Tropical Flowers Make Weddings More Meaningful
Each wedding has special meanings for the bride, groom, and their loved ones. It’s simple to enhance the heartfelt emotions shared by everyone who is involved by incorporating flowers with special meanings into the ceremony. Hawaiian weddings open up a…
Hilo Bayfront Trails Inc.: Creating a Multi-Use Trail through Scenic Downtown Hilo
By Alan D. McNarie When Peter Kubota went to the University of Oregon as an exchange student in 1982, the 46 miles of eight-foot-wide bicycle/pedestrian trails that wound around the campus, the city of Eugene, and its park system impressed…
Halema‘uma‘u Crater: Volcanoes and Science
By Alan D. McNarie Hawai‘i Island’s tourist industry got a big boost last spring when Madame Pele chose to peep out of the windows of her home. Lava rose for a few weeks in the pit of Halema‘uma‘u Crater, at…
‘Tis the Season to Celebrate
By Sonia R. Martinez In Hawai‘i, as everywhere else I have lived, the holidays are a time of celebration and entertaining. Opening our homes to guests is always a daunting experience; I have found, however, that by keeping the menu…
Wai‘ōpae Tide Pools in Puna: Unique Ecosystem Under Siege
By Denise Laitinen A secluded coastline where bright tropical fish swim in calm, azure blue waters. Even the neighborhood overlooking this peaceful setting conjures images of paradise. Its siren call is hard to resist. Vacationland. Located along the Puna coastline…
Keau‘ohana Forest Restoration
By Mālielani Larish A strawberry guava tree quivers as Jaya C. Dupuis tugs at its roots, freeing them from beneath a mossy log. One stubborn root remains anchored to the earth, so she follows it to a cluster of young native kōpiko seedlings. Kneeling down,…
Puakea Ranch: Sustaining the Land, and the Story
By Catherine Tarleton The high green hills of North Kohala have evolved over generations, from forests and farms to blankets of sugar cane and rolling ranch country. As do most places here, Puakea Ranch has a story to tell in…
Healing Plants: Vervain
Don’t whack that weed! Vervain packs a practical punch all its own By Barbara Fahs Vervain looks a bit like mint, which is its relative, so it’s easy to identify. However, it has no distinctive minty fragrance. Called ha‘uoi and…
Cleanup at Kamilo Point
By Alan D. McNarie Kamilo Point isn’t what it used to be. And that’s a good thing. It used to be a lot worse. This remote stretch of Ka‘ū coastline near South Point gained infamy in the 1990s as the…
Lessons in the Land: Connecting with the “Dryland Kine” Kūpuna
By Ku‘ulei Keakealani The inspiration, or perhaps subtle dictation for this story came from a phone call that sounded a bit like this, “Bebe, daddy just saw what you wen write in dis magazine ova hea. Nice what you wen…
Ancient Hawaiian Agricultural Practices at Sacred Sites in North Kohala
By Jan Becket Archaeological surveys in Hawai‘i yield valuable knowledge about the traditional life of a place, and yet it is often knowledge that is inaccessible to the community where the surveys are conducted. Many contracts call for reports to…
Aloha ‘Āina: Waimea I Uka
By Ku‘ulei Keakealani On April 20, 2008 a group assembled on a misty Waimea morning. The destination was somewhat clear and somewhat vague, i uka, to the uplands, was our chosen destination. Were we on a journey for answers? Perhaps.…
Saving Hawai‘i’s Native Dryland Forests
By Denise Laitinen Every day, hundreds of Hawai‘i Island residents and visitors drive past them—most having no idea about the rare treasures they are zipping past as they travel along Māmalahoa Highway between Waimea and Kailua-Kona. These incredible treasures are…
Each Place has a Voice of its Own
By Ku‘ulei Keakealani Place names in Hawai‘i are important for many reasons. Above all, it is to honor this homeland, its native language, people, and heritage. Despite the nicknames that are regularly used in place of actual names, it is…
A Place Like No Other: Dragonfly Ranch
Nestled in the South Kona hills, just along the treeline where the shade of great monkeypods cools the earth below, is a place so heavenly one could hardly believe it’s there. Descending the hill to Pu‘uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical…
A Brief History of: Kalalea Heiau
Peter T. Young Ka Lae is the site of one of the earliest Hawaiian settlements, and it has one of the longest archaeological records on the islands (included in the complex is the earliest recorded occupation site (124 AD.) (NPS)…
