Helen (and the rest of us!) is hoping to raise some interest in the cave so it will be afforded some protection in the future. She contacted Eric, a local archaeologist, who came out to assess the Pu’u naio cave today. While Helen, Art and Eric toured the cave a large group of us worked at cleaning up the site. Art is the creator and director of the Leeward Haleakala Watershed Restoration Partnership, in an effort to increase interest in re-establishing native vegetation and some of his employees came to the cave to help today (Erica, Fernando, Luke and Kai). Luke brought a ladder from his home and we secured it along the cave wall. There is no need for harnesses and ropes now; with the ladder tied in two places it makes a very steady way to get in and out of the cave opening. Luke also brought some pieces of siding to form a track for us to crawl on as we crawl into the upper cave entrance so we don’t disturb the sediment in the cave. By the time Helen, Art and Eric emerged from the cave we had a ladder in, a track established for the upper cave and any wooden debris cleaned out from the opening and sediments bags hauled out for screening.
In the afternoon we screened sediment previously excavated from a slumped wall. We found a vertebrae and a claw from a moa nalo (meaning vanishing fowl) and some bones of a Branta hylobadistes, meaning woods-walking goose. The woods-walking goose is part of a radiation of Hawaiian geese that are closely related to Canadian goose. It is also closely related to the Hawaiian Nene, a species that is not extinct. The woods-walking goose was a very heavy bird with reduced wings that probably didn’t fly very well. They were found in forest habitat, while the Nene is found in more open habitat.
Poor Peggy had to stay at the ranch as a final push to finish a grant application. She was quite shocked to see the state of the cave, complete with ladder entrance, on the following day! After a long day at the cave we headed down to Kahului to use an internet connection to submit Helen and Peggy’s grant and e-mail Heather’s last (hopefully) dissertation chapter. Art met us for dinner near the Kinko’s at a fantastic Thai restaurant. Peggy had green papaya salad, a tart and mildly spicy Thai specialty. Heather had Masaman chicken (coconut milk curry, very yummy), Helen and Art had Evil Prince dishes (a spicy coconut peanut curry with a touch of anise) and Andreanna had Thai curry chicken.
Helen drove us home safely up the mountain with Peggy keeping her company while the rest of us slept in the back. We were tired after our first day of excavating.
--Heather
Monday, July 16, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Maui-July 8, 2007
Art Medeiros picked us up from the Kahului (Maui) airport Sunday afternoon and took us to his lovely home in Makawao. We met his friendly little dog, Pua, and looked at his collection of Hawaiian and Pacific Island artifacts. He has an amazing collection of Rothschild paintings of native Hawaiian birds done by the Dutch artist Keulemann. He also had this beautiful yellow flowering orchid.
We later met Fern Duvall at Polli’s restaurant for dinner. Several of us had salads with the tasty cashew garlic house dressing. I had the most incredible mango margarita. After dinner we headed up the winding road to Ulupalakua ranch where we are staying for the next week. The ranch house is very comfortable and has a fantastic view of the little island Molokini and the bigger island, Kaho’olawe. We have mango, avocado and banana trees right by the house, although none of the fruit is quite ripe. I think we’re really going to enjoy staying here.
Photos of Art's house and the Pu'u Naio cave are at: http://picasaweb.google.com/hlerner/PuUNaioCaveJuly92007
--Heather
We later met Fern Duvall at Polli’s restaurant for dinner. Several of us had salads with the tasty cashew garlic house dressing. I had the most incredible mango margarita. After dinner we headed up the winding road to Ulupalakua ranch where we are staying for the next week. The ranch house is very comfortable and has a fantastic view of the little island Molokini and the bigger island, Kaho’olawe. We have mango, avocado and banana trees right by the house, although none of the fruit is quite ripe. I think we’re really going to enjoy staying here.
Photos of Art's house and the Pu'u Naio cave are at: http://picasaweb.google.com/hlerner/PuUNaioCaveJuly92007
--Heather
Leaving Kaua'i-July 8, 2007
Hello friends, family and colleagues,
We (Anne, Heather, Helen and Peggy) are heading to Maui today after spending a beautiful and instructive week in Kaua’i. We have really enjoyed learning about sub-phreatic excavation, seeing the red-footed booby, wedge-tailed shearwater and Laysan albatross colonies (new photos are up) and hearing the Newall’s shearwaters fly over us to their nesting colony just after dark.
