I got e-mails while I was on the road about the fire up in the Polipoli forest reserve (the only legal 4WD trail on Maui)... Went into the office when I got in yesterday and spoke with the Asst Chief (our office was providing mapping support for the fire dept)... The fire did burn through the main part of the forest (here's a photo of the area taken a year ago):



As of last night, it was still burning... The burn area includes Skyline Trail and the area the locals call "Ball Park" (I've posted pictures of those areas before)... It will eventually grow back, but it's sad that all those big old trees in the photo are probably charcoal by now...

Are those trees indegines?? If they weren't I would say it would be a great time to do some native Hawaiian tree replanting.. In the mean time I would be worried about mud slides with the rain season just around the corner.

The big trees are exotics - redwoods, douglas fir, cypress, eucalyptus, etc - and were planted in the early part of the 20th century... There are still quite a few native species, as well... The place really looks and (because of the cool temps) feels more like a forest on the coast of Oregon or northern California...

You are right in that this might present an opporunity to plant native species... I may take a run up there in a couple weeks and take a look around...

Edited to add:

Here's a wikimapia link to the area that is burning (hope it works)... The clear area in the trees is the State Park and cabin... The fire burned around the cabin (the cabin was spared) and over into the area to the right (look for the switch-back road) and up to the skyline trail (the upper trail at the "Y" after the switch-backs)... You can use the sliding scale on the left side of the view window to zoom in and out...

http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=20679526&x=-156331072&z=15&l=0&m=a&v=2