176 



the work of setting apart the main forest reserve system in the 

 Territory. During the year, five new reserves were proclaimed 

 by the Governor, an addition was made to one, and an ehmina- 

 tion from another. The new reserves consist of the Nonou of 

 818 acres and the Puu Ka Pele of 4900 acres, on Kauai ; the Mo- 

 kuleia of 6290 acres and the Hauula of 9193 acres on Oahu ; and 

 the Olaa of 20,030 acres on Haw-aii. An area of 104 acres was 

 added to the Makua-Keaau Reserve on- Oahu, and from the Puu 

 Ka Pele Reserve on Kauai 415 acres were withdrawn to be turned 

 over to the county for pubHc park purposes. These new reserves 

 include the larger part of forested land which -remained to be 

 officially set aside and nianaged under forestry principles mainly 

 for the conservation of water and the beneficial influence which 

 they have on the surrounding land. 



During April, 1919, a detailed check and tabulation was made 

 of the areas of all lands in forest reserves at the request of the 

 Legislature. This revision shows that there are now 47 forest 

 reserves in the Territory, having a total area of 818,739 acres, of 

 which 558,655 acres or 68 per cent is government land. 



The work of actual forest protection has progressed at the 

 same time vi^ith the completion of this work of forest dem.arca- 

 tion. The main efforts have been directed toward ridding the 

 susceptible native forests in the reserves of injurious stock. This 

 has been accomplished in two ways — by the issuing of permits 

 to responsible hunters and ranchmen, and by the construction of 

 new fences and repairing of old fences to prevent the access of 

 stock. By the first method, over 780 head of wild cattle, pigs 

 and goats were eliminated from the reserves during the past year. 

 This work will no doubt be greatly facilitated by a new law 

 which authorizes the killing of branded wild cattle in fenced re- 

 serves without compensation to the owner after giving due pub- 

 lished notice. Under the second method, a total distance of 14.87 

 miles of forest reserve boundaries was made stock-proof during 

 the fiscal year by fencing operations. 



The force of eight forest rangers on the four main islands 

 have continued to. render efficient service in preventing trespass, 

 performing forest work, such as fencing and tree planting, and 

 in the general administration of the forest reserves. 



In spite of an unusually dry winter, only four fires have oc- 

 curred during the year, but these were extinguished at once with 

 small damage to the forest. 



The encouragement of tree planting throughout the Territory 

 was continued by the raising and distribution from the three gov- 

 ernment nurseries of 297,902 seedling trees during the last cal- 

 endar year. In the interest of protection against the dissemina- 

 tion of injurious insects in soil around the roots of trees, the Di- 

 vision on June 1 discontinued the practice of shipping trees in 

 soil from Oahu to the other islands, and to meet the demand for 

 Irees on the other islands it has enlarged the Hilo nursery and 

 is now^ establishing new nurseries on Maui and Kauai. 



