76 



FOREST FENCES. 



The existing forest fences which mark a good portion of the 

 lower boundary of the Ewa Reserve, date back from eight to 

 twelve years. The section across Waipio was completed during 

 the spring of 1894, while that across the lands of Waiawa, Ma- 

 nana, Waimano and Waiau was built in 1898. ]\Iuch of the way 

 the fence marks the lower edge of the forest. In some places 

 there is open land above it and occasionally, especially in the 

 gulches, tongues of forest come further down. The fence does 

 not follow an exact course. It was, rather, run where it could be 

 most easily built, at about the required eleyation. 



Back of the Honolulu Plantation various stretches of fence 

 built at different times follow the 650 foot contour and rof^ek 

 the upper line of the cane land. While not on the forest line, sec- 

 tions of this fence could be utilized to protect the forest reserve. 

 In some cases, with the exclusion of cattle from the upper lands 

 the necessity for a forest fence disappears, while in other in- 

 stances a forest fence will have to be built. There are division 

 fences running mauka on the Kalauao-Aiea and on the Halawa B- 

 Moanalua boundaries. 



THE FOREST. 



The forest on the western slope of the Koolau Mountains be- 

 longs to the type which has been described in former reports of 

 mine as being characteristic of the elevations between one and four 

 thousand feet in the Hawaiian group. Ohia Lehua (Metrosideros 

 polymorpha) and Koa {Acacia koa) are the most important 

 species and predominate among the trees in mixture. With them 

 is associated a considerable number of other trees, mainly of 

 small size and minor importance, and also many shrubs, large 

 ferns, climbing vines and other plants, which together form a 

 dense mass of vegetation under the canopy of the main forest 

 trees. 



In the gulches Kukui (Alcurites nioluccana) is a common tree, 

 its greenish white foliage adding much to the picturesqueness of 

 the scenery. Guava (Psidiiun guayaz'a) and Lantana (Lantana 

 camara) are much in evidence in the broader gulch bottoms and 

 on some of the flats near the forest fence. Practically the only 

 commercial use to which the forest is now put is the use, in 



