Leaders of The Nature Conservancy have signed an agreement with officials from landowner Kamehameha Schools to protect native forests in the back of Lumaha‘i Valley on the North Shore of Kaua‘i. Preservation of the valley will aid greatly in the
Leaders of The Nature Conservancy have signed an agreement with officials from landowner Kamehameha Schools to protect native forests in the back of Lumaha‘i Valley on the North Shore of Kaua‘i.
Preservation of the valley will aid greatly in the understanding and perpetuation of the Hawaiian culture, said Neil Hannahs, director of the Land Assets Division at Kamehameha Schools.
The project will provide an opportunity to “demonstrate how conservation and culture can overlap,” Hannahs said.
Initial management efforts will focus on controlling certain invasive weeds.
Future management efforts will likely involve the use of community volunteer hunters to reduce pig and goat populations, leaders with Kamehameha Schools and The Nature Conservancy said.
Other future management methods will likely involve the placement of a fence to protect the most remote and undisturbed management areas in the upper portion of the valley.
“This agreement is our first with Kamehameha Schools, and it is one that we highly value,” said Suzanne Case, The Nature Conservancy’s executive director in Hawai‘i. “Lumaha‘i Valley is incredibly beautiful, and worthy of serious conservation efforts. Our shared goal is to ensure the long-term survival of this natural and cultural treasure.” One of the largest windward valleys on Kaua‘i, Lumaha‘ i Valley extends far into the island’s undeveloped central region, the Alaka‘i Plateau.
The valley’s boundary or limit above the 1,300-foot elevation represents some of the most preserved native lowland wet forest in Hawai‘i.
Dozens of species of native trees cover the valley walls, while native shrubs and ferns cover stream banks.
Hawai‘i has already lost more than half of its original native lowland forest, defined as forest areas below the 3,000-foot elevation, according to Sam Gon III, director of science for The Nature Conservancy.
“The back portion of Lumaha‘ i is as close to pristine as any lowland forest and stream system can get in the Hawaiian islands,” he said.
“There are very few places remaining where you can stand at low elevation in a river-valley bottom and see native forest running from river edge to ridge top. This is Lumaha‘i.
Its conservation value is immense.” Nature Conservancy and Kamehameha School leaders said the need to protect the region is great.
They said aggressive lowland weeds such as Australian tree fern, clidemia and strawberry guava, coupled with the upward movement of goats and pigs from the lower valley, threaten what is currently a “gem of biological diversity.” Kalani Fronda, asset manager for the Land Assets Division at Kamehameha Schools, said the back of the valley is in many places nearly 100-percent native forest and shrub land, and “habitat modification is only in its early stages.
But the time to stop it is now.” The severity of damage by pigs and goats to the area has been “fairly limited” at this time, said Trae Menard, The Nature Conservancy’s natural-resource manager on Kaua‘i.
“However, based on experience in other forests statewide, the number of feral animals will likely increase to damaging levels quickly if we don’t act now,” Menard said.
