Steps to Creating A Functional Forest on Your Land

Clearing Land for Planting

The first step is to identify an area on your property that is best suited for planting a diverse plant community including native species, plants and trees for your homesteadʻs use or for agricultural production, and anything else you want to grow that will support the native ecosystem.

Do you have a less accessible area that is not suited for row crops or traditional gardens? Do you have land that you donʻt want to cultivate, but would like to put to good use? Do you have a forested area that already contains native species? Depending on your own goals and land characteristics, you may or may not need to clear and plant extensively.

If clearing and/or shaping the area is necessary, this may involve removing invasive trees and plants, terracing hillsides, and preparing soil. In the Pono Acres Project, we identified an area alongside a stream that runs through the property. We cut down invasive African Tulip and Albezia trees, rented an excavator to remove eight-foot tall guinea grass clumps and thick widelia vines. We redirected a stream to create a flat planting area and better drainage terraced the steep hillsides along the stream banks and added organic matter to the dense clay soil.

Identifying Species

The next step is to identify species you want to grow for production as well as species native to your area that you also want to grow. There may be cross over in these areas because you can grow natives that also provide food, medicine, building materials and other products, and you can sell native plants in demand by other growers or for homeowners to use in landscaping.

In the Pono Acres project, our main forest tree is ʻŌhi'a, which is both a pioneer species on fresh lava land, and the foundational tree of our native forests. All trees and plants used are listed in the Species section. There are infomrtion sources and nurseries listed in the RESOURCES section. as we found a derth of information on natives in our area, which is at lower elevation on the rainy side of the Island.

Left: Before excavation; Middle: Clearing invasives, terracing, correcting drainage using excavator; Right: After clearing in planting process. Many thanks to Kalanikine Services for excellent land clearing and excavation work!