Kanaha Pond Report

Exclosures Reports

MNBG, Inc. Gets Lease

George Allen Show

It’s membership renewal time again; time to show your support for protection of Maui’s native plants by sending in your membership dues. Dues are unchanged, with $15 for individuals and $20 for families. Simply fill out the membership form on the back of this newsletter and return it with your check. Be sure to check the ‘I would like to volunteer ‘ box if you want to be contacted about our ongoing projects.

NHPS

PO Box 5021

Kahului, HI

96733-5021

voice mail:

243-0213

website: www.maui.com/~thomasp/nhps

Christmas

Potluck

Come celebrate the holiday season at our annual Christmas Potluck at Camp Pecusa on Sunday, December 17, from noon to sunset. Located on the beach at Olowalu, the Camp has plenty of space for kids, a wonderful snorkeling beach, and great kayaking near shore. We’ll be grilling hot dogs and chicken. We’ll also have NHPS teeshirts available for that last minute Christmas present. Call Linda Nelson at 661-4303 for details.

Maui Botanical Gardens

Gets New Lease on Life

Yes, on December 1, the Maui Nui Botanical Gardens, Inc. received approval by the Maui County Council, on a five year License to Occupy for the Maui Botanical Gardens. This project has been in development for over five years, and we are thrilled that we will finally be able to begin to develop this important environmental and educational garden.

The Maui Botanical Gardens was created by the Native Hawaiian Plant Society’s founder Rene Sylva over twenty years ago. The garden is currently owned and operated by the County of Maui. The License to Occupy will allow the non-profit group, Maui Nui Botanical Gardens,

Inc., to manage and develop the botanical gardens into an educational center focused on the conservation of coastal and dry forest species of Maui Nui. Other partners in this project are the Tri-Isle Resource

Conservation & Development Council. Inc., the Maui Board of Water Supply, and the Native Hawaiian Culture & Arts Program of the Bishop Museum.

It will take several months to establish an office and on-site presence at the garden. In the interim we will be scheduling several work days at the garden. If you are interested in volunteering or making a donation to our organization, please call Lisa Schattenburg-Raymond at 876-1813,

or write to P.O. Box 6040, Kahului, HI 96733

Lisa Schattenburg-Raymond

George Allan

Goes Native!

Viewpoints Gallery in Makawao will feature George’s fabulous oil paintings honoring Hawaii’s native plants and trees. Opening festivities will be December 30, from 5-8 p.m., and will benefit Maui Nui Botanical

Gardens, Inc.

MNBG will also feature a native Hawaiian plant sale and answer

questions about native plant gardening. So save your Christmas money and start off the New Year right by purchasing one of George's treasures for your home, and planting one of our native treasures in your garden!

Mark Your Calendars Now!

Kanaha Pond Report

The 340-acre Kanaha Pond Wildlife Sanctuary has undergone a lot of restoration over the past ten years. Under the direction of Dr. Fern Duvall, much has been accomplished in the year 2000.

Maui County policemen have been working there weekly with juveniles. They have cleared large areas of pluchia along the roadway near the NHPS bunker. The Baldwin High Science Club has subsequently planted rows of akulikuli in this area. The rains immediately followed, thus sparing us the laborious task of watering the cuttings. This akulikuli will grow in quickly as a nice weed barrier against pluchia reinfestation. The police and juveniles have also cleared pluchia from a large area to the right of the pavilion parking lot and along the fence across from the sewage treatment plant. In these areas, pluchia had formed expansive thickets six to eight feet tall. Their hard work is paving the way for the reintroduction of native trees.

Our NHPS Tuesday morning work party has helped with and will continue to work on a number of ongoing projects throughout the year. 1. We will help with monitoring and planting in the Federally funded endangered species sand dunes restoration project. 2. We will start reforesting the Pond with Naio, Loulu, Ha’o and Hala. There are now a number of foot-high Wiliwili that have sprouted from our seed planting of three years ago. At the time, we spent six weeks planting 21/2 gallons of seed over a wide area, each one in an inch-deep hole. 3. During the nesting season, April through August, we helped out with weeding in the State nursery and weeding and planting at Becky Lau’s Haiku School native plant gardens.

Many other local groups have been involved with restoration at Kanaha Pond. All the 4^th graders at Waihee Elementary School come to the Pond each year for environmental studies. Lihikai Intermediate students do clearing and weeding regularly. Two Boy Scout Troops have been doing some major clearing behind the central fence. They have also done conservation and native studies projects. One Eagle Scout erected a stone near the pavilion and fastened a bronze National Historical Landmark plaque to it. A group of Kaunoa Senior citizens has been weeding at the Pond on Wednesdays. Some of Ann Emsley’s students from the MCC Agriculture Department, will be working on the sand dunes restoration project.

We are looking forward to another productive year at KPWS. There is always room for more volunteers. If you have a group that would like to volunteer or would like to help as an individual, please call Fern Duvall at 873-3502 or Lorna Harrison at 572-6338.

La Perouse Awikiwiki Exclosure/Anchialine Ponds

Because of the drought of the past few years, we only visited this area once in the year 2000. We weeded the usual koa haole, pluchia and non-native grass seedlings. We also worked on ridding the pond area of several kaiwe trees. Since we have had rain here in the latter part of this year, we may visit the area more in 2001 as we have more weeds to eradicate. To help, call Richard at 973-3504, 8-3 PM weekdays.

