Nate’s Adventure: Restoring Hawaiian Agriculture at Waialeʻe
By Nate Yuen | Reading time: 2 minutes
I’ve been going to community work days with the North Shore Community Land Trust to restore Hawaiian agriculture at Waialeʻe -- a once a productive agricultural area on Oʻahu between Kahuku and Pūpūkea.
The North Shore Community Land Trust (NSCLT) entered into an agreement with the University of Hawaiʻi to mālama-- take care of -- a large portion of Waialeʻe Livestock Research Station on the north shore of Oʻahu. Sheep was once raised at this site but with the demise of the sheep industry, Hawaiian agriculture is now being restored at the site.
Waialeʻe was known for its fields of ʻuala -- sweet potatoes – cultivated in the kula -- field for dryland crops. A good part of the work is weed control.
Volunteers weed rows of ʻuala. We saw lady bugs and dragonflies, important insect predators, at the site. We hope they will be able to keep insect pests under control.
The farm receives considerable rainfall which promotes the growth of guinea grass and other weeds. One of the main weed control techniques involves the use to weed mats – thick plastic coverings that block the sun. We cover the weeds with the mat to block the sun and kill them.
We also worked to remove invasive species, like haole koa, from the site. We used a tree wrench lever to pull haole koa about 2 inches in diameter. The thicker haole koa about 4 inches thick were much harder to pull out. We chopped the side roots first to make it easier to remove. And then pushed the stump back and forth until the roots underground cracked and we could pull out the stump.
The NSCLT is restoring mala style agriculture in the forest. Hawaiian varieties of maiʻa -- bananas -- and olena -- ginger -- have been planted in the mala area under the shade of trees.
The NSCLT is working to restore Loko Kalou -- a historic fishpond at Waialeʻe which once provided anae -- mullet -- for much of the surrounding community. According to tradition, Waialeʻe is the site where the demigod Maui is said to have anchored Kahuku, which at the time was a small detached island, to Oʻahu with his magical line and hook -- manaiakalani.
Next to Kalou Fishpond are wetlands where kalo was once grown. To realize the goal of restoring the loʻi, much work is needed. I look forward to the day that the bounty of Waialeʻe is brought back to life.
There is a work day every 4th Saturday of the month. The next work day at Waialeʻe is:
Sat, July 24, 2021 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM HST
Waialeʻe Volunteer Workday
University of Hawai‘i Agricultural Experiment Station