Some Observations on Hawaiian Forests and Forest Cover in Their Relation to Water Supply (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Excerpt from Some Observations on Hawaiian Forests and Forest Cover in Their Relation to Water Supply

A paper by W. M. Giffard read before the Joint Committee on Forestry of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association and the Territorial Board of Agriculture and Forestry.

The Nature and Peculiarities of the Wet Forests of Hawaii and the Cause of Their Deterioration and Decline.

Much has been written on this subject and at first thought it may appear quite unnecessary that further explanation be made of the composition and nature of the Hawaiian forests that are needed for drainage or the conservation of water supply. It is, however, very apparent that there are still a number of individuals in the Territory that up to the present have ignorantly, carelessly or wantonly disregarded the oft repeated warnings of foresters and botanists as to the necessity for protecting these forests. Clearings continue to be opened up through the encroachment of man and beast, and the forest in places is still being pushed back by the making of clearings and roads to these that ought never to have been permitted. Elsewhere, the cutting of the forest for posts and for firewood is still going on, and again, where wild cattle and hogs are at large in the forest, general destruction is caused by their roaming around grubbing and feeding on and trampling down the herbaceous undergrowth so necessary for soil and water protection.

It is well understood by all having knowledge of the peculiar nature of these virgin forests that much of their natural undergrowth, composed as it is of climbing vines (lianes) and herbaceous plants, ferns and mosses, not only protects the soil from erosion but furnishes a protective cover for the surface growing roots of our indigenous trees.

Take for instance the native Ohia Lehua, which attains such fine growth in these wet forests and of which they are in the main composed. No observing person passing through such a forest can have failed to notice the peculiar stilt-like roots of the Ohia. This characteristic habit of growth is explained by the epiphytic habits of the Ohia.

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