Final Reflection Journal for Geology and Tropical Ecology of Hawai’i
Overview
From 2-9 Apr, 2022, 15 students from the Johns Hopkins Universities Environmental Science and Policy (JHU ESP) program conducted a field course to the Big Island of Hawaii focused primarily on Geology and Tropical Ecology. Students visited a number of facilities and natural settings including Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, several black, white, and green sand beaches, sustainable aquafarms, rare plant facilities, and caves, waterfalls, and wildlife refuges. Individual students provided presentations on topics pertinent to Hawaiian Geology and Ecology sporadically throughout the field course.
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Itinerary with Observations
A detailed Itinerary with Observations is as follows:
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2 Apr, 2022: Students meet at the Hilo Hilton hotel and shuttle to a pre-arranged AirBnB at Fern Acres, ~20min outside of Hilo, Hi; dinner and meet/greet.
Observations: This was my first-time meeting students from the program in person and, with the exception of Jared, all students retired to their room/went to sleep ooa 2000, which is understandable due to the time zone change for students arriving for their first day. Spent the evening talking about sustainable business with Jared- a really interesting person.
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3 Apr, 2022: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Sulphur Springs
Observations: The tour of Sulphur springs to the Halemaumau overlook was interesting with two PhD professors who were able, in a sense, to translate scientifically what we were looking at throughout the walk. Rather than simply seeing steam arise from the ground, the teachers detailed where it originates and how it flows upwards, why it smells the way it does, and how it changes the landscape at the surface around it; enlightening to say the least.
Kilauea Crater Overlook
Observations: Maybe I need to pay attention more, but this crater looks the exact same as it always has. The lava flows upon lava flows of varying colors with vegetation in the clearly older flows make for such a beautiful contrast.
Mauna Ulu Summit Hike
Observations: We met Ranger “Steve” who gave us a 3hr tour through the rain and wind stopping endlessly to discuss the natural scenery and to paint an image of what was happening during the eruptive periods of Mauna Ulu. The highlight for me was imagining the lava pool that must have formed at the base of the original flow out of the vent before spilling onto the landscape below. The picture itself shown later simple highlighted the mental image that Steve continually attempted to convey.
Evening
Observations: On return to Fern Acres and due to the long, cold day, most people went to bed. Stayed up with Jared & Daniel discussing the day, the program, and their backgrounds, which is, for me, akin to the discussion threads, and arguably one of the most important aspects of this course.
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4 Apr, 2022
2018 Lava Flow Tour to Pohiko Beach via Pohiko Coast
Observations: This was a beautiful drive of the 2018 flow that unfortunately destroyed a small town including several houses. It was interesting to learn that land that is overflown by lava reverts to the state of the Hawaii for fair market price. I should probably look this up to verify accuracy. Jared gave his presentation on Mauna Kea with the backdrop of an AA flow entering the ocean astride a beautiful black sand beach- incredible backdrop.
Kaumana Cave Spelunking
Observations: The group conducted a slow tour of Kaumana Caves mountain side tube covering some 1-2km underground. I can’t believe I left my surefire flashlight in the car and only brought my emergency headlight (a continual lesson learned). I did, however bring a UV light that helped show the massive variety of crystals and rock types at various places throughout the cave including the lichens growing endlessly throughout.
Rainbow Falls & Boiling Pots
Observations: The Hawaiian story of the Boiling Pots with the fictitious battle of the Hawaiian demi-gods adds a nice touch to the visit. Otherwise, it’s clear that most people are cold and wet and ready to dry off back at Fern Acres.
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5 Apr, 2022
Volcanoes Experiment Station; rare earth plant facility.
Observations: This was a strange (no negative connotation added) place. Although my interests lie more in geology relative to ecology, it was interesting to learn of this centers operations, which I found more unique than the plants themselves. Taxpayer dollars fund (albeit small amounts) a small staff with few supplies to keep some of Hawaii’s rarest plants alive for future planting throughout the islands. Several members of the group balked at the low amount of money provided to the facility which seemed to be borderline arrogant/condescending. Should this facility exist and/or be funded at a greater level? I think so?
Green Sand Beach Hike/Swim
Observations: This is my fourth Green Sand Beach visit and I simply love the place. I trail ran it both ways, making the trip in just over 20min each way to spend additional time in the water. Numerous Green Sea Turtles were swimming at, incredibly, shallow depths along shore. Upon return to the parking lot, I spoke with Kim who informed me that I should not have tried to give people rocks from the summit of Mauna Loa during the presentation the following day- noted.