We (Anne, Heather, Helen and Peggy) are heading to Maui today after spending a beautiful and instructive week in Kaua’i. We have really enjoyed learning about sub-phreatic excavation, seeing the red-footed booby, wedge-tailed shearwater and Laysan albatross colonies (new photos are up) and hearing the Newall’s shearwaters fly over us to their nesting colony just after dark.
Pu'u Naio cave, July 9, 2007
Early this morning Helen and Peggy went back to Kahului airport with Art and took an hour long helicopter ride in search of more cave openings. There are some amazing photos of the Maui landscape on the blog photos page from their trip. In addition to seeing Pu’u naio cave (where we would all go later today), they were able to see some of Art’s native plant restoration sites from the air. The sites stand out starkly as the only bit of dark green woods in a field of brown or light green grass, giving us an idea of just how much the landscape has changed due to agriculture, grazing and introduced plants.
After they all recovered from the chopper ride, we drove across the Ulupalakua ranch to the entrance to Pu’u naio cave. Pu’u naio is a lava tube cave that Helen and Rob Fleischer excavated in and then closed up in the 90’s. We’re returning to it now in hopes of excavating some snails and I’m hoping for some more bird bones. We climbed down into the cave to see that the rock, plastic and board barrier put in by Helen and Rob seems to have held since they left it. We’ll open it up tomorrow and see in more detail how it has weathered these recent years.
There were two barn owls, an introduced species, in the cave when we descended and plenty of whitewash, pellets and cracked white eggs suggesting that the owls have nested here and are still resident. There were also three rather fresh owl carcasses, so it seems that the owls have high mortality here. With the protection from grazing inside the cave entrance, the grass and trees are quite green and lush. The walls and trees are also covered in spiders (see photos) and we scared up a very large centipede, after which I was constantly feeling my skin crawl.
We took a hike down the open section of the cave, the part that was not used for paleontological digging. The passageway is about 1/4 mile long and we hiked the length of it. There were some scattered bird and rat bones, likely brought in by the owls. The floor of the cave is cooled lava that is black in color and variably smooth, grooved or covered with small clinkers (softball-sized chunks of cooled pock-marked lava). White calcium deposits are scattered on the ceiling and along the walls. By the time we reached the end of the passageway we took a break to turn off some of our lights and noticed how absolutely silent the cave is. Peaceful in the very deepest sense.
Photos from the helicopter ride and the cave are at http://picasaweb.google.com/hlerner/PuUNaioCaveJuly92007
--Heather
After they all recovered from the chopper ride, we drove across the Ulupalakua ranch to the entrance to Pu’u naio cave. Pu’u naio is a lava tube cave that Helen and Rob Fleischer excavated in and then closed up in the 90’s. We’re returning to it now in hopes of excavating some snails and I’m hoping for some more bird bones. We climbed down into the cave to see that the rock, plastic and board barrier put in by Helen and Rob seems to have held since they left it. We’ll open it up tomorrow and see in more detail how it has weathered these recent years.
There were two barn owls, an introduced species, in the cave when we descended and plenty of whitewash, pellets and cracked white eggs suggesting that the owls have nested here and are still resident. There were also three rather fresh owl carcasses, so it seems that the owls have high mortality here. With the protection from grazing inside the cave entrance, the grass and trees are quite green and lush. The walls and trees are also covered in spiders (see photos) and we scared up a very large centipede, after which I was constantly feeling my skin crawl.
We took a hike down the open section of the cave, the part that was not used for paleontological digging. The passageway is about 1/4 mile long and we hiked the length of it. There were some scattered bird and rat bones, likely brought in by the owls. The floor of the cave is cooled lava that is black in color and variably smooth, grooved or covered with small clinkers (softball-sized chunks of cooled pock-marked lava). White calcium deposits are scattered on the ceiling and along the walls. By the time we reached the end of the passageway we took a break to turn off some of our lights and noticed how absolutely silent the cave is. Peaceful in the very deepest sense.
Photos from the helicopter ride and the cave are at http://picasaweb.google.com/hlerner/PuUNaioCaveJuly92007
--Heather
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