KCC forestry project may seed growth of industry

CIRA de CASTILLOTGI Staff Writer

PUHI — The concept of planting today for tomorrow is taking on a new meaning

at Kaua’i Community College. Plant a tree, preserve a culture, grow an industry

and demonstrate the science of agroforestry.

“The ultimate end goal is that

people will find gainful employment and others will think about cottage

businesses that are wood related,” said John Isobe, coordinator of the Rural

Economic Development Project at KCC.

He sees the agroforest project as the

beginning of a process that will educate people on the employment and business

potential of agroforestry as well as provide college training that will help

students develop the skills needed for work in the industry.

On Monday, a

blessing for the Kaua’i Agroforestry Demonstration Project at the Rural

Economic Development Project Farm at KCC brought community, government and

business partners together on two acres of land that holds promise for a

greener future on Kaua’i.

As part of the project, trees will be planted in

a diversified agricultural site that creates an environment designed to enhance

awareness and stimulate interest in the economic, cultural, and environmental

characteristics of agroforestry.

Thirty different varieties of trees will

be planted in five themes to illustrate the broad scope of potential of a

forestry industry on Kaua’i.

The Indigenous Species theme will include

trees like milo and ohia planted with Polynesian bamboo and noni below and

under that malie and edible ferns.

Another theme, Industrial Forestry,

will combine big leaf mahogany, sesbania, and neem trees with fruits,

vegetables, nutmeg, and vanilla.

The Coastal Commercial theme will include

Indian rosewood and oil palms under which new species of bamboo will grow above

legumes and okra. The Riparian Zone theme will have bamboo, camphor and swamp

mahogany with an understory of ferns.

The Backyard Agroforestry

Permaculture theme will be a six planting canopy of coconut palms and tall

timbers, over breadfruit, mango and soursop, with a lower canopy of papaya and

frangipani and banana, over peppers, ki and hibiscus under which vegetable will

grow all from earth that is growing peanuts and sweet potatoes.

Bob

Cowern, president of Hawaiian Mahogany and the father of commercial forestry on

Kaua’i, said the demonstration project will show which trees produce the wood

for the products that can be utilized.

“This particular crop holds the

greatest promise of providing a new industry with higher level employment,” he

said. “Marketing jobs, sales jobs, manufacturing, administration, finance. All

the typical types of employment that you would find in other industries will be

found in this industry as a long as we take what we grow and utilize it to make

products here.”

Lelan Nishek, president of Kaua’i Nursery & Landscaping

and a partner in the project, said he wants to see if the Community College can

train students here who can work in the industry and learn how to grow, plant,

maintain and utilize the wood after it’s harvested.

“It’s a new industry

just like the sugar industry was but it takes different talents than the sugar

industry workers had, so we are trying to see if KCC can gear itself up to help

train the students,” he said.

“The ideal goal would be that by the time

people move into working with Bill or Lelan they are already trained,” said

Isobe.

“They are coming out of KCC and they already know what the business

is about and have the skills that are required. It saves the business time and

money; and it helps the students in terms of being able to stay here and work

here.”

Lori Ho, coordinator of Garden Island Resource Conservation and

Development Inc. (RC&D) and project partner, said the concept of a forestry

project was something that RC&D members have been kicking around for a

year.

“We were looking at the potential of a project, what to plant, what

would it look like, how are we going to do it? “Then I approached John and he

was thinking about the same thing, forestry,” she said.

Don Riedel,

RC&D Forestry Committee and a member of the Bamboo Guild, said, “When the

opportunity arose to collaborate with KCC, to wed our interests, promoting

bamboo as a construction wood and planting a demonstration project to show the

viability of such an industry, I could only imagine the

possibilities.”

Isobe said he hopes in the next two months to have the

first trees planted at the farm site.

Cowern and Nishek see a forestry

industry on the scale of the plantations. “We can produce furniture, doors,

cabinets, trim and all kinds of wood products. When we have wood, that’s when

the real value happens,” said Cowern.

Nishek said forestry is a good clean

business with well paid field workers in a mechanized operation.

“You

end up with a lot of good industry jobs that would add to the ability of the

island to keep its own good people here,” said Cowern.

“We anticipate that

is where the real plus is,” added Isobe.

For Sabra Kauka the interest in

the project is perpetrating and preserving Hawaiian culture.

“I teach

Hawaiian studies and we have a hui of Hawaiian studies teachers and kupuna. Our

interest is in planting those plants that we need to use for cultural purposes

and for teaching the children. Hawaiian bamboo, ohia, malie, kopiko, wauke, we

need these plants to practice our culture. We need to start cultivating

Hawaiian plants. We cannot continue to harvest without planting.”