IV. Emergency Conservation Work (1933)
On 10 February 1933 Forester Charles Judd began surveying a second trail in the Pûpûkea Forest Reserve to provide easier access for tree planting. The new alternate left the Pûpûkea-Kahuku Army Trail at Owl Flat near a recent planting of paperbark trees. The route would eventually descend into the Paumalû drainage, cross Kaunala Stream on a stone bridge, and then climb Kaunala Ridge to rejoin the Army trail at Chicken Hill (Pu`u Moa).
On 7 May Judd led a Piko Club hike on the just completed trail, called Kaunala. Sixty people walked the Army trail to Chicken Hill and then returned on the new trail through groves of `iliahi (sandalwood). The group stopped for lunch at Paumalû Stream and named the spot Camp Wells in honor of the founder of the club.
In late May 1933 Judd received devastating news. Because of the poor economic conditions in the territory, the legislature cut forestry appropriations by 75 percent. For the coming biennial period beginning 1 July 1933, the division would receive only $65,800, compared with $260,165 for the previous two years. Judd let go 74 of his 87 employees on 1 July. Gone were all of the field crews, most of the nursery workers, and 13 out of 18 rangers. On O`ahu, only Rangers McGuire and Landgraf survived the cut. Judd spent two days writing letters of recommendation for the dismissed men.
On 3 July Territorial Governor Lawrence M. Judd (the Forester’s younger brother) sent a radiogram to Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes requesting that Hawai`i be included in the Emergency Conservation Work program (ECW). The U.S. Congress had enacted ECW on 31 March 1933 only ten days after President Roosevelt proposed it. The act called for 250,000 unemployed men to work in National Forests and Parks on the mainland. As a territory, Hawai`i had been overlooked in the initial distribution of ECW funds.
Forester Judd quickly marshaled support for the Territory’s ECW application. On 7 and 17 July he met with General Wells, now Commander of the Hawaiian Department at Fort Shafter. After the second meeting Wells sent a strongly worded letter to the Adjutant General requesting the War Department to support Hawai`i’s application for ECW funds. He stated that a protected watershed and a network of trails were essential to the Army’s defense of the Islands. On 19 July Judd described the ECW application and the forestry situation in a letter to Lincoln L. McCandless, Hawai`i’s lone delegate to Congress. On 29 July the Forester sailed for the mainland on a well-deserved vacation. He planned to spend several days in Washington, D.C. lobbying for ECW money.
Secretary Ickes disapproved Hawai`i’s application in a letter to Governor Judd, dated 2 August. However, the Secretary stated that he would consider a future request if ECW continued into 1934. In late August ECW projects were approved for Puerto Rico, another U.S. territory. On 11 September Judd wrote Ickes mentioning Puerto Rico and stressing the forestry and military importance of Hawai`i’s application. During the middle of September Charles Judd arrived in Washington, D.C. and began lobbying his contacts in the U.S. Forest Service. He also visited an ECW camp near Portland, Connecticut. On 27 September Ickes wired the Governor to have Forester Judd prepare a detailed plan of conservation projects for the consideration of ECW Director Robert Fechner.
On 23 October Judd returned to Honolulu on board the S.S. Monterey. The next day he met with the Governor and General Wells all morning and started working on the plan that afternoon with Assistant Forester Russ. Four days later the two men finished the report, entitled Program for Emergency Conservation Work-Territory of Hawaii and submitted it to the Governor. The 32-page document first covered the economic conditions and forestry situation in Hawai`i. The report then described the proposed conservation projects, which would put 777 unemployed men back to work. The estimated total cost for the first six months was $441,460, including the projects for Hawai`i National Park on the Big Island.
Forester Judd and General Wells jointly developed ten trail construction projects for O`ahu. Number three on the list was the Ko`olau Summit Trail.
“Beginning at the point where the existing Schofield-Waikane Trail crosses the crest of the Koolau Range at 2,400 feet elevation, this route runs in a general north-westerly direction along or near the crest of the Koolau Range to a point on the range at 1,700 feet elevation where it will join the present Pupukea-Kahuku Trail.”
Estimated trail length was 65,000 feet or 12.31 miles, and estimated man-hours were 6,500. To allow for pack animal use, the plan specified a 4-foot wide path with grades not to exceed 15 percent. The project also included a short connector to the Castle Trail.
Heading the O`ahu trail projects list were the Poamoho and Kawailoa Trails. Those two would be completed first to provide easier access to the Summit Trail route. Construction crews would then be temporarily housed at side camps at the top of both trails.
On 14 November Governor Judd sent the project plan in triplicate to Secretary Ickes for the consideration of ECW Director Fechner. On 21 December 1933 Judd received the following radiogram from Ickes.
“Director Fechner approves Emergency Conservation Project for Hawaii STOP Allotment of $299,885 exclusive of amount for Hawaii National Park. For Hawaii National Park $121,273. Total allotment $421,258 STOP Army participation limited to disbursing and accounting for all funds STOP Suggest you call together representatives of Army, Forest Service,and Superintendent Wingate Hawaii National Park and work out procedure.”
(to be continued)
Next: Summit Trail Building: Black Junction to Poamoho (1934)
References
Ickes, Harold L. letters and radiograms. 1933
Judd, Charles S. Daily Journal, 1933.
Judd, Charles S. “Division of Forestry Report”. Report of the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry for the biennial period from July 1, 1932 to June 30, 1934. 1934
Judd, Charles S. letters. 1933
Judd, Charles S. Program for Emergency Conservation Work-Territory of Hawaii. 1933.
Judd, Lawrence M. letters and radiograms. 1933.
Wells, Briant H. letters. 1933
Author: Stuart Ball <lmasu@hgea.org>
Comments
Post a Comment