Friday, January 26, 2007

On Fire....Again















Tuesday afternoon a fire started on the leeward side of Haleakala in the forest above Kula in the 6500 foot elevation range. By Thursday night it has grown quite large and is moving across the mountain and through the Polipoli forest preserve.

This is mostly a non-native forest of pine, cypress and wattle, but it is the only forest of any size and substance on the south west slopes of Haleakala.

This is not a good thing for Maui and will have a much more damaging ecological impact than the normal grassland fires that burn mostly grass, Kiawe and Haole Koa.

3 comments:

Delphine said...

The Polipoli forest, what a great exotic name. Your blog make me dream, poor french girl trying to plant some palmtrees and exotic gingembers under the snow. I think i would prefer the fire , the wind and the hurricane compared to our cold climate in Paris. I like your blog very much, please continue to make us dreaming.

Delphine
http///paradisexpress.blogspot.com

Annie in Austin said...

The news stories look pretty bad, Christopher, and I hope the firefighters stay safe. Some stories mentioned endangered native plants in the area, as well as the pine, cypress and wattle:

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070126/NEWS0103/701260359/1005/NEWS

Annie

Christopher C. NC said...

Welcome to Maui Delphine. Check out my sky series for a nicer look at Maui. There is a trail of links you can follow for gorgeous tropical sunsets.