The federal Bureau of Reclamation has been awarded more than $1.9 million to protect forest and wetland habitats in Hawaii from invasive species and replant in riparian corridors.
“We are very grateful for Bureau of Reclamation support to protect the forests of Kohala, which will help protect our freshwater supplies,” Suzanne Case, chair of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, said in a release from Gov. David Ige’s office. “Our forests capture rain and cloud moisture in the high-rainfall Kohala mountains, supplying the region’s water, including ditch systems that bring water from the mauka forest to farms, ranches, and lo‘i kalo (taro farm) agricultural users. When hooved animals strip vegetation down to bare ground, the steep mountainsides in these ancient forests rapidly erode, depositing muddy sediment onto beaches and near-shore coral reefs.”
Some of the funding, according to the release, will also benefit endangered plants and wildlife, sequester carbon and help keep streams flowing. It will also assist the state’s Sustainable Hawaii Initiative watershed goal to protect 30% of priority watershed forests by 2030. Currently, only 17% of native forests statewide are protected from the top-most threats, according to the release.
The project is in collaboration with the Kohala Watershed Partnership, a voluntary collaboration of major landowners and land managers that have partnered to protect the forests across the mountain range since 2003. The Bureau of Reclamation is supporting the project through its WaterSMART program. Democratic state lawmakers Sen. Lorraine Inouye and Rep. David Tarnas spearheaded the effort to gain approval for state matching funds. Both say that improving the health of the forests, watershed and water resources is critical for both the long-term health of the economy and the ʻāina.
“I am proud that the legislature was able to provide matching funds to DLNR, which allowed the department to become eligible for this grant,” Inouye said. “It will go a long way in furthering the quality of the Kohala Mountains’ natural resources.”