Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Brothers Jonathan, 8, and Christia Flowers, 10, were
among some 30 volunteers yesterday helping to plant wiliwili
saplings at Diamond Head crater.

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Volunteers work to
make Diamond Head
‘green’

Thirty volunteers try to
restore the crater by planting
100 native plants to replace
foreign species

By Lori Tighe
Star-Bulletin

The brown Diamond Head crater used to be green, before the alien species arrived.

The tourist destination that attracts 1 million visitors yearly, once flourished prior to human contact with green native fauna that could withstand drought, winds and relentless sun. Then with the people came the alien plants, like the koa haole and kiawe, hogging the groundwater and eventually killing off native species, such as the wiliwili tree.

To help restore the crater, a band of 30 volunteers ranging from ecologists to elementary school students planted 100 native wiliwili saplings in the crater yesterday.

"It was great," said Sean Casey, of Youth for Environmental Service, which coordinated the planting at the state park with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Hawaii Army National Guard. The spirit of native environmentalism flourished among the soil-dusted volunteers, Casey said.

"This was once a mosaic of dryland, forest and shrubland, and it was probably green not brown," explained Trae Menard, an ecologist with the Army National Guard, surveying Diamond Head. "The theme now is to increase biodiversity, and plant more native plants."

The primary reason for Diamond Head to go native is to reduce the risk for fire, Menard said. The alien plants and trees invite blazes, such as the big one in 1992 that stranded tourists at the top of the crater, said Melissa Dumaran, also with the National Guard.

The alien plants not only suck up the groundwater, they wither and turn brown during droughts, becoming fuel for brush fires.

"Alien species are the biggest problem to Hawaii's environment," Dumaran said. "We want to incrementally replace them with native plants."

The volunteers dug holes about a foot deep, filled them halfway with dirt, watered them, then centered in foot-tall wiliwili tree saplings. They filled the holes up and watered them again, patting the dirt to tuck in the young trees. The volunteers covered about an acre of crater on the ocean side, leaving plenty of room for the trees to grow up and expand.

Hawaiians used the wiliwili's bright red seeds for leis, even draping explorer Captain James Cook with one such lei on his 1778 visit. Hawaiians used the wood for fishnet floats, the outrigger of canoes and surfboards.

"They go dormant in droughts," explained Menard. "That's how they survive."

Volunteer Alex Duffy, 9, participated in the sweaty, dirty work, joyfully. Just five days ago, he had moved to Hawaii from Anchorage, Alaska. "It's awesome," he said of his new home.

It was "a cool experience," Duffy said of yesterday's planting.

"It gave you a good feeling inside and made you think about the environment."