On Saturday March 19th, HER first quarterly forest volunteer event of the year was indeed celebrated in honor of Spring Equinox for new beginnings!
Our good friend Pat Conant from up Volcano, with the help of a few other Volcano Volunteers, loaded his truck with over 70 hapu’u from his land, and generously delivered to us on the morning of the event! Though Pat continues to assist in the biological control of weeds, he is retired from the State Dept. of Agriculture where he was an Entomologist in the Plant Pest Control Branch for many years.
HER is grateful to all 23 volunteers who came through on a glorious day together for the health and well being of Keau’ohana. Hapu’u is an important addition to the shade bearing ‘ohe trees we have planted in the past. All hapu’u were planted in the volunteer swath in the near interior; some of them were taller than those of us planting them! We are hopeful that one day, the entry into the forest will offer the sweet shade of a restored Rainforest!
On February 26th Professor Jonathan Price from the University of Hawai’i at Hilo brought 20 students into the forest for his yearly vegetation class. It was encouraging to hear many of the students well versed in Hawaiian Protocol. Together we discussed HER restoration project in light of the management challenges involved with confronting invasive plants, rapid ‘ohi’a death, and other threats. Other class objectives included learning the primary species and basic ecological characteristics of Lowland Wet Forest followed by an exercise in surveying tree size and abundance in managed vs. unmanaged plots.
Dr. Price was once upon a time my advisor when conducting my Master’s in Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science at UHH. In fact I have fond memories of completing that very class one decade ago! It is with great pleasure that I assist him in the Keau’ohana forest today!
Have you had the pleasure of seeing the glorious ‘ie’ie in bloom? This fantastic vine has coexisted with the native ‘ohi’a for millions of years; it spirals up the tree in splendid symphony. Once part of the dominant vegetation composition in the Puna District along with an eloquent diversity of other species. Keau’ohana provides essential habitat to its survival.
‘ie’ie — Freycinetia arborea
If you follow us on Facebook you’ll see that we are adding posts with 3D photos of native plants on the Hawaii Environmental Resources Facebook page. There are a few lines of description about the history, biology, and/or mythology of each plant. We are doing this as part of our mandate to educate the public and to bring attention to Hawaiian native plant life and forest restoration that we do at Hawaii Environmental Restoration (HER).
Volunteers of the month, Will Stein and Rain Pacifico
Aside from our regular Monday crew days joined by forest volunteers, the month of June was filled with adventures in the forest with The Core Dance/Global Waters Dance Event on June 11th; HER Quarterly Summer Solstice Volunteer Work-party on June 20th; followed by the Liko Na Pilina special volunteer event on the 21st. Stay tuned for more to come in July! Already we have hosted an event with Connection’s Charter School from Hilo, and are scheduled with the Church of Latter-day Saints for later this month. HER welcomes a diversity of people to meet with a biodiversity of plant cousins!
The Revitalize Puna event held on June 9th at the Leilani Estates Community Center was a good step in the right direction, with more than 100 residents attending the first quarterly event. The County’s Disaster Recovery Division and County Council District 4 seek to involve community members in helping to plan and support us in becoming more empowered as a community on all fronts (social, cultural, economic, infrastructure, and last but not least (yet perhaps most importantly?) the environment, which we need for everything else to happen!
The event was well organized with discussion panels occurring at various booths depending on participant interest. It was a dynamic occasion for those present to bridge lives and build on future ideals. We hope that continued opportunities might invite more curiosity and engagement from the Puna public community over time.
Our environmental panels joined in discussions around restoration/reforestation, invasive species control, and climate change over three separate time periods throughout the afternoon. Several members of HER joined forces to greet the public with enthusiasm in support of developing a growing awareness of what it means to Malama O Ka ‘Aina!
Hawaii Environmental Restoration (HER) is excited to announce our collaboration with Core Dance, a movement organization based on the mainland with a global reach, as we join forces to host a special Global Water Dances (GWD) event on Friday, June 11th. Over the past 40 years, Core Dance has engaged in thoughtful dialogue with many issues of importance to our world. Their work is deeply embedded in the challenges that their communities face, both locally and globally. They seek to act as environmental advocates by representing the natural world and its inherent rights to be honored and protected.
As such, they have been partnering with Global Water Dances since 2019, an organization that uses the art of dance to illuminate water issues on a global scale. They seek to inspire action and international collaboration for safe water, and encourage participants to take direct action in joining the effort. Core Dance will act as a facilitator of this GWD event, joining with volunteers from HER to offer a blessing to the Keau’ohana Rainforest and all the forests and waters of Hawai’i and around the globe.
The June 11th event at Keau’ohana will aim to raise awareness about the importance of our forests as fresh water sources for natural ecosystems and human sustenance. The event’s activities will highlight the challenges facing Hawai’i’s lowland native rainforests, and why it is important to protect and preserve the small amount of lowland forest that remains.
This event is not open to the public, but a video montage will be posted on our website and social media accounts shortly afterward. We encourage you to watch, engage and offer your support.
The beautiful month of May greets us warmly! It is important to us that the community is aware of what Hawaii Environmental Restoration (HER) is doing in support of our local Hawai’i environment. We thank you again for being attentive to HER developments. Keau’ohana is alive and well considering the tragic loss in canopy caused by Rapid ‘Ōhi’a Death (ROD) since Hurricane Iselle in 2014. We are happy to share that since the lava event of 2018, ROD as dramatically slowed down in Keau’ohana, we presume due to sulfuric acids that may have had an impact on the fungus. We have not only observed very little new death occurrences, but in some cases the ‘ōhi’a trees have actually sprouted new growth!
