During my week there I learned so much about Hawaiian forests. One sad truth is that there is no publicly accessible ancient native forest on the island. The state's Department of Land and Natural Resources does own old-growth native forest - but it is all "landlocked," meaning it is surrounded by private land; or so sensitive that visitors are tightly regulated and must make arrangements weeks in advance. We did add a Maui County forest to the Network, but for the first - and I hope only-time, it contained some planted, non-native trees; towering beautiful trees, yes, and a great place for families to hike in the "woods," but not at all what an undisturbed Maui would look like. Meanwhile a short distance away is "Wailea 670." This is 670 acres that includes a rare, ancient, native, dryland forest. It would have been the perfect forest for the Network except that it's privately owned and scheduled to become another golf course - condo - shopping strip - development. I was able to sneak onto the site and see the fabulous wiliwili trees (Erythrina sandwicensis; shown in photo above) found nowhere else but in Hawaii. I also met some of the women who have been working for a decade to try to save them.

In addition to building the Old-Growth Forest Network I am also trying to bring attention to high quality ancient forests that are immediately threatened with destruction; Wailea 670 is one of these forests; so is the 72 acre old-growth Ohia forest in South Kona, on the Big Island; and the 14 acre forest in the middle of Salisbury, MD; and Tanhouse Creek Woods near Snow Hill, MD; and the forest in Arlington National Cemetery. I need a dedicated webpage just to tell the story of these forests and to try to match them with conservation buyers. Anyone know of a great web designer who could help? Or do you have funds to hire a web designer for this purpose? Or do you know of conservation buyers? Please call or email me (410-251-1800; joan@oldgrowthforest.net). It would be so tragic to see these forests fall.