KAILUA — Before humans arrived in the Islands, much of the lowland area in Kailua was covered with fan palms where giant flightless geese and ducks dwelled among plants and trees that were obliterated after settlements moved in.

John Culliney, professor of biology at Hawai'i Pacific University, will paint a picture of Kailua before humans in the first of a series of lectures, "The Making of Kailua," at 7 p.m. today at St. John Lutheran Church, 1004 Kailua Road.

The lectures are based on a book that is expected to be released next summer, said Paul Brennan, an anthropologist and member of the Kailua Historical Society, which is sponsoring the series.

Brennan, one of the contributing authors of the book, said each contributor offers a unique vantage point on "how Kailua came to be and how it came to be significant."

Hawaiian authors will look at the mythological accounts of Kailua and he will focus on the archeology and the contact period, he said.

With the recent turnover of the Kawai Nui Marsh to the state, the lecture series will help people rediscover the value of the marsh and the surrounding Kailua, Brennan said.

"We're poised to be able to do something really significant with (the marsh)," he said, adding that the lecture series will give people a chance to discuss its future. "We don't even bother to think about it as being a treasure."

LIFE OF THE LAND

Culliney, a contributing author of the book, will discuss the creation of the marsh as well as such things as why the Ko'olau Range extends in long slopes and valleys on the Honolulu side but is so truncated in Kailua, why there's so much sand in people's lawns and why there are marine shells and coral debris at the bottom of Kawai Nui Marsh.

Pollen samples taken from core boring show that all the way back to 30,000 years ago until about 1,200 years ago the lowland landscape was covered with native loulu palm and about 20 other trees and shrubs, Culliney said.

"Since about 800 A.D. there was a huge change and it appears to be brought about by the Hawaiians," he said. "It was probably accidental on the part of the Hawaiians who used fire to clear land as described by the early explorers."

Most likely the fires burned accidentally out of control and the lowland forests gradually disappeared, Culliney said.

Core samples of the soil show bits of carbon and smoke caused by fire appearing about A.D. 800 and increasing in the samples as time went on until about A.D. 1200, he explained.

Much of what is known about natural forest was recently revealed in studies of the pollen, he said.

At the free lecture Culliney also will discuss how the Ko'olau shield volcano once stood tall over future Kailua, its summit at least 6,000 feet above the ocean and how Kawai Nui was once a wide marine bay, with the sea moe than 6 feet above its current level.