KOLOA — Twelve years after being ravaged by the winds of Hurricane ‘Iniki, a pillar of Koloa town came tumbling down yesterday. Yesterday morning, a crew from Garden Island Tree Care removed a giant Cook pine tree, estimated to be
KOLOA — Twelve years after being ravaged by the winds of Hurricane ‘Iniki, a pillar of Koloa town came tumbling down yesterday.
Yesterday morning, a crew from Garden Island Tree Care removed a giant Cook pine tree, estimated to be well over 100 feet tall, from the parsonage of the Koloa Union Church on Waikomo Road.
The tree, estimated by the tree-care people to have been between 80 and 90 years old, towered over a hundred feet into the Koloa skyline, its unique twin spires a familiar landmark.
According to Sue Venson of GI Tree Care, they came to inspect the tree after being contacted by officials from the church.
“We got here when it was really windy, and the tree was breathing, and the ground heaved,” she said. Their main concern was of the tree toppling over power lines running along Waikomo Road and damaging neighboring houses.
Phil Bickel of the church’s Building and Grounds Committee said the tree developed two large cracks in its trunk after ‘Iniki, and when the winds blew you could see the cracks open up.
This created a hazardous condition, as the giant tree stands about 10 feet from the parsonage, which was built in 1925.
Venson said the cracks developed from the winds of Hurricane ‘Iniki, and are about five to six feet up the trunk which causes the tree to ‘breathe’ when the winds blow.
The situation is further aggravated by the twin spires that top the stately tree, Bickel remembering that it was about 60 years ago that the “tree decided it wanted two tops.”
Using a crane with a 90-foot boom, Jim Campbell, owner of Garden Island Tree Service, and one of two certified arborists on Kaua‘i, personally manned the chain saws that tackled first the twin spires before sectioning the big tree, the spires towering well above the reach of the boom.
Corazon Duvauchelle, who lives in a neighboring home, was one of the dozen spectators who came and went as the process of removing the tree took place Wednesday morning.
“I fought it (the tree removal) all the way, but in the end, it had to be taken out. It was all rotten inside, and the forester said it had to come out,” Duvauchelle said.
Now in her seventies, Duvauchelle said she remembers the tree from when she was five years old. “It was really big then!”
As portions of the giant tree came tumbling down onto the small yard fronting the road, cars would stop as people peered out windows onto the spectacle taking place as a piece of history was removed from its longtime place.
Spectators, many of whom belong to the Koloa Union Church, softened the blow of the tree removal by looking ahead. Duvauchelle said there are plans to turn part of the wood into communion bowls, as well as make other pieces of the tree available to members.
“I want a piece,” Duvauchelle said, “even if it is just to lay around the house.”
Duvauchelle recounted how fishermen used the steeple of the church and the twin spires of the Cook pine to navigate their way into Kukui‘ula Small Boat Harbor.
As Duvauchelle watched portions of the tree topple to the ground, she sighed, “Oh, well, what will the fishermen use now? Maybe they’ll have to rely on the satellites.”
Venson said the 17-year-old Kaua‘i company utilized five crew members for the Wednesday task, one of their larger projects.
Sports Editor Dennis Fujimoto may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or mailto:dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
