LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i Planning Commission on Tuesday granted a set of permits to McBryde Gardens in Lawa‘i, allowing the National Tropical Botanical Gardens to move along with a new philosophy of making its gardens more accessible and utilizing its
LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i Planning Commission on Tuesday granted a set of permits to McBryde Gardens in Lawa‘i, allowing the National Tropical Botanical Gardens to move along with a new philosophy of making its gardens more accessible and utilizing its vast collection as a tool to teach sustainability.
“We’re now turning our institutional focus,” NTBG CEO and Director Chipper Wichman said. “How do we make (NTBG) more accessible? How do we make it more of a powerful educational venue?”
Wichman left the commission meeting Tuesday morning with his mission accomplished. The three permits — class IV zoning permit, special permit and use permit — will allow McBryde Gardens to convert a tool shed into a snack shop and begin a set of trail improvements. Besides eliminating runoff into the stream at the bottom of Lawa‘i Valley, the trail improvements will add Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, Wichman said.
“What we have here on this island, in this garden, I think it’s one of the greatest botanical gardens in the world,” he said. “I think it’s greatly underutilized and unrecognized by our community.”
Wichman, however, laid the blame on NTBG rather than on the community, saying the garden’s administration has been “very insular” and has focused more on conservation efforts and research.
McBryde has about 28,000 accessions (the basic unit of a collection), according to Wichman. This vast inventory, which includes the world’s largest off-site collection of native Hawaiian flora, was planted over the course of more than four decades by scientists and conservationists from all over the world.
“But we never thought seriously, how do we become relevant to our community, how do we use this as an educational resource,” Wichman said.
Earth’s population will hit the 10 billion mark in our lifetime, according to Wichman.
“We need to educate people about the issues of sustainability,” he said. “There is no better place. This is the best venue we have.”
Besides a new snack shop, the plans for McBryde Gardens include replacing the existing bamboo bridge with a concrete structure, paving concrete trails and roads to provide universal access to primary parts of the gardens, build an elevated walkway in sensitive areas, improve the composting facility, build storage for heavy equipment, a gardener’s facility and two comfort stations.
“Obviously, our goal is to keep this a very natural area but at the same time it’s important to have access,” Wichman said.
The snack shop will provide pre-packaged food, bottled drinks, water, coffee, smoothies, fruits and other grab-and-go types of food, Wichman said.
The project application describes the establishment as having limited interior seating, adjoining covered-seating areas and picnic tables.
The permits have been granted, but securing funding for the project is still ongoing, according to Wichman.
He said the goal is to have most of the improvements finished by 2014, the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden, NTBG’s name when it was established via a U.S. Congressional Charter in 1964.
In 1970, PTBG’s founding trustees purchased the original 171.53 acres in the upper Lawa‘i Valley, forming the institution’s first garden, then called Lawa‘i Garden. In 1974, the garden received an additional 9.53 acres. In 2000, Lawa‘i Garden was officially renamed McBryde Garden.
Today, NTBG has expanded to include Allerton Garden, also in Lawa‘i, Limahuli Garden and Preserve on Kaua‘i’s North Shore, Kahana Garden on Maui, Kampong Garden in Florida and five additional botanical preserves, including Awini and Ka‘upulehu preserves on Big Island.
The acquisition of Florida’s Kampong Garden in 1984 through a gift from Catherine Hauberg Sweeney prompted a 1988 congressional legislation that changed NTBG’s name from its original “Pacific” to “National” designation, according to NTBG.
NTBG’s national headquarters are on Lawa‘i Valley’s west rim, overlooking McBryde Garden.
About 30,000 people visit Allerton and McBryde gardens annually, according to NTBG.
McBryde Garden currently offers daily self-guided tours, which start at the garden’s visitor center, across from Spouting Horn in Po‘ipu.
Guided tours are available three times a week. A 15-minute tram ride, beginning at the visitor center, takes visitors up to the gardens where they can walk along unpaved paths, grassy areas, rock steps and walkways between rugged cliffs leading to the valley’s floor and stream.
According to NTBG, land records show the majority of Lawa‘i ahupua‘a was granted to James Young Kanehoa in the mid-19th century. Kanehoa’s land was later passed to Queen Emma, and in 1876 Duncan McBryde leased the land.
In 1886, McBryde’s family purchased the land. In the early 1900s the upper valley in Lawa‘i was used mostly by large-scale sugar plantation, and the lower valley was leased to taro and rice farmers.
Visit www.ntbg.org for more information.
