Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park guide · 2 min read
Nēnē Recovery and the Park's Native Ecosystems
The nēnē, or Hawaiian goose, is a threatened species, and vehicles kill more adult nēnē in the park than anything else.
Keep to the speed limit, drive with care, and watch the road for geese. After a long stop, look beneath your car before pulling out, since the birds sometimes rest in its shade. Give wildlife plenty of space and never offer the geese food, because nēnē fed by visitors start begging and walking up to cars in motion.
Devastation Trail is a paved one-mile round trip that takes roughly an hour. The 1959 Kīlauea Iki eruption buried this ground in falling cinder, and life is now coming back to it. Wheelchairs and strollers can use the path, though a few stretches are steeper than an eight percent grade. Nēnē often turn up here, so park carefully, keep to the pavement, and do not climb the Puʻupuaʻi cinder cone.
From sea level, the park climbs to the summit of Mauna Loa at 13,677 feet, spanning seven ecological life zones. Hawaiian plants and animals have evolved in near isolation for more than 70 million years, and over 90 percent of the islands' native land species live nowhere else. Look for honeycreepers, the country's largest dragonfly, endangered sea turtles, and the only native land mammal, a bat. The hāpuʻu pulu, a tree fern found only in Hawaiʻi, grows here too.
The park also works to keep Native Hawaiian culture alive, with interpretive rangers who learn and share ceremonies, history, language and traditional crafts. These include the kākoʻi, a tool for felling trees and hollowing trunks into canoes, and ipu heke ʻole, gourd drums played for hula. The Kanaka Maoli, the indigenous people, see nature as sacred and live by pono, which means not taking what is not yours, including lava rocks. Visitors can take the Pono Pledge, a promise of safety, responsibility and respect for others and the land.
