The Alaka`i: Kaua`i's Unique Wilderness

At an elevation of 4,000 feet above sea level, far from the traffic jams at Puhi, the shopping centers, the strip malls and the faux Hawaiian resorts of lowland Kaua`i lies a 20 square mile plateau showcasing one of the most unique natural environments to be found anywhere in the entire world, stretching from the Pu`u o Kila lookout at the end of Hwy. 550 southeast to the summit of Mount Wai`ale`ale. Popularly referred to as the "Alaka`i Swamp," it is not a swamp at all, but a tropical rain forest with a couple of dozen bogs featuring remarkable dwarf shrubs and trees. In the Alaka`i are to be found species of plants and birds not found anywhere else. It is often shrouded in a legendary thick mist, called moe by the Hawaiians, and it rains almost every day of the year. The ancient Hawaiians came to the Alaka`i to hunt birds and crossed it on their way down to Wainiha Valley and the North Shore. Later, adventurous Western missionaries, scientists and others explored its wonders. In recent years the Alaka`i Wilderness Preserve was created to better protect it from outside influences that over the centuries had threatened its very existence. Today invasive plants and feral goats and pigs are an ongoing threat that conservationist organizations are Valiently trying to control. A boardwalk now makes it easier to traverse the spectacular environment of its northern bogs.

The Alaka`i: Kaua`i's Unique Wilderness, by Fernando Peñalosa, contains a full description of this unique place, as well as the history of the human penetration of the area and its impact. The Alaka`i is mentioned and celebrated in Hawaiian oral literature, and composers still create chants, songs, even plays about the Alaka`i, and these are also analyzed in the book. For a sample of a recent creation, you can listen to Richard Beach's "Pihea," which won first prize in the the 2005 Mokihana Song Festival. This is the Hawaiian version, translated and sung by Fran Nestel.

The Alaka`i: Kaua`i's Unique Wildernes is on sale at the Koke`e Museum, Kaua`i Museum, National Tropical Botanical Garden, Borders in the Kukui Grove Shopping Center, Native Books Hawai`i in the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, and online from Amazon.com. All proceeds from the sale of this book go to the Koke`e Resource Conservation Program, which works on eradicating invasive plants from the Alaka`i..