06-01-2013, 08:19 AM
I just read through 35 pages of a report about what the CCC was doing in Hawaii. Sorry I dont know how to post a link. It was a govt report. Sort of a summary, years later, of their work. Although they were mostly building dams for erosion control, it was also mentioned that they did "botanical restoration" on the bare lava patches. It does not say what plants they were using, but evidently the CCC planted 2 Billion! trees in the US- half of all the trees we have growing today. Since this glory bush is from Brazil, someone intentionally brought it here, and so is the guava. It would appear that someone in the 30's, 40's or 50's had an idea and a plan to plant this stuff widely in our area. I will try and read more about this, but dont have time today. I realize that now it spreads readily on it's own, but it is so well established and so thick, that this probably took a few decades at least. Does anyone know specifically when the glorybush came to the bigisland?