Hawaii TODAY/FILE PHOTO Trees tower over vehicles on a dirt road on land owned by the Edmund C. Olson Trust near the Ka’u Forest Reserve.” decoding=”async” style=”max-height:600px;object-fit:contain;” fetchpriority=”high” srcset=”https://staradvertiser.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/web1_Koa-trees.jpg 760w, https://staradvertiser.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/web1_Koa-trees-300×225.jpg 300w, https://staradvertiser.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/web1_Koa-trees-533×400.jpg 533w” sizes=”(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px”>
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WEST HAWAII TODAY/FILE PHOTO
Trees tower over vehicles on a dirt road on land owned by the Edmund C. Olson Trust near the Ka’u Forest Preserve.
A 1,200-acre koa forest on Hawaii Island is almost ready to be logged for the first time in nearly two decades.
The Kapapala Canoe Forest was set aside in 2005 within the Kau Forest Reserve to serve as a sustainable source of koa wood to be used to build traditional Hawaiian canoes, because the organizations that build those canoes found it difficult to obtain suitable trees. amid a koa decline. resources in the state.
However, no trees have been cut from the 1,257-acre forest since its creation due to a lack of updated information about the area.
In 2019, the state Land and Natural Resources Board, whose Division of Forestry and Wildlife manages the forest, approved an inventory of the forest to better understand its ecology and eventually develop a sustainable management plan that would allow logging.
That plan, released in April, estimates there are approximately 5.5 million board feet of koa wood within the forest, based on inventory data. Of those, about 1 million board feet are in trees now considered ideal for canoe log construction, and another 1.5 million will likely be suitable for log construction in the next two decades.
To harvest wood from the forest sustainably, the plan states that trees will only be selectively felled. “High grading,” or the practice of felling only the largest trees, is unsustainable over time. Therefore, any cutting of canoe logs will be accompanied by other non-commercial actions to clear the forest, including selective cutting of non-canoe trees.
Harvests will largely take place first in priority areas along roads within the forest reserve, before moving deeper into the forest over the coming decades.
Organizations within Hawaii will be able to submit applications to remove trees from the forest. Applicants must be able to demonstrate that they are capable, both financially and technically, of transforming a koa log into a canoe and submit their own management plan outlining any forest conservation or land management activities in which the group is involved.
Applications will then be reviewed by a select board of experts, including cultural professionals, members of touring and racing canoe associations, canoe builders, forestry experts, conservationists and more.
Meanwhile, DOFAW will identify which trees are available for harvest at the time of request. Harvests will be limited to only 10% of the total forest volume within 10 years, which will therefore limit the number and volume of trees removed annually.
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