February 26, 2016—The 2016 Nāhelehele Dryland Forest Symposium will highlight dryland forest ecology and restoration efforts in Hawai‘i. The symposium will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, February 26, at the Courtyard King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel in Kailua-Kona.
The symposium is open to the public. Earlybird registration is available for $65 per person until February 16; after February 16 registration is $80 per person. The Hawai‘i Forest Institute is sponsoring discounts for students with valid ID, who may register for $35 before February 16 or $50 after. All registration fees include lunch and parking at the hotel. More information and registration are available online at http://nahelehele16.eventbrite.com or by contacting Stella Caban at The Kohala Center at scaban@kohalacenter.org or (808) 887-6411. Purchase orders are not accepted.
Two optional half-day field trips will also be offered on Thursday, February 25, to the Ka‘ohe Restoration Area on Mauna Kea and Saturday, February 27, to the Palamanui Dry Forest Preserve. The field trips will provide participants with opportunities to engage in hands-on service work to “give back to the forest.” Each field trip is $35 per person and includes lunch, water, and/or pupu.
The dryland forests of Hawai‘i are fragile habitats that are home to many of the rarest plants in the world. Dryland forests were once considered to be the most diverse forest ecosystems in the Hawaiian Islands, but have suffered decades of deforestation and degradation. Only remnant patches of these habitats of highly diverse communities of plants and animals remain today. The Dryland Forest Symposium provides a forum to discuss recent developments in dryland forest conservation and restoration, and an opportunity to interact with others interested in dryland forest ecology.
Under the theme “Dryland Forest Conservation: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going,” this year’s symposium will feature presentations by scientists and conservationists who are working to learn about and preserve Hawaiian dryland forest plants and ecosystems. Ku‘ulei Keakealani, a cultural ecology specialist from North Kona, will start the symposium with a presentation entitled “Wiliwili, my relation.” She will be followed by keynote speaker Dr. Doug Jacobs, professor of forest biology and associate head of the department of forestry and natural resources at Purdue University, who will present “Restoring forests: What constitutes success in the twenty-first century?” Jacobs’ keynote will examine how the future of forest restoration will depend on effective technology transfer and community-based approaches, as well as adaptive management approaches to design resistant and resilient ecosystems that can adapt to emerging circumstances.
Other presenters will address the ongoing rapid ‘ohi‘a death epidemic on Hawai‘i Island, conservation gardening for Hawaiian dry forest restoration, dryland forest management in a whole-island context, and future directions for forest restoration in Hawai‘i.
The Nāhelehele Dryland Forest Symposium is a project of Ka‘ahahui ‘O Ka Nahelehele (http://www.drylandforest.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to dry forest advocacy and partnerships. Symposium sponsors include Mark and Carol Ann Solien, Hawai‘i Forest Institute, Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s Kukulu Ola: Living Hawaiian Culture Program, Kamehameha Schools–Land Assets Division, State of Hawai‘i Division of Forestry and Wildlife, and The Kohala Center. Organizations and individuals interested in sponsoring the symposium or contributing to student scholarships may contact Kathy Frost at kjfrost@hawaii.rr.com or (808) 325-6885.
