79 
THE FOREST SITUATION IN HAMAKUA. 
For the past twenty years the forest situation in Hamakua, 
including the question of the desirability of a general forest re- 
serve, has received marked attention. Report after report has 
been submitted, with recommendations numerous and varied. 
The agitation has resulted in the setting apart and maintenance 
of private forest reserves of considerable areas of private land, 
but so far as a general reserve, proclaimed by the Government, 
is concerned, nothing has been done. On the contrary much 
forest land has been opened up for homesteads, while other areas 
formerly under a dense forest cover have come to be considered 
as grazing land. 
The problem that was presented to the Board of Agriculture 
and Forestry on its organization five years ago and that, in part, 
still confronts it was and is, not how best to develop a virgin 
district, but rather what can be done under existing conditions. 
To clearly understand the situation as it exists today necessitates 
first a brief statement of facts ; following which will come an 
exposition of the reasons why under present conditions certain 
recommendations are made. 
Present Conditions in Hamakua. 
The Forest. 
The area in Hamakua now actually under forest is confined to 
a relatively narrow belt above the cane fields. The lower edge is 
about 2000 feet in elevation ; the upper varies from about 3500 
feet at the east end of the District to about 2500 at the west end, 
although owing to the fact that the slope is more gradual at the 
west end, the width of the forest belt is fairly uniform through- 
out, the average width being something less than two miles. 
Ownership of the Land. 
The forest belt consists of privately owned land, homestead 
tracts and government land's, the last named for the most part 
under lease. At the west end of Hamakua two large govern- 
ment lands, Kamoku and Nienie, with some remnants, are under 
a twenty-one-year lease dating from September 8, 1907, to the 
Parker Ranch. Portions of these lands come down into the for- 
est belt, as do also two other government lands, Honokaia and 
Kalopa, which are likewise under lease to the Parker Ranch, 
until July 1, 1913. At the east end of the District are the gov- 
ernment lands of Kaohe, Hoea-Kaao, Kealakaha-Niupea and 
Manowaialee, not now under lease but for which application has 
been made by the Kukaiau Plantation Company. 
