Trouble in Paradise: Livestock Grazing in Hawaii
Watersheds Messenger Spring 2003 Vol. X, No. 1 PDF ISSUE
Early Polynesian settlers had cleared lowland areas on their arrival, but upland areas were by and large untouched until the arrival of the first European ships. Destruction of native forests began then with a vengeance, in a process that continues to this day.
Far more insidious and lasting was the attack by the hooved creatures unknown in the islands before Western contact. Allowed free run of the hills and forests, wild cattle and goats were for much of the l9th century regarded as a source of ready revenue for the kingdom, requiring no care of investment.
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