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.
Kaua`i State Parks
National Tropical Botanical Garden
Na ‘Āina Kai Botanical Garden
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Refuges
DLNR: State of Hawaii Forest Reserve System Kaua`i Island
Coastal Geology Group
United States Geolological Service
U.S. Forest Service
County of Kaua`i
Hawaii Association of Watershed Partnerships
Kaua`i Watershed Alliance
The Nature Conservancy
DOFAW Hawaii Watersheds Q&A
National Weather Service
Earth Observatory
West Kauai Historic Timeline
CTAHR Hawaii Forestry Extension
Hawaii Forest Industry Association
