Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BIRTH OF A CLOUD FOREST
Other than James Dole (pineapples) and David Murdock (hotels), few men have
been more integral to the modern development of Lana'i than George Munro
(1866-1963). A New Zealand-born botanist and ornithologist, Munro first jour-
neyed to Hawai'i in 1890 as a member of Lord Walter Rothschild's expedition doc-
umenting the birds of the islands. Choosing to stay after the end of the expedition,
Munro would be hired in 1911 as the ranch manager for the Lana'i Company's cattle
operation.
When Munro arrived on Lana'i, he found a dry island which had been com-
pletely decimated by overgrazing. Cattle and sheep ran amok through the uplands,
the watershed had been depleted, and the island's population of native birds had all
but completely vanished. With Lana'i in a sorry state of affairs, Munro walked the
entire island with bags full of seeds and clippings in an effort to solve the problem.
He also ordered that fences be erected to protect what few native plants remained.
The Kanepu'u Preserve owes its existence to a fence put up here in 1918 by the
forward-thinking Munro.
Despite Munro's efforts at replanting, Lana'i's watershed continued to suffer.
Strangely enough, the answer would ultimately manifest itself not in fences or
seeds, but in an annoyance on Munro's tin roof. As ranch manager, Munro enjoyed
a modest dwelling in the upland pastures of Koele beneath the shade of a Norfolk
pine. On evenings when the clouds would roll across Koele, moisture from the
passing cloud vapor would gather in the pine needles and ultimately drip onto Mun-
ro's tin roof in a rhythmic-and bothersome-tapping. Instead of putting the pillow
over his head, Munro realized that the pine tree was extracting water directly from
the clouds, and he soon thereafter ordered hundreds of pines to be planted on Lana'i.
Due to the fact that pine needles have a surface area much larger than regular leaves,
it's believed that each pine tree can provide up to 200 gallons of freshwater per day
by trapping the passing fog. Today there are thousands of Cook Island pines forest-
ing Lana'i's uplands, and a century later the health of the watershed is slowly being
restored. The best place to immerse yourself in this cloud forest is on the dirt road
heading to Lana'i's summit, a four-wheel-drive track aptly named the Munro Trail.
