Kainoa Pestana
Pu‘u Kukui Watershed, conservation manager
as told to CHRIS AMUNDSON
Photograph by Dee Coyle
“As Hawaiians, we learn from a very young age that there’s a circle of life … we don’t dictate where the circle goes. We go with the flow. Ka Wai a Kāne is a known mele [song] from Kauaʻi that says ‘Where’s the fresh water? It’s in the east; it’s in the west. It’s up in the mountains and comes down to the river, the oceans, in cloud form, rainbow form. It’s underground and comes up in all the springs.’ For me, that circle of life lives in that mele.
My family is from He‘eia and Waikāne on O‘ahu. When I worked there, we did stream, landscape, loʻi [taro irrigation terrace] restoration and restoration of people and their understanding of ‘āina [land]. Everything was connection between kanaka [Indigenous Hawaiians], ‘āina and akua [God]. When I came to Pu‘u Kukui, through research I found my kupuna [elder] – my grandmother’s mother – was born in Kā‘anapali.
I found myself in places I’m supposed to be because I’ve gone with the flow of water. All the places I’ve gone to protect watersheds and rivers, family lives there.
Pu‘u Kukui Watershed, a three-tier watershed rainforest, is over 30 years old. It’s 12,000 acres from Honokōwai to Honokōhau. The summit’s name is Pu‘u Kukui and the mountain we take care of is Mauna Kahālāwai. We have over 100 years of rain gauge data. In record times, there were almost 400 inches of rain at Pu‘u Kukui. It was the second wettest spot on Earth. But over the years, weather patterns are changing. We’ve been getting close to about half, in the past five years. We’re all taking from [the earth], so we all have to give back.
This area is the pahuhopu – the goal of what we want ‘āina to look like. What you see here is all green, water, clouds. We don’t see runoff, which will eventually get carried into the ocean.
You got the canopy of tall ‘ōhi‘a and koa trees. Underneath, ‘ōlapa, smaller ‘ōhi‘a, manono … then eventually, ground cover of mosses, ferns. ‘Ōhi‘a is the keystone species that makes up 80% of our forests. It’s the sponge that captures the water. When rain falls down, it creates a buffer so that moisture doesn’t hit the ground. ‘Ohu [mist] and the uhiwai [blanketing water over the mountains] get caught inside these trees; it’s a net, basically. The bog is peat, which is a sponge. Water flows down into the ground, then seeps back into the earth.
With run-off, everything that goes up must come down. Rain grabs the sediment and washes it down, covering the reef systems in brown. The Kumulipo [creation chant] says that all life starts at the coral polyp.
We tell people, ‘No snail, no whale.’ If you’ve cut it off at the po‘o, the head, you can say goodbye to the rest of the chain. You don’t have plankton, you don’t have limu, algae, little fish, big fish, whale. Something that small has a big impact on everything else below.
There’s an ‘ōlelo no‘eau [Hawaiian proverb] that says ‘olā‘olā nō ka huewai i ka wai ‘ole – the water gourd makes a lot of noise, and it sloshes around when there’s no water in it. I say, be mindful and have your mind full. Be intent in the places you walk, touch and put your foot.
Scientists now say, ‘āina heals. We have to let it. ‘Hahai nō ka ua i ka ululā‘au’ – the rain follows the rainforest. Hawai‘i is getting warmer, which means that the cold is getting higher. So are the birds, mosquitos and trees. ‘Ōhi‘a used to grow at the summit all the way down on the shores. Now, the forest is higher up. The plan at Pu‘u Kukui has always been to build a koa belt at certain elevations and create kīpuka, little places left untouched when the lava comes down, so that the birds and insects can return.
People want things to happen quickly. Hawai‘i never formed like that. This valley took 2 million years. Every single drop of water and a bit of wind created these places. ‘Āina and nature moves first gear. We’re planting koa canoes for 100 years from now.”
