The Department of Land and Natural Resources will be further protecting forests in the Kohala Mountains on Hawai‘i Island thanks to awards from the federal Bureau of Reclamation (BOR).

The BOR has awarded more than $1.9 million to protect forested and wetland habitat from invasive species and replant in riparian corridors.  The funding will also benefit endangered plants and wildlife, sequester carbon, and will help keep streams flowing and healthy. It will help attain the State’s Sustainable Hawaiʻi 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. 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.

In a press release DLNR Chair Suzanne Case said, “We are very grateful for Bureau of Reclamation support to protect the forests of Kohala, which will help protect our fresh water supplies.  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.” 

The BOR is supporting the project through its WaterSMART program, which works cooperatively with states and other local entities to increase water supplies.

DLNR Photo