Saturday mornings, followed by a hike in the forest in the afternoon.  Bring a friend or the 'ohana, and do your part to mālama the forested watershed of Kohala Mountain! Transportation, gloves, tools and snacks provided.

Next volunteer days are Saturdays in 2010:  8/14, 8/28, 9/11, 9/25

Please contact the KWP coordinator for more information.

 

Every summer and during school vacations, the Kohala Watershed Partnership runs Waimea Nature Camp, a day camp for boys and girls in grades 2 through 8. Our focus is on getting kids into nature all day long, teaching basic concepts of ecology, and creating good stewards of the natural environment. Previous campers came from North Kohala, Honoka'a, Waimea and Waikoloa.

For more information about camp, please visit The Kohala Center website.