On Wednesday, Feb. 28, the kumu and haumana of Ka ’Imi Na’auao o Hawai’i Nei Institute hosted a Hawaiian cultural event in Kokee to bless the spring season for several conservation agencies.
After the blessing ceremony, 26 agency staff and volunteers spent about four hours working at the Pohaku Hula site in Kokee to remove invasive weeds. This site has cultural significance because it is believed to be the place where Queen Emma and her entourage rested overnight during her trek into the Alakai wilderness in 1871.
The site has been cared for by Ka ’Imi Na’auao o Hawaii Nei Institute for the past 10 years through an “Adopt-A-Park” agreement with Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Participants totaled 33 and included the Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project, Kokee Resource Conservation Program, Kauai Invasive Species Committee, staff from Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife and staff from the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii contracted to Pacific Missile Range Facility.
During the blessing ceremony, agency staff were asked to reveal specific goals for this spring season. Thomas Kaiakapu of DOFAW said that DLNR expressed hopes to increase awareness about and protection of native flora and fauna among private land owners.
Lisa “Cali” Crampton of the KFBRP hoped for success with efforts to collect and incubate eggs from critically endangered forest birds with the goal of raising them in captivity so they can be released back into the wild to prevent extinction.
Katie Cassel of KRCP said that their goal is to receive more funding so they are able to hire more staff to preserve more acres of native forest. They also would like to recruit more community groups on Kauai to voluntarily adopt areas of the forest that they would weed and maintain under the DLNR State Parks Adopt-A-Park Program.
Pat Gmelin of the KISC talked about increasing awareness among Kauai citizens to report to HISC any sighting of invasive species such as mongoose, fire ants, coqui frogs, long thorn kiawe and miconia.
The environmental services staff from the Pacific Missile Range Facility participated so they could learn to differentiate between native and invasive plants and establish collaborative relationships with other conservation agencies in order to restore native plants on military properties.
It was extraordinary to have people from so many different Kauai conservation agencies participate in this year’s blessing and volunteer work day at Pohaku Hula!
We all learned about each other’s conservation efforts and were able to increase networking opportunities to continue to malama aina. Mahalo to every one of the participants!
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Sally Jo Manea, Ka ’Imi Na’auao O Hawai ’i Nei Institute