Halemaumau Caldera Eruption
Observations: There’s a famous movie of an alien abduction from the 1990s called “Fire in the Sky” and this is the first thought that came to mind during the 1.5km hike to the Halemaumau eruption overlook area as the sky is increasingly red from even a km away from the overlook. It’s beautiful. Stand amongst a crowd for half an hour attempting to discern what’s happening in the crater below- difficult but fascinating.
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6 Apr, 2022
Hakalau Forest Preserve; bird and plant watching
Observations: This was a long yet important day. Spend 3-4h in the car each way to get to Hakalau- no wonder no one has ever heard of this place, it’s damn near impossible to get to, despite the drive being beautiful- imagine the view without the fog?!. The Hakalau rep Lia takes us on a tour stopping along the way enroute Hakalau to explain various landscape ecology including the gorse which I don’t recognize until I’m standing amongst it looking at endless gorse in every direction. It’s almost impressive how it’s been able to outcompete seemingly every other plant in the area. I don’t even see other types of plants?! How Hakalau, or anyone, thinks they will control this infestation, particularly as it’s in the ground via seedlings that can stay for years awaiting the right time to bloom, is beyond me. I’d argue it may be time to adapt vice continue trying to control.
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7 Apr, 2022
Drive to Kona via the Saddle Road between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea
Observations: I love this drive. The clouds open up sporadically to show up both mountains and, of course, the sun comes out as soon as we make our way down to the Kona side.
Blue Ocean Mariculture Tour
Observations: Kathy must be really nostalgic during this part of the trip- comparing her own farm in her head to this one. It’s sad to note that these farms are a) highly necessary- I think, yet b) nothing more than a fish version of a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), which everyone in the group probably dislikes. The owner who gave the tour discussed two very important concepts, the first being one that I really hope everyone noted: “I can’t care about sustainability until I’m profitable.” This reminds me of probably one of the more, if not most, important concepts I’ve learned in this course, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). The second concept was the idea that they were purposefully attempting to keep the gene pool as diverse as possible throughout the farm. I thought this was interesting and had never even considered the importance of this commercially.
Big Island Abalone Tour
Observations: This was similar to the above and reminiscent for me of the exact same farms I would see sporadically along coastal Okinawa. Again, another important type of CAFO.
Boat/snorkel tour from Kona to CAPT Cook Monument
Observations: Lauren’s Hawaiian husband provided boat/snorkel tour aboard this gorgeous catamaran enroute Kona to the Capt Cook Monument, stopping to chat both geology and Hawaiian history at a few points, which was a great addition to the trip. Although a bit of the pertinent history was left out, it was interesting to hear the perspective of a Hawaiian on Cook and the colonization of the islands and although I very much appreciated the tour and the historical chat, it was somewhat bewildering for me to hear the Hawaiian perspective on how they should have their land back and how bad colonization has been while providing a service that profits off of tourism?
Evening
Observations: Despite the loooong day of driving and activities, the group is finally coming together to chat during the evening! Nearly everyone was up to chat their jobs, the course, the program, life, etc with the exception of the few people that some have started labeling “the mean girls.”
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8 Apr, 2022
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park; Kilauea Iki Crater
Observations: I love this hike and doing it after reading the Volcanoes in the Sea book and the coursework has only helped reveal even more of what I’m looking at. Primary succession in the lava cracks, fault lines with nearly 90d tilted rocks, and what was clearly an old bubbling lava lake at the very end of the hike that just looks frozen in time. Absolutely beautiful. Hike out looking at waves of Asian ginger plants- an invasive with massive ginger bulbs, protruding everywhere.
Punalu’u Beach State Park
Observations: This is probably one of the best places to see Green Sea Turtles. I’ve never been here without having at least half a dozen and today there must have been, cumulatively, some 15 spread throughout the area. A swim showed a variety of sealife including multiple carefree green sea turtles, various holothurians, and very cold water, what I now know is a clear indication of a basal spring.
Halemaumau Overlook
Observations: Through binoculars, it was interesting to view the spatter of the lava flow and even notice the changes in the eruption over the last few days.
Evening
Observations: The group came together with a few exceptions for the last evening! In fact, the group the following day was nearly inseparable as many of us converged in Kona for swimming, food, drinks, etc. It would be great if this course went another week or included an off day or two for bonding.
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Key Takeaways
Food Supply: It was stated on multiple occasions that Hawaii imports something between 80-90% of their food. This is a major challenge that requires attention. Several students noted that Hawaii has a host of unused agriculturally zoned lands that could potentially be used for food cultivation. Mixed with the Hawaiian homestead program (which I’m amazed is a legal program in Hawaii), homesteads could come with something akin to agricultural areas? I add a question mark here because this is a really tough issue. The easy and entirely irresponsible answer is for the state to take back unused farmland and lease it to business or estates willing to farm the lands, however there must be a successful similar program that has addressed this problem elsewhere in the world.
