Kakahaia National Wildlife Refuge

National Wildlife Refuge

National Wildlife Refuge is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the world's premiere system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants...

(NWR) was established in 1977 to permanently protect wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

 habitat for endangered endemic waterbirds and wintering migratory wetland birds and to maintain the structural integrity of an ancient Hawaiian fishpond.

Location

The 44 acres (17.8 ha) refuge is located along the south coast of Molokai

Molokai

Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...

 island in the Hawaiian Islands

Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...

. It contains a 15 acres (6.1 ha) coastal freshwater marsh, a remnant of an ancient Hawaiian fishpond. The spring-fed pond lies on a narrow plain just above sea level

Above mean sea level

The term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...

 at the foot of volcanic hills. An additional 5.5 acres (22,257.7 m²) managed impoundment

Impoundment

Impoundment is the election of a President of the United States not to spend money that has been appropriated by the U.S. Congress. The precedent for presidential impoundment was first set by Thomas Jefferson in 1801. The power was available to all presidents up to and including Richard Nixon, and...

 constructed in 1983 provides shallow-water habitat for wading birds

Wader

Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...

. Kamehameha V Highway (State Route 450) bisects the southern part of the refuge, allowing access to the coastal portion managed as a park by the County of Maui

Maui County, Hawaii

-National protected areas:* Haleakala National Park* Kakahaia National Wildlife Refuge* Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge- Demographics :As of the 2000 Census, there were 128,094 people, 43,507 households, and 29,889 families residing in the county. The population density was 110 people per...

.

Wildlife and habitat

The refuge is home to 12 known species of birds, including the endangered Hawaiian stilt

Black-winged Stilt

The Black-winged Stilt or Common Stilt is a widely distributed very long-legged wader in the avocet and stilt family . Opinions differ as to whether the birds treated under the scientific name H. himantopus ought to be treated as a single species and if not, how many species to recognize...

 and Hawaiian Coot

Hawaiian Coot

The Hawaiian Coot or alae keokeo is a species of bird in the rail family, Rallidae, that is endemic to Hawaii....

. Migratory ducks, and shorebirds, as well as invasive mammals such as feral cat

Feral cat

A feral cat is a descendant of a domesticated cat that has returned to the wild. It is distinguished from a stray cat, which is a pet cat that has been lost or abandoned, while feral cats are born in the wild; the offspring of a stray cat can be considered feral if born in the wild.In many parts of...

s, dog

Dog

The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

s, mongoose

Mongoose

Mongoose are a family of 33 living species of small carnivorans from southern Eurasia and mainland Africa. Four additional species from Madagascar in the subfamily Galidiinae, which were previously classified in this family, are also referred to as "mongooses" or "mongoose-like"...

s, and axis deer

Chital

The chital or cheetal , also known as chital deer, spotted deer or axis deer is a deer which commonly inhabits wooded regions of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and in small numbers in Pakistan...

, are also present on the refuge.

The Pacific Golden Plover

Pacific Golden Plover

The Pacific Golden Plover is a medium-sized plover.The 23–26 cm long breeding adult is spotted gold and black on the crown, back and wings. Its face and neck are black with a white border and it has a black breast and a dark rump. The legs are black...

 is the most common shorebird with the winter months hosting Northern Pintail

Northern Pintail

The Pintail or Northern Pintail is a widely occurring duck which breeds in the northern areas of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory and winters south of its breeding range to the equator...

s.

Public use

Public access is limited to the shoreline on Kamehameha V Highway. This seaward portion of the Refuge is for picnicking and fishing along the ocean beach. The interior portion of the fefuge is available for environmental education

Environmental education

Environmental education refers to organized efforts to teach about how natural environments function and, particularly, how human beings can manage their behavior and ecosystems in order to live sustainably. The term is often used to imply education within the school system, from primary to...

 programs through Special Use Permits. The refuge has an active volunteer group.

Management activities

Since over 90% of the plants in the refuge are aggressive introduced species

Introduced species

An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...

, such as Indian marsh fleabane and California bulrush, native plants became scarce. Exotic plants quickly take over, having an adverse effect on wildlife. For example, four of the five waterbirds have been classified as endangered.

Refuge goals are to support recovery and perpetuation of endangered species

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

, especially Hawaiian waterbirds.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service

United States Fish and Wildlife Service

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is a federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats...

controls predators and water levels, especially during nesting season.