When more than 3,000 acres burned in a devastating series of West Kauai wildland fires in 2012, state officials not only mourned the loss of healthy state forest, but were faced with the potential for even further disaster.
The scorched and barren landscape left lowland areas vulnerable to flash floods and coral reefs at risk to choking from runoff. The newly opened canopy made the forest susceptible to invasion by aggressive aliens, and critical endangered species habitat lay exposed.
But, as sometimes happens, out of crisis comes opportunity.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources and private partners have launched a $1 million-plus project that aims to remove 15,000 tons of burned pine and eucalyptus trees, many of them dead and standing hazards, and then replant with healthy hardwoods, including a large section of natives such as koa.
As part of the project, the logs will be hauled off to Kauai’s new $90 million Green Energy biomass plant, where they will be burned to generate electric power. The timber sale, estimated to fetch more than $300,000, will help offset the cost of the new plantings.
The project represents a new and improved response to Hawaii wildland fires, one that could lead to similar efforts in the future, state officials said.
"This fire was an eye-opening experience," said Lisa Hadway, administrator of DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife, as she inspected logging operations near Kokee State Park this week.
Hadway said the Kauai fires, along with recent wildland fires that blackened the forest land near Makakilo and Mililani Mauka, illustrate the potential of things to come as climate change leads to declining rainfall, warming temperatures and parched landscapes.
"We’re gonna expect to see this more and more," she said, pointing to the scorched trees. "When people think of Hawaii and they see all these green plants, they don’t think we have a fire problem."
But we do. The fact is, Hadway said, Hawaii’s percentage of land burned is already comparable to what’s happening across the western United States, where drought and fire have plagued forests for years.
The problem, she said, is that while many mainland forests are fire-resilient and able to bounce back, native Hawaiian forests are not. A significant transformation occurs when a native forest is blackened by fire. "Once it burns, it’s gone," she said.
Of the million acres of land under the protection of DLNR, a quarter has been converted from stable native and plantation habitats to fire-loving grassland, she said.
Hadway said the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, the official fire suppression agency of state lands, needs to step up its game by performing more pre-fire suppression measures, including thinning out the state’s plantation forests to reduce fuel that could end up causing even larger wildland fires.
In addition, the agency must improve its firefighting capacity, she said. The state Legislature is now considering four bills seeking $1.5 million to help replace and upgrade badly needed fire equipment.
Hadway said the agency also wants to conduct more post-fire suppression efforts like the one happening now on Kauai, where an Oregon logging company is busy clearing burned pine and eucalyptus from protected state lands.
Following the 2012 fires, former Gov. Neil Abercrombie issued an emergency proclamation that helped forestry officials leverage funds to address the post-fire damage.
State crews started by clearing hazardous dead and scorched trees close to six miles of roadways. They also employed a new aerial technique to plant grass seed across 700 acres to help prevent erosion.
Despite these and other efforts, young eucalyptus emerged from the ground and filled in under the dead trees across a 90-acre area, creating a dangerous tangle of vegetation.
"That’s a tinderbox and a fire hazard waiting to happen," Hadway declared.
Working in two forest reserves in the Kokee area, logging crews are using equipment ranging from axes and chain saws to a high-tech feller buncher, a timber harvester that appears to be capable of doing the work of dozens of lumberjacks. On Thursday, in front of state officials, the machine was mowing down trees large and small at a high rate.
Craig Woodward, president of Prineville, Ore.-based Woodward Cos., said his crews are about halfway through the project. Before it’s all done, he expects to clear about 150 acres.
Eventually the logs will be hauled to the Green Energy plant near Koloa. The 7.5-megawatt biomass-to-energy plant is scheduled to be connected to Kauai’s electricity grid next month and supply about 11 percent of the island’s energy needs.
This fall, in anticipation of the rainy season, state crews will start planting koa and other native hardwoods in wetter areas above the 2,400-foot level near Kokee. In drier areas, high-value non-native and noninvasive trees will be planted.
Back when the eucalyptus and pine forests were planted here more than 50 years ago, the goal was to eventually have the trees harvested. Thanks to the fire, it’ll finally happen.
"We’re trying to make the best of it," said Sheri Mann, state forestry program manager.