Sustainable Fisheries: Are fish farms better than ocean fishing? Given the rapid decline of fisheries in overfished maritime regions around the world, the easy answer is yes. Now add in the complexity of what is akin to a water based CAFO and then remove some of the nasty byproducts including methane emissions and pollution and I don’t really know.
Invasive Infestations: The Gorse, the Rapid Ohia Death, the Asian Ginger; these are massive problems and I really can’t imagine how any of these will be defeats through anything other than biocontrol. Given limited budgets, limited personnel, land use issues, and more, I don’t assess that these invasives will be controlled on anything other than small temporal and spatial scales. Is it time to adapt to the Gorse? It seems as if the answer is yes, however I really don’t know.
Hawaiian Home Costs: Although the cost of homes is not unique to Hawaii in any respect, it remains a major problem across the islands. Should compassion for impoverished Hawaiians trump fairness in the housing market? I tend not to think so, however natives (whatever that means in 2022) are in a much weaker position relative to tourism, business, government, and rich investors in this sector.
Funding: Not necessarily a takeaway, however it would be interesting to conduct a review of Hawaiian government expenditures. Where do Hawaiian tax dollars go? To what? How much? Open sources like USAfact.org may provide incredible detail as to where cuts can be made and money can be rerouted.
Experts: This might be one of the major issues in Hawaii Restoration (caveat, I’m not entirely sure what restoration means in the context of Hawaii; restore to what?). The experts on nearly every narrowed field of restoration research in Hawaii seem to disagree on what ‘right’ looks like. A method we use to confront this in the Defense department is the joint planning process, in which experts come together in working groups to conduct a holistic review of an issue in order to provide courses of action that vary in time and space. A similar academic process may streamline research efforts in order to turn theory into agreed upon on the ground solutions.
Islands: How do you protect ecosystems without making them ecological islands with limited to zero human interaction. The goal, at least for me, is to find a way to sustainably incorporate humans WITH nature, not to keep them out of it entirely. It seems that the national park model is the best fit here- maybe pushing for the NPS budget to increase continually would help?
Energy: It was incredible to learn that the 5 islands have entirely separately managed electricity grids. Why is this the case and what is the government doing to address these challenges? Many hotels are charging small taxes for guests to address local natural challenges, could this be extended to help bridge (both metaphorically and literally) the energy challenge between the islands?
Education: How do you incorporate ESP in K-12 education? Teachers like fellow classmate Julia Ackerman, seem to be doing this. My 4th grade teacher spent two months discussing the Amazon Rainforest circa 1993 and left me with a lifelong love of the Rainforests. With the decade interruption of NLCB, is this sort of non-math, non-English curriculum still taught? This could be the most correct solution in addressing future natural challenges.
Questions: Questions abound- why is the Darwin Rise there? Is it still sinking? Has it stopped? Will Loihi join with Big Island? Probably? How come I’ve yet to read anything stating as such? Why did the chain of islands bend? Why is the hot spot active where it is? For how long has it been active? What’s going on with the random guyots littering the pacific? Are those all-old hotspots? Are there temporally limited hot spots? Why in the world is Haleakala and Mauna Kea expected to have a “rejuvenated” volcanic phase? The pacific plate is moving yet, inevitably volcanism will return to historically dormant areas? Why?
Working Groups: Many of the issues discussed have working groups assigned to them with various levels of interaction between the public, scientists, government, and other societal sectors. How do you sync these groups with the relevant personnel? And although I understand and even sympathize with the push to include natives (again, not entirely sure what that means today) as the leads for these groups or with some sort of quota, is this really the best way to lead these groups? It was noted by several class members that insert economic sector/activity should revert to the natives because they somehow hold some special understanding of it, which seems to be about as far from reality as possible. I grew up in Minnesota, I have no special understanding of Minnesota other than what I’ve studied academically and then seen in person in the field. Discerning a way for what should be subject matter expert (be It Hawaiian or otherwise) led working groups to collaborate, interact, and recommend paths forward to local and state government while operating with complete transparency seems to be the best solution.
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Way Ahead
Learn more about the NPS budget, particularly historically, how has it changed and where is it headed?
If given ample free time, consider applying the Joint Planning Process (JPP) to Ecological issues, even climate change as a whole (would make for an interesting dissertation).
Keep learning more about both Ecological and Geological problems in the world and how they’ve been solved elsewhere.
Review Hawaii Tax Spending and discern what they receive federally.
Read about successful invasive management stories from around the world.
Read about agricultural development success stories that could be applied to Hawaii (I know Africa has several).
Read more about sustainable fisheries- are they a panacea of sorts or just a maritime CAFO?
Write about what you learn!
Most importantly, buy a house in Kona as soon as possible.