8o 
Title to all but a few scattered lots in the homestead' tracts 
has passed from the government, and those that are left are so 
small in area and so widely separated as not to be of moment for 
forest reserve purposes, even were it desirable to put them to 
such use. 
The area above what is now the upper edge of the woods, up 
to the lower edge of the Mamani forest was formerly also under 
a forest cover, but due to injuries resulting from long continued 
grazing, followed by the extensive and very destructive forest 
fires of 1901 the forest at this elevation has now so completely 
disappeared that ,except in a few restricted' localities, to secure a 
new forest through natural reproduction would be an extremely 
slow process. Not only are there few seed trees left, but over 
most of the area is a heavy stand of rank-growing grass, un- 
favorable to forest reproduction. The greater part of the land 
above the existing forest at the middle and at the west end of 
Hamakua is included in the Parker Ranch, either in fee simple 
or under one of the above mentioned leases. The section covered 
by the Mamani forest, which extends mauka from an elevation 
of approximately 4500 feet, does not concern the present dis- 
cussion, which has to do with the area formerly covered by the 
original Koa and Ohia forest. 
Water Supply. 
The chief reason for the creation of forest reserves in the wind- 
ward districts of Hawaii is the influence the forest cover exerts 
on the local water supply. In the Hilo Forest Reserve and on 
the Kohala Mountains the dense forest cover of trees, ferns and 
undergrowth absorbs the heavy rainfall, prevents rapid run-off 
and equalizes and maintains the flow in the streams that are so 
important for use for various purposes below. This is the chief 
use of these "protection" forests and is wholly apart from any 
influence a belt of forest may perhaps have on precipitation. For 
there is no question as to what takes place in the forest after the 
water reaches the ground. 
In Hamakua the conditions controlling stream flow are radi- 
cally different from those in the Hilo District or on the Kohala 
Mountains. Between Ookala and Waipio Gulch there are not 
now, nor so far as I can learn have there been during the last 
sixty years, any permanently running streams. Even when there 
was a dense and' untouched forest above, the streams are said 
not to have run continuously — though probably the flow at that 
time was of longer duration after rains than it is today. Like- 
wise, springs are few and far between ; those that are really de- 
pendable, i. e., that can be relied on to out-last droughts, being 
for the most part located away from the forest, near the main 
Government road. Taken as a whole the soil of Hamakua is 
