During the Great Depression, the Territory of Hawaii's Civilian Conservation Corps (C.C.C.) planted these Sugi (Japanese red-cedar) to restore Kauai's watershed. Damaged by over a century of reckless sandalwood and fuel-wood harvesting as well as overgrazing, the watershed could no longer reliably supply the Island's irrigation needs. This program gave the Territory's Board of Agriculture and Forestry a tremendous boost to forest management and natural resources conservation. To access planting, the C.C.C built Koke'e's remote roads--roads that are still used today for recreation, hunting, forest management, and irrigation system operation and maintenance.