KAHO'OLAWE, THE STONES' NEW HAWAIIAN RESIDENCE

Today, The Grandma has invested in a new project. She has bought Kahoʻolawe. She has thought it could be a good present for The Stones. She has been inspired by The Robinson's story ans she has decided to do this important step.

Kahoʻolawe, anglicized as Kahoolawe, is the smallest of the eight main volcanic islands in the Hawaiian Islands.

Kahoʻolawe is located about 11 km southwest of Maui and also southeast of Lānaʻi, and it is 18 km long by 9.7 km wide, with a total land area of 116.47 km2. The highest point on Kahoʻolawe is the crater of Lua Makika at the summit of Puʻu Moaulanui, which is about 450 m above sea level.

Kahoʻolawe is relatively dry, average annual rainfall is less than 65 cm or 26 in, because the island's low elevation fails to generate much orographic precipitation from the northeastern trade winds, and Kahoʻolawe is located in the rain shadow of eastern Maui's 3,055 m volcano, Haleakalā. More than one quarter of Kahoʻolawe has been eroded down to saprolitic hardpan soil, largely on exposed surfaces near the summit.

Kahoʻolawe has always been sparsely populated, due to its lack of fresh water. During World War II, Kahoʻolawe was used as a training ground and bombing range by the Armed Forces of the United States.

After decades of protests, the U.S. Navy ended live-fire training exercises on Kahoʻolawe in 1990, and the whole island was transferred to the jurisdiction of the state of Hawaii in 1994.

The Hawaii State Legislature established the Kahoʻolawe Island Reserve to restore and to oversee the island and its surrounding waters. Today Kahoʻolawe can be used only for native Hawaiian cultural, spiritual, and subsistence purposes.

The U.S. Census Bureau defines Kahoʻolawe as Block Group 9, Census Tract 303.02 of Maui County, Hawaii. Kahoʻolawe has no permanent residents.

More information: Kaho'olawe

Kahoʻolawe is an extinct shield volcano, which formed during the Pleistocene epoch. Most of the island is covered by basaltic lava flows. A caldera is located in the eastern part of the island. The last volcanic activity on the island occurred about one million years ago.

Sometime around the year 1000, Kahoʻolawe was settled by Polynesians, and small, temporary fishing communities were established along the coast. Some inland areas were cultivated. Puʻu Moiwi, a remnant cinder cone, is the location of the second-largest basalt quarry in Hawaiʻi, and this was mined for use in stone tools such as koʻi (adzes).

Originally a dry forest environment with intermittent streams, the land changed to an open savanna of grassland and trees when inhabitants cleared vegetation for firewood and agriculture.

Hawaiians built stone platforms for religious ceremonies, set rocks upright as shrines for successful fishing trips, and carved petroglyphs, or drawings, into the flat surfaces of rocks. These indicators of an earlier time can still be found on Kahoʻolawe.

While it is not known how many people inhabited Kahoʻolawe, the lack of freshwater probably limited the population to a few hundred people. As many as 120 people might have once lived at Hakioawa, the largest settlement, which was located at the northeastern end of the island -facing Maui.

From 1778 to the early 19th century, observers on passing ships reported that Kahoʻolawe was uninhabited and barren, destitute of both water and wood. After the arrival of missionaries from New England, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi under the rule of King Kamehameha III replaced the death penalty with exile, and Kahoʻolawe became a men's penal colony sometime around 1830. Food and water were scarce, some prisoners reportedly starved, and some of them swam across the channel to Maui to find food. The law making the island a penal colony was repealed in 1853.

A survey of Kahoʻolawe in 1857 reported about 50 residents here, about 2,000 ha of land covered with shrubs, and a patch of sugarcane growth. Along the shore, tobacco, pineapple, gourds, pili grass, and scrub trees grew.

Beginning in 1858, the Hawaiian government leased Kahoʻolawe to a series of ranching ventures. Some of these proved to be more successful than others, but the lack of freshwater was an unrelenting hindrance. Through the next 80 years, the landscape changed dramatically, with drought and uncontrolled overgrazing denuding much of the island. Strong trade winds blew away most of the topsoil, leaving behind red hardpan dirt.

From 1910 to 1918, the Territory of Hawaii designated Kahoʻolawe as a forest reserve in the hope of restoring the island through a revegetation and livestock removal program. This program failed, and leases again became available.

More information: Hawaii Magazine

In 1918, the rancher Angus MacPhee of Wyoming, with the help of the landowner Harry Baldwin of Maui, leased the island for 21 years, intending to build a cattle ranch there. By 1932, the ranching operation was enjoying moderate success. After heavy rains, native grasses and flowering plants would sprout, but droughts always returned.

In 1941, MacPhee subletted part of the island to the U.S. Army. Later that year, because of continuing drought, MacPhee removed his cattle from the island.

In 1993, the Hawaiian State Legislature established the Kahoʻolawe Island Reserve, consisting of the entire island and its surrounding ocean waters in three km radius from the shore. By state law, Kahoʻolawe and its waters can be used only for Native Hawaiian cultural, spiritual, and subsistence purposes; fishing; environmental restoration; historic preservation; and education. All commercial uses are prohibited.

The legislature also created the Kahoʻolawe Island Reserve Commission to manage the reserve while it is held in trust for a future Native Hawaiian sovereign entity. The restoration of Kahoʻolawe will require a strategy to control erosion, re-establish vegetation, recharge the water table, and gradually replace alien plants with native species.

Plans will include methods for damming gullies and reducing rainwater runoff. In some areas, non-native plants will temporarily stabilize soils before planting of permanent native species. Species used for revegetation include ʻaʻaliʻi (Dodonaea viscosa), ʻāheahea (Chenopodium oahuense), kuluʻī (Nototrichium sandwicense), Achyranthes splendens, ʻūlei (Osteomeles anthyllidifolia), kāmanomano (Cenchrus agrimonioides var. agrimonioides), koaiʻa (Acacia koaia), and alaheʻe (Psydrax odorata).

In July 2015, a Business Plan for the Restoration of Hawaiian Bird Life and Native Ecosystems on Kahoolawe was proposed in partnership with KIRC, Island Conservation, DLNR, The Nature Conservancy, Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana, HDOA, American Bird Conservancy, and USFWS. The plan outlines the restoration of Kaho‘olawe Island through the removal of feral cats (Felis catus), rats (Rattus exulans) and mice (Mus musculus). The document investigates and addresses the biological, cultural, financial, and regulatory implications associated with the eradication.

More information: Hawaii Public Radio

They made us many promises,
more than I can remember,
but they never kept but one;
they promised to take our land,
and they took it.

Red Cloud