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Maui’s neglected (Invasive) grasslands caused Lahaina fire to grow with deadly speed
(www.washingtonpost.com)
this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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I've tried searching and I suppose the fact that it's recent news pushes all the sources to the new.
In Australia, we can apply a "pre-clearing" layer to most of our mapping that let's you know what the ecosystem was there before it was cleared. Does the US have something like that? I'm not sure where to get started.
Where I am, the same invasive grass species exist and things look similar. Be interesting to know if it was tropical forest prior.
I don’t know but try searching for it on Google Scholar
https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/mauisoil/b_oxisol.aspx
Not much that is a precise take on what was behind Lahaina but I found the above that shows it might be a weathered system of lower hardy natives, including cactus (Cactus, kiawe, lantana, and koa haole.) 2 of those are weeds of here - Lantana and Leucaena.
Low point of rain is 20 inches, 500mm, about half of what we get. 32 on the high end which is our low end.
Here are some nearby sections:
https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/ecosystems/nars/maui/west-maui-2/
https://www.maunakahalawai.org/mauna-kahalawai-west-maui-mountains
https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/ecosystems/files/2013/07/West-Maui-Fact-Sheets-and-Topographical-Maps.pdf - East of Lahaina is the Panaewa Section