Hawaii Loa Ridge is part of the N? Ala Hele System, Hawai‘i’s Trail and Access program under the Division of Forestry and Wildlife in the Department of Land and Natural Resources, which is a state-run program that is dedicated to regulating the activity of trails and access; constructing, restoring and maintaining trails and access roads; monitoring, researching, and restoring native flora and fauna; adding cultural history and historic trail features; and promoting recreational activity, among other partnership and volunteer directives and services N? Ala Hele provides.
The Hawaii Loa Ridge Preserve is adjacent to the ridge, and is not part of the ridgeline trial system. No public access is permitted at this time. The area has been reserved for preservation activities.
The Hawaii Loa Ridge Preserve was created to ensure public safety:
| • | Hazardous Boulder removal |
| • | Establishing Fire break buffer zones, in accordance with HRS183c-3 |
| • | Potential Rockfall mitigation |
| • | Erosion mitigation |
| • | Establishing access paths to hazardous areas for correct effort to commence. |
| • | Run off water and drainage ditches restoration |
| • | Excavating additional Flash flood prevention channels |
| • | Road construction to get heavy excavating equipment to boulder removal sites, for areas where major erosion has taken place and shoring up efforts would not be sufficient |
| • | Removal of invasive plant species. |
| • | Removal of specific identified invasive plants whose root are known to cause de lava rocks to crack and crumble. |
| • | Replanting cleared areas with endemic or indigenous plants to Hawaii. |
The preservation at Hawaii Loa Ridge is rooted in the community. We are preserving the ridge in the traditional way, with responsible Hawaiian land stewardship, keeping the Hawaiian ecosystem in mind, but also the people that live here.
Since 2017, Hawaii Loa Ridge Preserve has been under our stewardship. Our mission is to protect the natural, cultural and scientific resources of the area through community-led management. Our plan is an overarching management plan for Hawaii Loa Ridge.
We encourage the community to contact us with any questions or topics that they feel should be discussed.
The concept of private property was unknown to ancient Hawaiians, but they did follow a complex system of land division. All land was controlled ultimately by the highest chief or king who held it in trust for the whole population. Who supervised these lands was designated by the king based on rank and standing. A whole island, or mokupuni, was divided in smaller parts, down to a basic unit belonging to a single family.
Each mokupuni was divided into several moku, the largest units within each island, usually wedge-shaped and running from the mountain crest to shore. O`ahu was divided into six moku.
Each moku was divided into ahupua`a, narrower wedge-shaped land sections that again ran from the mountains to the sea. The size of the ahupua`a depended on the resources of the area with poorer agricultural regions split into larger ahupua`a to compensate for the relative lack of natural abundance. Each ahupua`a was ruled by an ali`i or local chief and administered by a konohiki.
Within the ahupua`a, `ili were smaller divisions (two or three per ahupua`a) that constituted the estate of the chief. Each `ili could be formed of noncontiguous pieces called lele, or jumps. Mo`o were sections of the `ili that were arable; usually these agricultural units did not extend to the sea. Smaller yet were the kuleana, or land tracts used by the common people for cultivation of crops. The size of kuleana, like the size of ahupua`a, depended on the natural fertility and abundance of the land.
The ancient ahupua`a, the basic self-sustaining unit, extended elements of Hawaiian spirituality into the natural landscape. Amidst a belief system that emphasized the interrelationship of elements and beings, the ahupua`a contained those interrelationships in the activities of daily and seasonal life.
Shaped by island geography, each ahupua`a was a wedge-shaped area of land running from the uplands to the sea, following the natural boundaries of the watershed. Each ahupua`a contained the resources the human community needed, from fish and salt, to fertile land for farming taro or sweet potato, to koa and other trees growing in upslope areas. Villagers from the coast traded fish for other foods or for wood to build canoes and houses. Specialized knowledge and resources peculiar to a small area were also shared among ahupua`a.
We are working on restoring Hawaii Loa Ridge to an exclusively native Hawaiian ecosystem. Our constant efforts will be to catalog anything invasive for removal, clear up any safety hazards and reintroduce native Hawaiian species to the area.
If you are interested in volunteering, please contact us
Directions
By Car (From Honolulu): Head east on Interstate H-1 and continue onto HI-72 (The Kalanianaole Highway) as the H-1 ends In about 2.4 miles turn left onto E. Hindi Drive, in .25 miles turn right onto Manauwea Street, left at the end of the road onto an incline driveway and make a right into the second driveway. Go up the long driveway to the end. Parking is at the top to the right. |
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