03-13-2010, 04:10 PM
Many people do forgo the bulldozing. It can be done but that doesn't mean it's easy. I myself tried hand clearing but the going was very slow. When push came to shove I was going to have to bring in a truckload of fill or get a bulldozer. It would have taken several truckloads of fill to do what the dozer did and the dozer did things the fill could not do. Sometimes if you want good landscaping you have to dig down a bit and to do that in lava you need a dozer or an excavator.
I am not selling out on the "no bulldozing" crowd but until you have worked on some of this land yourself you can't really appreciate what you are up against. In many parts of the world you could go out into untouched forest and the ground would be flat enough to walk around easily. Not so here on lava. I found it difficult to even make my way 10' off of the road. Most of the time I was either swimming through the uluhe ferns or prying apart strawberry guava saplings that were like the bars on a cage. When I did make it down to ground level I had my leg disappear up to the hip in a crack on more than one occasion. All of these challenges could be dealt with without a bulldozer but machinery makes it so much easier.
T play the devil's advocate, what is it that a dozer does that is so bad? Even a D-9 can't compete with Madame Pele. In some places the lava is a smooth impenetrable sheet like pavement. In other places it is like an enormous pile of rubble as though a building collapsed. Both conditions are "natural". To answer my own question, it is the vegetation that was on the lava prior to dozing that is difficult to replace. An ohia tree would be impossible to replace in one lifetime. Also, while the ferns and even ohia will sprout and begin the process of reforesting (IIRC uluhe means newcomer in hawaiian because it is one of the first plants to cover new lava or disturbed areas), there are many weeds that are faster. I was cautioned not to doze until I really needed to because of all the weeds that would grow up. It is true. On my place the weeds greatly outnumber the new uluhe, hapuu, and ohia.
So, if you stayed right away from mature ohia trees to avoid messing up their roots and fanatically weeded out alien plants, dozing an area would simulate a new lava field or land exposed by a landslide, both of which are common natural events in Hawaii. In fact, these natural events would not spare the Ohias so you are already ahead of the game. That is the theory at least. In practice you would be hard pressed to hold down the weeds.
My point is that the islands are all giant piles of lava rubble. The rubble left by dozing would not be any worse technically. It is the foothold given to alien weeds by human activities that is the problem.
I am not selling out on the "no bulldozing" crowd but until you have worked on some of this land yourself you can't really appreciate what you are up against. In many parts of the world you could go out into untouched forest and the ground would be flat enough to walk around easily. Not so here on lava. I found it difficult to even make my way 10' off of the road. Most of the time I was either swimming through the uluhe ferns or prying apart strawberry guava saplings that were like the bars on a cage. When I did make it down to ground level I had my leg disappear up to the hip in a crack on more than one occasion. All of these challenges could be dealt with without a bulldozer but machinery makes it so much easier.
T play the devil's advocate, what is it that a dozer does that is so bad? Even a D-9 can't compete with Madame Pele. In some places the lava is a smooth impenetrable sheet like pavement. In other places it is like an enormous pile of rubble as though a building collapsed. Both conditions are "natural". To answer my own question, it is the vegetation that was on the lava prior to dozing that is difficult to replace. An ohia tree would be impossible to replace in one lifetime. Also, while the ferns and even ohia will sprout and begin the process of reforesting (IIRC uluhe means newcomer in hawaiian because it is one of the first plants to cover new lava or disturbed areas), there are many weeds that are faster. I was cautioned not to doze until I really needed to because of all the weeds that would grow up. It is true. On my place the weeds greatly outnumber the new uluhe, hapuu, and ohia.
So, if you stayed right away from mature ohia trees to avoid messing up their roots and fanatically weeded out alien plants, dozing an area would simulate a new lava field or land exposed by a landslide, both of which are common natural events in Hawaii. In fact, these natural events would not spare the Ohias so you are already ahead of the game. That is the theory at least. In practice you would be hard pressed to hold down the weeds.
My point is that the islands are all giant piles of lava rubble. The rubble left by dozing would not be any worse technically. It is the foothold given to alien weeds by human activities that is the problem.