Auwahi Exclosures

With the fall rains after such a long drought, lots of weeds sprouted and several trips to our exclosures were needed to control them. Our newest exclosure, number 10, is scheduled to be completed soon. Also, our members have been very helpful in participating in the BRD-USGS (Biological Resoiurces Division of the U.S. Geological Survey) project headed by Art Medeiros. We did outplanting, mulching, watering and weeding trips throughout 2000. As this very important project is planned to expand, we hope more of our members can help and learn about this very unique native forest. To join this project, call Richard at 873-3504, form 8-3 PM weekdays.

Ma’o hau hele Exclosure

I became project leader this year in order to allow Richard Nakagawa to concentrate his efforts more at our Auwahi exclosures. We took advantage of the drought early last year to control the few weeds that were present. We also made progress knocking back the big koa haole, the seed source of most of this weed inside the fence. The fence is still in good shape, and there is no sign of animals getting inside the exclosure this year. Despite the dry conditions last winter, there were Hibiscus brackenridgei seedlings germinating and establishing themselves. The rare Achyranthes splendens var. splendens showed reproduction. Scheidea salicaria, a West Maui endemic that is a candidate for listing as Endangered, is holding it’s own as well. We also observed native yellow-faced bees (Hylaeus sp.) visiting flowers of ilima (Sida fallax) and nehe (Lipochaeta lobata var. lobata).

We sincerely thank Charlie Ota, Chuck Nicklies and HFJ Waikapu Inc., and all our hardworking volunteers for their continued support. – Hank Oppenheimer

Charles Lamoureux 1933-2000

NHPS lost a long-time friend and supporter when Charles Lamoureux, Director of Lyon Arboretum in Honolulu, died on October 16. Charlie, at Lyon Arboretum since 1992, also served as Chair of the UH Botany Department, and volunteered countless hours to help Honolulu’s five botanical gardens. He wrote the award-winning book, "Trailside Plants of Hawai’i’s National Parks" in 1977. He was a NHPS supporter from its beginning and gave several talks over the years. His last was a slide presentation/history of Lyon Arboretum from the days when Manoa was bare and dusty to the exciting techniques in meristeming native plants currently being developed there. I saw him last at the Conservation Conference in August where he was full of energy and ideas. It seemed he’d always be with us. No such luck. We’ll miss him. Linda Nelson

The Year In Review

There goes 2000. It was a quite a year.

January - State Botanist Vicki Carraway’s workshop on the revised endangered species regulations.

February - Kim Martz and Forrest Starr showed us the plants and birdlife of Midway and the Northwest Islands, complete with taped birdsongs.

March - We lost new Board member Toby Rogoff, to cancer, just as we were getting to know her and value her energy and commitment.

April - we joined the Earthday Celebration at Maui Community College with a plant sale and beautiful display of Anna Palomino’s native plants.

Throughout the spring, plants withered as the drought continued. We put our dryside projects on hold. Many of us continued to work on Art Medieros’ ten-acre BRD-USGS exclosure in Auwahi. It is an experiment, searching for the best techniques to revegetate a declining native forest. Even though the drought was severe, an amazing number of the 2500 seedlings survived and even flourished. There they were, a little patch of green, amid the dead weeds. Kept me coming back time after time.

July - we took on a new project. Under project leader Dan Cohen, we’ll maintain Ohai (Sesbania tomentosa) in two exclosures on the northwest Maui Coast.

July - Puu Mahoe botanical tour, hosted by Martha Vochrodt and David Moran.

Finally, the rains came. A check of our Auwahi project showed that native plants in our exclosures had survived the drought and were flowering.

October - Charlie Lamoureux, Director of Lyon Arboretum and long-time friend of NHPS passed away

November – Dr. John Culliney, author of a ‘Native Hawaiian Garden’ and biology professor at Hawaii Pacific University, showed us the changes in Hawaiian plant communities brought on by several stages of human colonization.

December – Maui Nui Botanical Gardens gets the lease to the botancal Garden site at Keopuolani Park in Kahului. NHPS Christmas potluck at Camp Pecusa.

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

If the weather forecasters are right, 2001 will be a wet year. That would be great! A wet year after a long dry spell often means lots of plant growth as they take advantage of the opportunity to flower and seed. We’ll visit our exclosures on the second Saturday of each month on a greatest need basis. To find out which project is scheduled, call our voicemail at 243-0213.

MAHALO!

Many mahalos to:

Eda Kinnear and her dedicated crew for keeping the Kahului Library Courtyard native plant garden a beautiful, serene place to enjoy a good book...

Our public meeting speakers, State Botanist, Vicki Caraway, Forrest Starr and Kim Martz, and Dr. John Culliney for informative and often dazzling presentations...

Maui Coffee Roasters and Cook Kwee’s Maui Cookies for donating those tasty refreshments at our meetings...

Sierra Club and Friends of Haleakala National Park for their donations to the Auwahi projects...

Anna Palomino of Hoolawa Farms for the beautiful plant display and plant donations that made our Earthday booth a success...

Maui Land and Pineapple Company and later Hawaiian Canoe Club for use of their meeting rooms for our Board meetings...

Our dedicated volunteers who have kept NHPS going for 17 years!