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 he Nature Conservancy manages a 2,744-acre preserve at the top
of Kamakou mountain in central Moloka'i. It encompasses a wide variety of terrain and climates, which in turn
support an extremely diverse selection of plants and animals. Hiking in the preserve is akin to exploring another world.
It evokes some of the enchantment early explorers must have felt in coming upon sights so alien to everything
they had previously know.
A slatted boardwalk creaks through the preserve's rain forest
to the breathtaking Pepe'opae Bog. Walking the planks gingerly, one is reminded of a scene from a short story,
wherein the characters walked along a wooden path suspended slightly above a steamy primeval jungle. They
were warned not to step off the path and disturb even one leaf or they could alter the course of the
earth's history, perhaps even erase the evolutionary line that led to themselves. Step off the walkway and one
might trample a plant that is the one survivor of a rare species and alter the future, for the plant may
contain in its leaves, buds, or bark the cure for a killer disease, or it may simply be the host for an
insect species that feeds a particular bird that pollinates a favorite tree, and so on up the intricately woven
chain of life. Within Kamakou Preserve are at least 250 kinds of plants. Of these, 219 live nowhere else
expect Hawaii. The predominantly wet ohi'a forest is the habitat of five endangered forest bird species,
two of them found only on Moloka'i. The unique environment shelters rare and endangered Hawaiian birds, such as
the oloma'o (Molokai thrush) and the kakawahie (Molokai creeper), whose sole remaining habitat
is Kamakou. Giant tree ferns, violets, and native orchids are found throughout these mountains.
At the mountaintop, the rain forest ends as abruptly as it began.
Here stretches a vast Lilliputian garden of miniature ohi'a trees with scarlet blossoms as big as the plant,
mounds of grasses running from russet to silver and viridian. Tended by winds, rains, mist, and sunshine,
wild Pepe'opae looked as if it were lovingly nutured by a Japanese gardener, the ultimate bonsai. This drier
forest supports a mixture of native hardwoods, including the now rare Hawaiian sandalwood.
The Kamakou preserve was established in 1982 by the Nature Conservancy
of Hawai'i, a private conservation organization, which in cooperation with the State and private landowners is working
to ensure the preservation of this important area for future generations.
he Nature Conservancy's other Moloka'i
preserve is completely different. "Mo'omomi Dunes is the best and also one of the last surviving strands of
[Hawaiian] coastal vegetation left," says island naturalist Joan Aidem. "Condos, hotels, and houses have
taken the rest. May of the original plants have been destroyed."
The winds at Mo'omomi are relentless. They sweep in from the ocean,
shaping and reshaping the miles of sand dunes, whipping the bay into white surf. Mo'omomi's appeal is in its
uncompromising character, scoured, salt-sprayed, dry, and resolute. It bears the stamp of perseverance.
At Mo'omomi life is tough and low to the ground. The bones and roots
of the weak are buried in the sand. A 25,000-year-old skeleton of a flightless gooselike bird was discovered
in the shifting dunes. The moa nalo stood four feet high and managed to lay eggs the size of coconuts.
Moa nalo shared the turf with a flightless ibis, a rail, a crow, a long-legged owl, and even an oceanic eagle, all
now extinct. The area is still visited by native shorebires, the hunakai (sanderling) and kolea
(golden plover). Endangered Hawaiian monk seals haul themselves out of the ocean for sunbaths, and the green sea
turtle steals ashore at night to hide its eggs in the dunes.
Almost nothing that is not native grows at Mo'omomi. Only that which
has been tried by time sinks root. The roselike clusters of the silvery-green hinahina have colonized the dunes, lacing
them together. Its tiny, sweet-smelling blossoms lie hidden, protected from the winds by tough gleaming leaves
the color of armor. The pale silver 'ena'ena feels soft to the touch, but how ferocious must be its nature for
it to bloom in howling wind. The vine pa'u-o-Hiiaka has been woven into legend. When the goddess Hiiaka
paused to rest on Moloka'i, the vine grew over her to protect her as she slept. Historian Dorothy Curtis says, "There
are a lot of secrets in the sands and ravines."
Moloka'i's spiritual texture is always present, making us aware that
something old, wise, maybe even stern is taking us under its wing and teaching us what we need to hear.
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