Mälama Mokupuni: Caring for Our Island Environment
_ A Kipuka for All: Kaulana Manu Trail By Rachel Laderman
KeOlaMagazine.com | November-December 2021
Near an ancient trail in the saddle between Hawai‘i Islandʻs two largest volcanoes, at 5,600-feet elevation and often wrapped in a misty cloud, is an oasis. It is a rejuvenating place for human travelers, and for birds, too. Since 2020, at milepost 21 on Daniel K. Inouye Highway (AKA Saddle Road), you can walk along an interpretive nature trail and learn about a great variety of native plants and birds, some very rare. The name, Kaulana Manu Nature Trail, fittingly means “tranquil resting place for birds.” The easy hiking path of less than one mile winds through a 15-acre, 400-year-old kīpuka, an island of native forest spared from surrounding lava flows. Numerous kīpuka dot the lava throughout the Humu‘ula Saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, most too remote for hikers to visit. These isolated forests foster unique species due to their separation from other populations. Some kīpuka have insects endemic only to them! “This is a very intact native ecosystem,” explains Jackson Bauer, manager of the Nā Ala Hele Trails program, part of Department of Land and Natural Resources. “It is remote enough that invasive species have not gotten a foothold.”
38
Walk the Loop From the parking area, take in an overview of the forest canopy. While reviewing the illustrated panels on cultural and natural history, you hear an enticing birdsong medley. Follow the painted footsteps leading along a short stretch of the old Saddle Road. The realignment of this highway in 2005 triggered mitigation money that paid for the nature trail and fencing. A Capital Improvement Project funded the parking area and solar-powered composting toilets. Heading to the right, use the shoe brushes to avoid spreading the Rapid ‘Ōhi‘a Death fungal disease, and you’ll soon start dropping down into the forest. Pass through the pigfence gate and head left “to follow the flow of the signage,” advises Jackson, who developed the nine interpretive panels and 25 plant signs staged throughout the trail. Now you are in the many-layered forest, visiting the wau akua, or realm of the gods, protected by ancient Hawaiians for its many special gifts. Hawaiians carved tall koa trees for canoes, harvested others for building and fiber, and collected abundant bird feathers and berries such as ‘ōhelo and ‘ākala— the Hawaiian raspberry. There are more than 70 species of native trees, shrubs, and ferns here.
Birds flash through the treetops seeking bugs and sipping nectar. It’s hard to catch more than a one-second glimpse, but Jackson makes it easy to identify them by their calls. “That’s the ‘i‘iwi—hear how it sounds like a squeaky door hinge? It’s saying ‘smoked meeeat,ʻ” he quips. “Hear that sound like R2D2? That’s the crimson ‘apapane.” ÿIÿiwi in an ÿöhiÿa lehua tree along Kaulana Manu Trail. photo courtesy of Moses Sparks