Keau’ohana is a reservoir of rare native biodiversity, which offers the forest a certain degree of resilience; there is a variety of naturally occurring sub-canopy tree species that offer the native understory necessary shade in many areas within the site. Among others, these species include the following:
We at ‘Hawaii Environmental Restoration’ (HER) wish to acknowledge our first two volunteers to “Adopt a Plot” in Keau’ohana! Meet local residents, Pedro Tama and Linda Larish! They are very excited to begin stewarding each their own plots in Keau’ohana. Linda was on the Keau’ohana crew for close to a year not so long ago, and it is so wonderful to have her back!
Pedro Tama
Linda Larish
You too can become a steward of your own 10X10 meter area in the forest! Create your own schedule to tend a sweet spot in the last remaining lowland (<1,000ft) rainforest of Hawai’i. This opportunity can offer you meaningful connection to HER Keau’ohana community, and a quiet connection to the sweet earth. Nurturing a direct relationship to the earth in such a way is so essential to our well being; it brings peace to the heart and mind. We hope that on Earth Day you will consider such a commitment, because deep down inside, we all know, that every day is Earth Day!
After a brief Hawaiian pule (prayer, incantation and blessing), 15 of us divided up into 4 groups lead by those more experienced in the forest. We planted a total of 128 more ‘ohe seedlings in various locations within the Keau’ohana restoration site. By increasing the density of our out-plantings, we hope to be more successful in re-establishing shade lost due to Rapid ‘Ohi’a Death. It was a wet day in the rainforest, but people were happy to be present and planting; we achieved our goal within a few hours of time accruing 45 total volunteer hours. Spring 2021 is off to a good start! Mahalo all for your kind encouragement and support.
The following is a Hawaii Environmental Restoration summary of 2020 for your information; please feel free to look over it and get a glimpse at our accomplishments. You will find access to our financial statements under Our Mission/Financial Statements on the HER website.
As many of you know, Hawaii Environmental Restoration’s (HER) primary project focuses on the restoration and preservation of Keau’ohana State Forest Reserve. Since June of 2014, Keau’ohana has undergone an intensive restoration process that has focused on the control of invasive plant species, and the planting of native species on ~30 acres of the most biodiverse portion of the reserve. Our crew has continued weekly restoration efforts toward preserving this precious resource through a good number of environmental and socio-economic challenges (Hurricane Iselle, Rapid ‘Ohi‘a Death, 2018 Lava Event, and now COVID).
(Current Crew from left to right: Jeremiah O’Brien, volunteer Namele Naipo-Arsiga, Koa Quivetia, Jon Rathbun, and Jaya Dupuis taking picture).
Although HER education outreach was largely compromised due to the pandemic, Keau’ohana rainforest received consistent restoration attention over the year 2020. HER efforts averaged four active crew members working a 7 hour day per week; work days were often supported by one or two volunteer members as well. Despite loss of State funding, our functions were possible this year thanks to HER reserved funds from a generous past donation by Ann Kobsa’s of Malama O Puna, and $5,000 contributed from the Atherton Foundation. This year has focused on the fourth systematic pass of the entire 30 acre restoration site, beginning with the east swath which had not been done since the pre-lava 2018 event. It has been a slow and grueling process of recovery, but we are now three-quarters complete. This achievement does not include numerous additional passes conducted in the volunteer loops (5 acres) as well as regular maintenance of the 2 mile trail system. A total of 584 trees were planted in Keau’ohana this year! Volunteer hours were a record low of 219 due to Covid-19 limitations. And most importantly, enclosures now surround the natural colonies of endangered ha’iwale at the heart of Keau’ohana thanks to the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Prior to the pandemic, special events were coordinated in the forest with Hawaii Community College and the University of Hilo. Outreach events in the community included a presentation and tabling at a sustainability event held at the Imiloa Astronomy Center, and presentations at the Niaulani Art Center in Volcano village. HER is looking forward to becoming more active in the community again. In the mean time outreach coordinator Kelly Collins, and President Jaya Dupuis have been working on developing the basic infrastructure to provide a growing number of schools and organizations with a virtual education option in 2021. Our extended goal is to help educate people about general Hawai’i plant issues and solutions, and how they could help support the lowland environment by making wise plant choices for sustainable living in their own lives. Technical assistant James Elston, has worked hard as well on website improvements to help us better engage with you, our beloved supporters! Our work is also supported by Jim Buck (CPA) who does an excellent job keeping our finances transparent and in order. Again, we thank each and every one of you for your unique contributions and support to our fundamental mission and morale. We could not thrive without your care! Please consider continuing to hold our hand through these troubled times…Your membership is precious to our forest ohana!
A sunny day in Keau’ohana Rainforest on the Winter Solstice planting 192 ‘ohe seedlings
Solstice tree planting was a delightful success in Keau’ohana on December 21st. The sun shone brightly in light of a new year, as 20 of us separated into groups of 5 to plant a total of 192 ‘ohe seedlings along the west and connecting trails. We are most grateful to all 16 enthusiastic forest volunteers for helping us in rebuilding a strong future canopy layer to protect a delicate understory of native biodiversity.
Winter Solstice 2020 Tree Planting with friends
Events like this bring much joy to our hearts; we feel inspired to embark upon the new year with our lovely Keau’ohana forest ohana. We hope that perhaps now our quarterly volunteer events may resume along with the necessary precautions to keep everyone safe and healthy. We do hope to see all in the forest again, and again!
We will let you know about the next opportunity near spring Equinox, if all goes well!
generously delivered to us on the morning of the event! Though Pat continues to assist in the biological control of weeds, he is retired from the State Dept. of Agriculture where he was an Entomologist in the Plant Pest Control Branch for many years.
