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REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF FORESTRY. 



Honolulu, Oct. 15, 1906. 

 Committee on Forestry, 



Board of Agriculture and Forestry, 

 Honolulu. 



Gentlemen : I beg to submit the following report upon a 

 proposed modification of the makai boundary line of the Hale- 

 lea Forest Reserve, in the District of Halelea, Island and 

 County of Kauai : 



Following an application from Mr. W. E. Rowell of this 

 city to purchase from the Government, with adjoining gov- 

 ernment lands, a portion of the land of Waioli within the re- 

 serve — on which it is proposed to grow rubber — Mr. J. W. 

 Pratt requested me to re-examine the reserve boundary and 

 make a report containing my conclusions in regard to a modifi- 

 cation of the location of the line. Accordingly I arranged 

 to visit Hanalei durmg my recent trip to Kauai, and on Sep- 

 tember 22, 1906, w^ent over the ground in question in company 

 with AJr. Rowell and Mr. F. E. Harvey of the Survey Office, 

 we three having met at Lihue by appointment the day before. 



The main object of the Halelea Forest Reserve is the pro- 

 tection of the forest cover on the Halelea watershed against 

 the time when the streams may be turned to account for the 

 production of power or for irrigation. The makai line of the 

 reserve as originally laid out was intended to, and at that 

 time did, clear all the land which was believed to be suitable 

 for agriculture or grazing or which it was thought could be 

 profitably used in this wav for many years. But recent 

 developments in the rubber industry have made it appear that 

 certain protected gulches, now under forest, just within the 

 reserve boundary, might profitably be used for growing rub- 

 ber. It is Mr. Rowell's intention to organize a stock company 

 for this purpose and because of the obstacles that the five-year- 

 agricultural-land clause place in the way of a new industry, 

 I0 acquire the tract by purchase. Mr. Rowell also contem- 

 plates leasing the similarly situated area on the Bishop Estate 

 lands of Waipa and Lumahai. As the same conditions obtain 

 on these lands as on Waioli the examination was made to 

 include them as well. 



The question before me in this examination was whether or 

 not a relocation of the forest line, cutting out the area desired, 

 could be made without detriment to the objects for which 

 the reserve as a whole stands. 



The present line takes in portions of the wooded area at the 

 upper end of the gentle slope at the foot of the main pali and 

 also a few small wooded gulches on the sides of two or three 

 of the more prominent lateral ridges. As surveyed it runs 



