Mālama Mokupuni: Caring for Our Island Environment — A Rare Night Visitor: ‘A‘o, the Newell’s Shearwater
By Rachel Laderman The strange, croaking-squawking calls started in August. Was it a sick chicken? A keiki’s squeaky toy? A lost donkey? I asked neighbors, I did a web search. I stayed up to listen closely: it had to be…
Planting the Forest Back Together
By Rachel Laderman The Kealakekua Forest Nursery (KFN) is the biggest native plant nursery in the state, and it is run with a big heart, driven by love for the land and Hawaiian heritage. It provides seedlings for many reforestation projects,…
Backyard Chickens for Food Self-Sufficiency
By Rachel Laderman When times get tough, people get chickens. It’s a practical way to gain more food security. A chicken coop in the yard also reduces the environmental footprint created by shipping eggs from the mainland’s large-scale, high-production poultry…
At Home in the Caldera: Koa‘e Kea, the White-Tailed Tropicbird
By Rachel Laderman If you have trekked to Halema‘uma‘u in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park to see the lava fountaining in the caldera, you may have caught the sweeping movements of a white bird carving loops from the steaming caldera floor…
Hope for Honu: Green Sea Turtles on the Road to Recovery
By Rachel Laderman with Irene Kelly Four decades ago, the sight of honu (green sea turtles) in near-shore Hawaiian waters was rare. Since then, the honu population—once devastated by harvesting practices—has rebounded thanks to state and federal protections. Today, it…
Mālama Mokupuni: Caring for Our Island Environment—Take These Broken Wings…
By Rachel Laderman The Hawai‘i Wildlife Center (HWC) is Hawai‘i’s only comprehensive facility for rehabilitating native winged creatures. Linda Elliott, the founder, president, and director, says, “Here we are, the extinction capital of the world. Our state has the majority of the endangered…
Life in the Lava: The Anchialine Habitat
By Rachel Laderman Nestled in the cracks and dips of Hawai‘i’s rugged coastline are sparkling pools filled with tiny, darting red shrimp. These pools are just the tips of an incredible labyrinthine habitat that goes far under the lava, and is…
A Kipuka for All: Kaulana Manu Trail
By Rachel Laderman Near an ancient trail in the saddle between Hawai‘i Islandʻs two largest volcanoes, at 5,600-feet elevation and often wrapped in a misty cloud, is an oasis. It is a rejuvenating place for human travelers, and for birds, too.…
Mālama Mokupuni—Caring for Our Island Environment: Cats vs. Pups—A Feline Parasite Threatens Monk Seals
By Rachel Laderman When you’re at a Hawai‘i beach park, you’ll often spot free-roaming cats dashing between the shadows. Well-meaning cat-lovers can be seen restocking kibble in dishes left for cats. This animal-loving activity sadly contributes to a disease that is the…
Mālama Mokupuni—Caring for Our Island Environment: Cultivating Resilience
By Rachel Laderman Can there be such a thing as “regenerative tourism,” where visitors can balance the consuming nature of tourism by contributing to island sustainability? It’s a tall order, but sisters Kalisi Mausio and Angela Fa‘anunu, the co-founders of Hawaii…
Mālama Mokupuni/Caring for Our Island Environment: Life and Death in the Stream—‘O‘opu, ‘Opae, and Tahitian Prawns
By Rachel Laderman On the east side of Hawai‘i Island, north of Hilo and along the Hāmākua coast, streams cascade down steep slopes, flow quickly over boulders, leap into wailele (waterfalls), rest briefly in calm ki‘o wai (pools), and riffle…
Hawai‘i Wai Ola Is Stepping It Up To Test Coast Water Quality
By Rachel Laderman When government can’t catch up with a pressing environmental problem, concerned residents often step in. Here on Hawai‘i Island, water quality equates to quality of life, yet the state Department of Health (DOH) Clean Water Branch has…
Mālama Mokupuni—Caring for Our Island Environment: Nursing Along a Coral Nursery
By Rachel Laderman How do you create an ocean in an aquarium? This is the challenge Michelle Nason took on in 2017, when she was a student in the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo’s Marine Science Department and Marine Option…
Mālama Mokupuni—Caring for Our Island Environment: Know Your Place
By Rachel Laderman As we celebrate the 50th Earth Day, we are faced with environmental problems that are larger than ever—sea level rise, coral bleaching, extinctions, extreme weather. What can we possibly do in the face of these super-sized challenges? One…
Mālama Mokupuni—Caring for Our Island Environment: Mauna Loa Observatory’s Keeling Curve Reveals Carbon Dioxide Rise to the World
By Rachel Laderman For more than 60 years, at a station perched at 11,000 feet on Mauna Loa, researchers have been meticulously collecting data that has changed our relationship to the earth. Based on their work, we have learned that…
Mālama Mokupuni—Saving Our Island Environment: Can We Protect ‘Ua‘u, The Hawaiian Petrel?
By Rachel Laderman Imagine gazing out over the Hawaiian ocean to a sky darkened by swirling seabirds. That was the view, thousands of years ago. Many of those species are extinct today, while others fight for survival. ‘Ua‘u, the federally…
Malama Mokupuni—Caring for Our Island Environment: Invasive or Essential? A Rare Moth Depends on a Roadside Weed
By Rachel Laderman A tiny shining orb on the underside of a leaf—is it the egg of an endangered, endemic moth? A team of volunteers systematically turns over every leaf on tree tobacco shrubs along a transect near Pu‘uwa‘awa‘a Forest…
Mālama Mokupuni—Caring for Our Island Environment: Saving ‘Oha Wai—How a Rare Hawaiian Plant Has Been Given Life
By Rachel Laderman “When we think something is gone and we find it again—there aren’t adequate words to describe it,” says Rob Robichaux, University of Arizona professor and rare plant recovery collaborator. “It’s beyond thrilling.” In about 1999, the last…
Mālama Mokupuni–Caring for Our Island Environment: Telling the Story of the Archipelago
By Rachel Laderman When the 6.9 earthquake rocked Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park on May 4, 2018, it seriously damaged park buildings and infrastructure. The park had to close until the volcanic action settled down, reopening on September 22. During those…
Mālama Mokupuni–Caring for Our Island Environment: A Walk through a Home Food Forest
By Rachel Laderman Stepping onto the narrow path of a food forest, the first thing you notice is the cool, quiet peacefulness. In the dappled shade, you see a variety of leaf forms, textures, and colors—dancing oval katuk (sweet leaf…
Mālama Moana: Take Care of the Ocean that Takes Care of You
By Rachel Laderman Sometimes through ignorance, we smother our beaches, reefs, and wildlife with so much affection and attention that they are left gasping to recover. At Kahalu‘u Bay in Kailua-Kona, the community saw this happening. Beautiful Kahalu‘u Bay was…
Mālama Mokupuni: Caring for Our Island Environment
Coral Reefs Are Dying: Climate Change and Sunscreen Pollution By Rachel Laderman Hānau ka ‘Uku-ko‘ako‘a, hānau kana, he ‘Ako‘ako‘a, puka Born was the coral polyp, born was the coral, came forth In the Kumulipo, the Hawaiian creation chant, ko‘a (the…
