regarding the trees, most of the tall scrawny trees you see around the periphery of the excavated area are 'ohi'a lehua, which are an important indigenous keystone species (it is the first tree that grows on lava...not the first plant, but the first tree. so it begins to establish canopy on lava). 'ohi'a are actually sick all across the island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_%CA%BB%C5%8Chi%CA%BBa_Death ) so i was very loathe to remove any, but i ended up removing maybe 5 (including 1 that was large-ish - the others were small, half-dead, etc.). i told myself that i can get sproutlings to replace them (although 'ohi'a are notoriously difficult to propagate, and a sproutling that's a foot tall costs $45 in the store...).
in the distance are a couple pines that are either norfolk pines or cook pines, but those are on someone else's property.
