Limahuli Garden – Living Sustainably in an Island Ecosystem

On our 2009 annual trip to Hawaii we decided to revisit Limahuli Garden and Preserve, which is set in a lush tropical valley on the north shore of the Hawaiian Island of Kauai.

 Ancient Hawaiians built agricultural terraces out of lava rock and planted cultivars of kalo (taro), an important cultural food crop.

It is located on the most northern section of the North Shore of Kauai at the end of the highway.  Set in a narrow valley framed by soaring cliffs, just on the other side of the Na Pali trail.
 
The ancient Hawaiians developed their ahupua`a system of resource management as a means to live sustainably in an island ecosystem. This system recognized the interconnection between the mountains and the ocean, and the roles that fresh water played in linking the two.
 
In the 1800’s, the valley fell under the ownership of an absentee landlord. Subsequent reforestation of cleared lands was accomplished by introducing faster growing non-native trees, which overwhelmed the less aggressive native species.
 
In 1967, Limahuli Valley was assigned to Juliet Rice Wichman, a member of the Hui who had long recognized the need to preserve and protect Limahuli. She immediately removed the cattle and began developing a garden. Land was cleared, gravel roads were installed, and restoration work to the taro terraces started. In 1976, she gifted the lower part of the Valley, now known as Limahuli Garden, to the National Tropical Botanical Garden, and upon her death left the nearly 1,000 remaining acres to one of her grandsons, Chipper Wichman.
In 1994, Wichman gave his acreage to the National Tropical Botanical Garden, forming Limahuli Garden and Preserve.

We took the walking tour and towards the top of valley and shot the video below to provide a visual feel for the tropical splendor of the gardens.

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Find out more about the botanical gardens on the North and South shores of Kauai by visiting:
http://ntbg.org/