Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 20, Number 12, 1 December 2003 — What's next for Kahoʻolawe? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

What's next for Kahoʻolawe?

With the island finally back in state handsr the healing process continues

By Sterling Kini Wong Atop the summit of Luamakika on Kaho'olawe, an ahu (altar) stands in winds that whip sheets of dirt across the parched island, left nearly barren of vegetation following years of grazing by goats and nearly half a century of bombing practice by the U.S. military. Standing as a pillar of Hawaiian faith amid the dusty evidence of decades of hann, the ahu at onee represents the pain of Kaho'olawe's recent past, as well as a wellspring of hope for the island's future. It is a striking symbol at a time when the history of Kaho'olawe has entered an important new era. On Nov. 11, control over access to the island was formally transferred from the U.S. Navy to the State of Hawai'i's Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission

(KIRC). The event was marked the following day in a moving ceremony at 'Iolani Palaee, in whieh 12 stones from eaeh of Kaho'olawe's 'ili land divisions were placed on an altar, symbolizing its return to the family of Hawaiian islands. But while the transfer of control marks an important milestone in the struggle to repatriate Kaho'olawe, the process of healing the island is far from complete. Even after a 10-year, $400 million eleanup process, eompanies contracted by the Navy have only been able to clear unexploded ordnance from about 70 percent of the island's surface and just nine percent below the surface to a depth of four feet. Whieh has left a lot of people wondering: what's next? While the answers to such questions may take years to clarify, groups like the KIRC and the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana (PKO) are See KAHO'OLAWE on page 4

Clockwise from top: Covered with ko'a (coral) and pōhaku (stones), the ahu at Luamakika calls the rain from 'Ulupalakua, Maui (in background) to Kaho'olawe; various ordnance being processed for treatment by Navy contractors; Jeeps traveling along the hardpan south of Luamakika. Photos: courtesy ot kirc

KAHO'OLAWE from page 1 approaching the ongoing healing process one step at a time, integrating both science and culture in the quest to restore the island. During a recent media access to the island, for example, KIRC Cultural Education Director Kalei Tsuha said that the ahu atop Luamakika is intended to eall the naulu rain clouds that form in the morning near 'Ulupalakua, on Maui's south side, to a one-acre, $3 million water catchment system, whieh sits 50 yards away from the altar. The catchment system will be used to irrigate 150 acres of land in an effort to propagate native plants amid a landscape that has no permanent source of fresh water and receives a sparse 20-25 inches of rain per year. KIRC Restoration Program Manager Paul Higashino said that for the last five years, KIRC, with the help of volunteers, has planted more than 100,000 native plants on Kaho'olawe, but in the beginning they had a survival rate of only about 20 percent due to the laek of moisture. He compared KIRC's early attempts to "trying to grow plants in the Costco parking lot in Kahului." Higashino said the commission has since been able to improve the success rate of planting to about 60-70 percent by focusing its efforts on the relatively sheltered crater of Luamakika. He said volunteers have been planting "pioneer species," native shrubs and grasses such as

'a'ali'i, kāwelu, pili and 'āweoweo. Within a year, he said, they will be able to start planting trees such as 'ōhia. Tsuha commented that the landscape "doesn't look like a lot now, but eome back in a year and it will be different. You gotta visualize the forest; it's there." Colette Machado, KIRC vicechairperson and an OHA trustee, said the commission hopes to open new access sites at Ke'anakeiki and Honoko'a, in addition to the current sites at Hakioawa and Honokanai'a. Machado said there is currently $27 million in the commission's trust fund, whieh will be used to maintain and operate current facilities. In order to make shipping supplies to the island easier, Machado said, the commission is collaborating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a floating pier at Kūheia, a bay that is ealm year round, and a road that would lead from the bay to the eamp at Honokanai'a and to Luamakika. Brian Stepp, the commission's operations supervisor, cautioned,

however, that there will always be a risk in accessing a former bombing range. One stark reminder of this currently lies in a steep gulch in Pu'umōiwi, where erosion has uncovered a 500-pound bomb, whieh was not visible just two years ago. The rugged terrain has so far made it impossible to remove the bomb. In light of such hazards, Machado

said the commission's most important objective in the next five months is to install markers throughout the island indicating whieh areas are safe and whieh are not. And for the foreseeable future, access to the island will remain closed to the general public, permitted only through programs conducted by the KIRC and PKO. The Navy will continue to conduct final elean-up operations until March 2004, when it will completely

demobilize from the island. In an Oct. 28 letter, however, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Hansford T. Johnson indicated that the military would continue to pay for ordnance eleanup even after the trust funds established for that purpose run out. In the long run, Kaho'olawe could become the first land base for a future Hawaiian nation: According to

the KIRC's charter, the commission is only holding the island in trust until it ean be transferred to a recognized Hawaiian sovereign entity, onee such an entity is established. Those interested in volunteering with KIRC may contact the commission 's Maui office aī 808-243-5020. Anyone interested in participating in a Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana cultural access ean obtain information aī www.kahoolawe.org. ■

Top left: A worker constructing a retaining wall to stabilize the Hale o Papa site in Hakioawa. Above: KIRC staff members (in foreground) Paul Higashino, Kalei Tsuha and Andre Perez participate in a planting ceremony in 2001.