CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Invasive mangrove trees from Heeia Fishpond were removed last week by students with the state Department of Land & Natural Resources' Youth Conservation Corps. The clearance was part of a summer conservation program to help state agencies in the field. Here, Blair Suzuki hacks away at plants.
Nature defended
by studentsYoung conservators from
around the state work together
to help preserve native sites
Heeia Fishpond moved a few feet closer to its former glory last week as a dozen members of the Youth Conservation Corps sawed, hacked and clipped at the invasive mangrove along the Kaneohe Bay side.
After two days hard labor, the high school and college students stood back and looked at their accomplishment: a small clearing of stumps along the 500-year-old fishpond's rock wall and a large pile of branches.
Volunteer
To contact Paepae O Heeia about volunteering at Heeia Fishpond, call 236-6178.For more information about the Youth Conservation Corps, see www.hawaiiycc.com or call 247-5753.
"It's hard when you're doing it, but after you look at it, it seems like an accomplishment," said Meleana Carr, a Youth Conservation Corps member and Punahou School junior.
At this rate, estimated Mahina Paishon, it will take 10 years to get all the mangrove removed from around the edge of the 88-acre pond.
Still, Paishon praised the students' progress. The non-native mangroves were planted along the historic fishpond's edge years ago in an attempt to trap silt and eventually convert the pond into land, she told the students.
"At that time they didn't value the fishpond," Paishon said. But in recent years, landowner Kamehameha Schools, its nonprofit group Paepae O Heeia and others have tried to reverse that trend. They hope ultimately to resume raising moi -- Pacific threadfin -- and limu and crabs in the pond.
Youth Conservation Corps participants spent the past week there as part of their seven-week-long odyssey of conservation work this summer. Other "rotations" for Oahu students have included clearing brush where coqui frogs were hiding in Wahiawa, working on marshland restoration at Kawainui Marsh in Kailua and clearing invasive plants on the slopes of Mount Kaala. Teams also are working on the Big Island, Kauai and Molokai.
The $200,000 program for high school juniors and seniors and college freshmen and sophomores has 57 students and 11 team leaders this year. It is sponsored by the state Department of Land & Natural Resources and managed by Pono Pacific Land Management, a conservation business created by two graduates of the program.
Students also fished for barracuda (an unwanted fish) in the pond, harvested small crabs and removed unwanted seaweed.
Blair Suzuki, a Campbell High School senior, is participating because "It just seemed really interesting -- different from going to summer school or staying at home."
Frederick Reppun, a Punahou graduate, thought the program would give him some insights before he heads to Harvard, where he may study environmental science.
"I really like being at the fishpond," said Reppun, who grew up on his family's farm in the nearby Waiahole Valley.
Carr, who is interested in studying marine biology, said she learned that the multipronged aerial roots of the mangrove hold silt and change the chemistry of the pond water, making it less hospitable for raising fish.
"And the alien limu multiplies on the bottom, so nothing can really grow," Carr said, adding that she was intrigued that the bad algae were actually of use to taro farmers, who "stomp it into the loi, where it makes oxygen."
"Nitrogen," corrected the taro-experienced Reppun.
