Just before entering a low, shady canopy of mamane and sandalwood trees and aweoweo on a bright Saturday morning, Jackson Bauer noticed movement in the top of a different mamane stand, and lamented that he didn’t have binoculars on him.
The palila flitting through the trees ahead couldn’t be seen, but its call carried down to the trail below.
Or rather, to the trail that was taking shape.
Twenty volunteers from around the island had arrived at the Kilohana hunter check-in station earlier that morning to head to the site of the future Palila Forest Discovery Trail.
The trail, located another four miles from the checking station at about 7,200 feet up the slope of Mauna Kea, was mapped out and flagged, but had not yet been dug or grubbed (made level).
“We’re going to take a big bite of the trail and be almost, almost done,” Bauer told the group before the volunteers broke off with weed-whackers and hazel hoes.
The trail, an initiative of the state Department of Land and Natural Resource’s Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project, is only 0.92 miles long. When it is complete and opened to the public on July 27, it will offer easier access for people to see one of the most critically endangered birds in Hawaii.
The entire world population of palila — about 2,000 birds — lives in a pocket of high-elevation dry forest on the leeward slopes of Mauna Kea that is also home to mamane trees. Palila diets consist almost entirely of mamane seeds.
The palila is the last remaining species of finch-billed Hawaiian honeycreepers. The other 15 are extinct.
Most of MKFRP’s goals are oriented around planting more mamane and other native tree species to help revive the forests, which once stretched down to the slopes of Hualalai but were knocked back because of grazing and feral ungulates such as mouflon sheep.
“It used to be a closed-canopy forest, with all the trees touching each other,” said MKFRP outreach coordinator Kuulei Moses. There are still small areas where this is still the case — the new trail goes right through one of them — but it will be years before there is an approximation of the former forest on the slopes.
Still, it is recovering, Moses said. This year alone, volunteers have planted more than 10,000 trees, and mamane trees that were planted several years ago are thriving.
A nature trail through palila habitat doesn’t directly benefit the bird in the same way that planting trees does, but Bauer said it could help more people become aware of the bird. It’s hard to protect what you can’t see or don’t know about.
“It’s something that’s been in the back of people’s minds for a while,” Bauer said. The original MKFRP palila plan, written several years ago, included a nature trail.
Bauer began working on plans more than a year ago and, though he now works with the Hawaii state trails system, is seeing the trail project to its end point.
The current site is “a convenient spot; you see them (palila) often,” Moses said.
A $25,000 grant from the Laura Musser Foundation, secured through the American Bird Conservancy, an MKFRP partner, provided funding for an environmental assessment and archaeologist site visit, both needed before any trail-making could take place.
The trail is intended to be as low-impact as a nature trail intended for foot traffic could possibly be, using existing footpaths, old hunter driving routes and fire breaks. It crosses fenced areas via short ladders placed over the fencing.
The trail site is also home to other native bird species. The amakihi is the most common species in the area, Bauer said. Moses has seen iiwi, apapane, elepaio, pueo and io.
The mamane and sandalwood canopy is “the exciting part, what it used to look like,” Bauer said. “There’s more complexity here.”
There are three lookouts points: two looking towards Kohala (Waimea and Haleakala on Maui can both be seen on a clear day) and one looking towards Hualalai and Mauna Loa.
Four informational kiosks and several small plaques identifying native species will be installed before the grand opening on July 27. The smaller plaques have scannable QR codes so hikers can use their smartphones to look up more information on the species. A pedestrian gate will be put in place at the entrance near the parking area.
Increased accessibility is the goal, but a high-elevation trail has natural limitations.
“The reality is it is a four-wheel drive trail, and not everyone can make it up here,” Bauer said. But, he said, having a trail in place for those who do want to explore offers an area that’s clearly defined so visitors aren’t “walking willy-nilly” and disturbing more of the environment.
Many people in the Saturday volunteer group were old hands at restoration projects.
A group of seven students from Hilo High’s Lanakila Learning Center, an alternative education program that emphasizes hands-on learning, turned dirt over with their hazel hoes and pickaxes and offered to help older volunteers with their work. They’d previously worked with the Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance, planting 1,200 koa seedlings on a different part of the mountain.
Girl Scouts Briane Souki and Bethany and Caitlin Anderson had branched off from activities at the annual Scout weekend at Camp Kilohana to work on the trail. Earlier this year, they had done tree planting with MKFRP.
At lunchtime, when more than a third of the trail was grubbed, the Girl Scouts headed back down the mountain to meet up with their troops back at camp.
Next year, they’ll be back to hike the trail they helped build.
The Palila Forest Discovery Trail opens to the public on July 27. For more information, visit http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/restoremaunakea/palila-forest-discovery-trail/
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.