Molokai, Big Trees, and Xmas Boat shows

I went from a girl with nothing to do this weekend, to a girl with too much to do! So in a quick decision from my boss, we decided to miss our work holiday party, (which is notoriously awesome!!!) for a day trip over to Molokai. Which meant this island hopper got to check one more island off my list!

We began our day dark and early at 6:21 exactly (my boss and I like to be precise) and I scored major intern points for bringing her a white chocolate peppermint mocha. Then we went to the tiny inter island terminal at HNL, boarded our tiny plane and took of to one island over, Molokai. My first impression; this island is small and flat! Second impression, look at all those gullies, we could totally use CREP to reforest those. What can I say, 2.5 months on the job and I'm fully immersed in my work. The airport at Molokai was no bigger than one of my classrooms in college with a staff of about 7, and thats including the rental car employee! Then we were off on a full day of work!

But not before doing a short stop to see Kalaupapa. Kalaupapa is where the lepers or Hansen's disease people were sent during the late 1800s and early 1900s. These people were arrested and separated from their families and sent to this isolated area with very little medical, housing, and food. There are still a few people left and they have their own rules to protect their privacy and the history. If this interests you, theres a really good book called Molokai you should check out.

 Kalaupapa

We then too a short walk to go see the "phallic rock". We weren't sure if we were seeing a rock that looked phallic or was supposed to grant fertility. It turned out that is just looked like a penis. But I avoided touching it, just in case it did in fact, grant fertility...

Next up, we went to a site visit. Molokai has quite a few issues a conservationist must face. It is dry, windy, and infested with deer. This project wanted to have trees on their property, but to get anything to grow, it needed to be protected from the wind. So first a constructed wind break was made with kukui trees planted behind them. Four of these were made, but 3 years later, only one windbreak had a grove of trees planted behind it. Turns out the deer were sneaking in and either eating the seedlings, or rubbing them to the point where they were knocked over. Then theres the issues of getting irrigation out to the trees and making sure all the piping didn't clog. To say it was a big undertaking would be an understatement. However, it was a good learning experience to see what works and what doesn't, and that Molokai needs more deer hunters.

The kukui trees with one of the windbreaks in the background

We then followed the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS, the same people I interned with for 6 months in college) to a pollinator lecture. It was interesting to learn the different research and techniques are going into bees and other pollinators to help with crops. I also learned that I either was required to learn the life cycle of a bee in elementary school or from Miss Frizzle from the Magic School Bus. I'm thinking it was the latter. Then we quickly took off to go measure some big coconuts. 

So I know I have touched on this before, but I am working on this Big Trees competition run by American Forest. It is to find the biggest tree of various species based on their height, diameter, and crown spread. We have 5 species that we decided to try to go for in Hawaii, because we didn't want to represent invasive or introduced species. One of those is Coconut. Turns out theres a rather large coconut grove planted in Molokai that is really old. We figured we may be able to find a champion tree there, so we searched out the biggest tree we could find and go to work on measuring it. It was really awesome to be learning the technical terms and using the real forester tools. So we used a clinometer to measure the height, then measured the diameter and crown spread using a tape measurer. So far, no one has entered a coconut tree so its looking like we may have a winner. Heres our champion tree!

Then we ended our day with my boss discussing the CREP program. The meeting was at a retreat center and we met in a yurt! It was a gorgeous place!

Then next night I went over to Hawaii Kai to visit my aunt and uncle and there invited guests for the Hawaii Kai boat parade. It was really great because they live right on the water so we had chili and wine while sitting on the couch and watching the decorated boats go by. Some were cute and small, while others were large and extravagant! Here was the biggest one, playing Zumba Around the World the entire time. I guess the husband was a dock builder and the wife was a Zumba instructor so they combined both of their jobs and came out with this!

It definitely helped to get into the Christmas spirit. Its been a bit difficult being away from home for the holidays, plus theres been very little weather change so it doesn't really feel Christmasy. Plus, its my first time since I was 4 that I haven't had a winter break. I'm pretty sure its the only perk of being in school! Until the next time, happy holidays!

Holidays and Xterra World Championships

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and I survived. It was a bit rough there being a big family holiday and not being at home. There are certain things I missed (like that green bean dish I have every holiday) but fortunately I was not without family. I had lunch at a Japanese buffet with my grandma and 2 of her sisters and 2 of my cousins, which is always entertaining. I always feel a bit sorry for the waiters and waitresses as my various relations play tug of war over the bill. I managed to control myself as I walked past the various sushi goodies to hold off for dinner. I had a nice quiet thanksgiving dinner with my family here, complete with my favorite, cranberry sauce from the can.

Works been pretty quiet lately, with the holidays coming up, everyone is trying to not add too much to their plate before taking vacation time. The thing I have noticed from working here is how much into the future I have to think. My calendar has things all the way in March already. I am really excited about a couple of things I am working on though. One is a rule change, which sounds awfully dull to most of you I am sure. But for me it's an opportunity to apply some of my law background and get experience in the procedures required to change statutes. Another is this Big Trees competition run by American Forests. I wrote a press release last month and it received a lot of response. These next few months will require going out to where ever these big trees are that people submitted, measuring them, and then submitting them to these national competition. Hopefully we will have some "big trees" and make the national register. I also will be speaking about how I am applying online mapping to integrate with this competition at a conference in March (which I am really nervous about). I have also made it my goal to start a statewide big tree competition just for Hawaii by the end of my internship.

In non work news, I ran my 2nd trail half marathon on Sunday, and boy, did I pick the right race. It was the Xterra Trail World Championship at Kualoa Ranch which is this absolutely gorgeous location where they filmed LOST, Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor, and various other movies. It was a race of about 700 people and we started off on with some nice rolling hills. I moved up passing people on the hills (my specialty) before we headed to a single track that had been cut into the hillside. It was pretty incredible to turn a corner and see sets from movies, especially things LOST related, not to mention the green cliff sides and the beach you could see for most of the race. Then things got difficult. Mile 8-10 was straight up hill which led to all the contestants to resort to walking and few expletives. Once up the giant mountain, we turned a corner and found...MUD! We then had to slip and slide down the mountain holding on to ropes tied to trees for mile 11 and 12, not exactly what you would call a fast course. Once that was out of the way, it was only another mile and a half to the finish (our race turned out to be 13.5 instead of the usual 13.1 half marathon). Once I was less than a mile out, I knew I wanted to kick it into gear and finish hard, which meant I passed 3 people in the last 800 and 3 more in my sprint finish, which felt pretty good. I had forgotten how much fun racing can be, since its been almost a year since my last race. Once the results were posted I had found out I ran 13.5 miles in 2:17:03, was in 239 place out of 687, was the 35th female and had one 2nd in my age bracket (20-24)! I was really excited, especially since it had been such a difficult course and I had only been training for a month and hadn't run a trail since I got here. I got a nice little swag bag, a lei, another medal, and a chance to go on stage and take a picture. It felt pretty damn good! 

So just to end with some Christmas spirit, here's a picture of my cousins dog Chutney :)