Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 12, 1 December 1998 — Needed: 40,000 natives [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Needed: 40,000 natives

By Heidl Meeker, KIRC

ĪHE FIRST eall for native plants to revegetate the highest elevations of Kaho'olawe has been issued by the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission, whieh manages the island and its nearshore waters. "Over the next six months we are going to need approximately 40,000 plants" said Paul Higashino, KIRC restoration ecologist, "and they need to originate from the dry land areas of Maui, Lāna'i, or Moloka'i so they have a better ehanee of surviving." Higashino is contacting individuals, businesses and organizations interested in filling any of his plant request. The plants include better known native species, such as 'a'ali'i, along with rarer varieties, such as lama, koai'a, and kulu'ī. Many people have volunteered to grow plants for Kaho'olawe, but Higashino said "At this time, it is better if we purchase the plants, because they have to grow under specified conditions to prevent contaminating Kaho'olawe with nematodes, ants and other alien organisms." During the past 12 months, Higashino has planted roughly 4,000 native plants in areas already cleared

A crop of milk cartons filled with a mixture of water and cellulose was planted along side native plants at the wind swept top of Kaho'olawe. The cartons are full of DRiWater, a product whieh slowly dissolves to water plants gradually over a period of a month. K]RC staff is doing the inspecting. of ordnance. He found that plants could survive their critical first few months on Kaho'olawe if they were planted next to what looks like a quart-size milk carton of DRiWATER, a Maui-made mixture of water and cellulose with the look and consistency of clear Jello. Punching a hole in the bottom of the DRiWATER carton and "planting" the carton next to the new plant, makes the water in DRiWATER slowly dissolve into the ground, "watering" the plant. Miehael Sarich of Agro Environmental, ine., has donated more than 1,100 quarts of DRiWATER to KIRC. Almost the entire top third of Kaho'olawe's 45square miles is barren, brick-red hardpan, a cementlike layer of subsoil that ordinarily lies several feet below the topsoil. The island began losing its topsoil in the mid-1800s when sheep and cattle overgrazed the vegetation. Goats continued to denude the island until 1990. Without a protective plant ground cover, wind and rain cause severe soil erosion. Erosion has also damaged the coral reefs around the island by causing soil runoff that buries the coral in silt. KIRC has an ambitious, generations-long plan to slow the erosion and recreate a native ecosystem on the island. ■

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