The oldest and the fourth largest of the eight main islands of Hawai`i, Kaua`i is over five million years old and a place of extraordinary landscapes.
From the 2,500-foot deep Waimea Canyon to Alakai Swamp, a forested plateau of over 4,000 feet in elevation with a recorded annual rainfall of over 500 inches, Kauai’s diverse environments have generated forest types from semiarid woodlands to subtropical rain forests and montane cloud forests.
In 1904, the first Territorial Forester, Ralph Hosmer, was hired to begin the creation of the first forest reserves to protect upper watershed areas. Forest reserves were managed by fencing, feral animal elimination, and reforestation with native and exotic tree species.
Places to Visit
National Tropical Botanical Garden
Protected Places
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Refuges
Maps
DLNR: State of Hawaii Forest Reserve System Kaua`i Island
United States Geolological Service
Water and Weather
Hawaii Association of Watershed Partnerships