Kalapana Remembered: Reminiscing with Mayor Billy Kenoi About his Childhood Home Before Pele Reclaimed It
By Denise Laitinen Kalapana. Synonymous with the destructive power of Madame Pele. Little signs remain of the community that was destroyed by lava flows from Kūpa‘ianahā vent between 1986 and 1990./ Those born in the remote fishing village of Kalapana…
E Ala o Mahi‘ai: The Way of the Farmer
By John J. Boyle Here at a crossroads of two cultures—one immediately challenged by serious food needs and another steeped in a culture of sustainability in exclusion—it is understood that the foods the first Polynesians brought with them on their…
Fishponds in Hawai‘i: A Small Scale Understanding
By Barbara Fahs Sustainability is a major buzzword today. Growing food, harvesting power from the sun, buying locally produced products to rely less on foreign imports at the supermarket are values and practices that many Americans understand clearly today. Wherever…
An Abundance of Energy: An Intentional Property in Harmony with Nature
By Cynthia Sweeney Once, people didn’t use such words as sustainable and organic because everything just was sustainable and organic. The earth provided, and people lived completely off the land. We can do that again today, only with state-of-the-art technology.…
What the World Needs Now: Peace, Harmony, and Love, Sweet Love
By Margaret Kearns Sacred lands, historical treasures cherished and protected by the people of Hawai‘i, exist throughout the island chain. All possess special mana (power or energy) and some much more than others. On Hawai‘i Island, one such place is…
Success! Hakalau Forest Refuge: Scientists and Volunteers Partner to Save Forest Birds
By Fern Gavelek Hawai‘i’s geographical isolation means that the plants and animals found here have evolved unlike any other species found on earth. Human interaction and interference with once untouched habitats has rendered Hawai‘i the endangered species capital of the…
Community Supported Agriculture Grows Up on Hawai‘i Island
By Cynthia Sweeney Each Thursday, Lark and Steve Willey pack up their specially outfitted van with boxes of freshly picked spinach, beets, leeks, mushrooms, and other seasonal fruits and vegetables from their farm in Waimea, and deliver them door-to-door. In…
In The Shadow Of The Sandalwood: The Plight Of The Wiliwili
By Stig Lindholm In Hawaiian legend, when the god Kāne threw his calabash into the void of space, everything Hawai‘i was created: the sky, the earth, and the ocean. Then, in and upon those mediums, Kāne bestowed life. To the…
Adorning the Dancers: Understanding the Plants of Hula
By Denise Laitinen Standing next to the kahua hula (dance platform) that overlooks Halema‘uma‘u Crater at the Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, you can see a plume of steam and gasses rising from the crater, home of the volcano goddess Pele.…
Warabi—Fiddlehead Ferns
By Sonia R. Martinez Whether you know them as warabi (Japanese), ho‘i‘o (Hawaiian) or ostrich fern (most of the mainland), the fiddlehead ferns are the young, edible, tightly coiled shoots of the fern that resemble the end of a violin…
A Journey Through Light and Stone: The Art and Architecture of John Wallis
By John J. Boyle A Place to Breathe in the Light The art of creating a space for a place to live suggests an attention to placement, form, and strength of materials. In designing for Hawai‘i, engineering and traditional construction…
Loulu Palm Is On The Rebound
By Barbara Fahs The Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Captain Cook doesn’t have a big neon sign that brags about its ongoing conservation efforts. Instead, Manager Peter Van Dyke and his small crew of helpers quietly go about the…
Getting Back to Hawaiian Roots: Perpetuate Native Culture With Your Landscaping
By Denise Laitinen When you think about landscaping your yard, your thoughts are probably along the lines of what plants will look pretty, what will grow, and how easy it will be to maintain. You’re probably not thinking about perpetuating…
“Beetle Juice” Inoculates Kona Coffee Against Coffee Beetle Borer
By Margaret Kearns Greenwell is a name synonymous with Kona coffee in Hawai‘i with patriarch Henry Nicholas Greenwell lauded as the marketing genius who put the region’s highly-sought brew on connoisseurs’ radar worldwide more than 150 years ago. Greenwell, a…
