93 

 RECLAMATION OF KAHOOLAWE. 



At the meetiniy of the Board of Agriculture and Forestry held 

 on February 12, 1912, the Superintendent of Forestry read the 

 following report containing suggestions as to a method of start- 

 ing the work of reclaiming the Island of Kahoolawe. No defi- 

 nite action was taken thereon at the time, but the members of 

 the Board expressed themselves as in favor of the general plan 

 outlined. The paper reads as follows : 



Honolulu, February 9, 1912. 



Coininitfcc on Forestry, Board of Cominissioiicrs of Agriculture 

 and Forestry. 



Gentlemen : — I have the honor to submit as follows a report 

 outlining a plan for starting the reclamation of the Lsland of Ka- 

 hoolawe, which I recommend be approved by the board and put 

 into operation : 



As pointed out in my report on the settins: aoart of Kahoo- 

 lawe as a forest reserve, dated Tune 2?>. 1910 ^Hawaiian Forester 

 and Aericulturist. Sentember. 1910, Volume VIIT, No. 9, oages 

 264-267), the main obiect of that action was to place the island 

 under the control of the department of the local government best 

 equipped to accomplish its reclamation. 



To brinar Kahoolawe bark to a productive condition will re- 

 nuire considerable time and carefully directed effort. It is not 

 the purpose of the present report to request any cash outlay for 

 this work, but rather to suegest a plan wherebv, under a system 

 of licenses, the portion of the island that is now productive — the 

 pili grass country along the lee coast— can be made to vield an 

 increasing revenue that mav be used for the gradual improve- 

 ment of the remainder of the island. 



The value of the pili grass section rests largely in the fact that 

 algaroba trees are gradually coming up all over it. In time as 

 the forest spreads it will be of much more value, for stock feed, 

 for honey rights and for wood. The feed furnished by the al- 

 garoba beans and the pili grass is sufficient to carry a limited 

 number of horses, provided they can get water. With some 

 slight repairs the cisterns and the wells already on the island can 

 be put into shape to supply enough water for from 100 to 150 

 head. By the construction of additional cisterns the number of 

 head for which there is dry feed could probably be doubled. By 

 licensing the use of this section for some such limited number 

 of horses, for a short term of years, under definite restrictions, 

 not only will algaroba seed be spread more rapidly over the land, 

 but in addition some revenue can later be got which could be used 

 in the inaueuration of other lines of reclamation. 



