Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

ES: The major influence would be the world wide stuff, you know the El Nino stuff. That may
have some…
KM: Interesting.
RH: On a bigger picture. I think micro climate has changed a little, look at Waimea, big
difference.
KM: Yes, well, but you see, and it’s relative to well, several things, the global things that are
occurring, and the changes that have occurred on your immediate landscape. So, those
micro climatic things because less foliage, less rain. And you know, I talk with a lot of old
ranchers, South Kona coming around all the way like this. They say, while we may be
getting almost the same amount of rainfall, it’s not falling like it used to. Before…
RH: It comes all at once
KM: Yes. You get ten inches, then you get six months dry. It’s so hard for them to…
RH: That doesn’t do anything.
KM: Yes…
Group: [recorder off – return to cars and drive out to Kalai‘ehä Sheep Station]
TB: [Describes old pä loa, a stone wall trap on slope of Mauna Kea above the Kalai‘ehä-
Laumai‘a Road, in vicinity of Pu‘u Kole]
KM: …Does that pä loa you were talking about up to there. Does it run into Pu‘ukole or off the
side only
TB: Up the side.
KM: Up the side, so they just drive sheep, go up
TB: They drive sheep, horses, cattle.
KM: Ah, so horses and cattle too
TB: Yes.
RH: I remember riding by it. I can’t even remember where it was.
KM: Is it a stone pen
RH: Part of a gulch, eh
TB: Yes, a gulch.
RH: It looks like they drove them down the ridge and into it.
KM: Hmm… There is an old account in the Boundary Commission testimonies about a walled
area called “Kulaka”, up on the slopes here, situated between Pu‘u ‘Ö‘ö and Pu‘uloa,
towards Kole. Perhaps that was it
TB: Could be....
[see photo on next page]
[Teddy Bell, Robbie Hind and Kepä – driving from Kalai‘ehä to Waimea.]
KM: ...When you folks were out here, and on the Pöhakuloa Flats area, you said there were
thousands of sheep
TB: Oh, yes.
KM: And these were the wild sheep
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:167