January 31, 2015—Fountain grass is from Northern Africa, where it is well-adapted to droughts and frequent fires. It displaces slow-growing native dry forest species in Hawai‘i, and when it burns, it creates hot, fast fires that kill native seeds and plants. Unfortunately, the fountain grass itself is not killed by these fires, so the resulting cycle of growth and fire creates dense thickets of a single species: fountain grass.

February 5, 2015—The Hawai‘i Association of Watershed Partnerships (HAWP) presents a capacity building workshop for conservation professionals statewide. The workshop will highlight innovative approaches in conservation and natural resource management, specifically imagery and image technology. Sharing technology-based practices is critically important for resource managers to keep pace with rapidly expanding technologies and applications. The workshop will feature presentations on satellite imagery applications and advances, LIDAR, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), remote camera applications, and field applications for smart tablets.

February 15, 2015—Kaʻahahui ‘O Ka Nāhelehele is a local non-profit that is working with the County Parks and Recreation Department and Kohala Watershed Partnership/The Kohala Center, with funding from the DLNR Kaulunani grant program to develop a park on the strip of County land along Keanuʻiʻomanō Stream, right across Kawaihae Road from Kamuela View Estates. This park is being developed as a passive nature park for the community, and the first step is cutting back some of the non-native vegetation and planting native trees. Future plans include stream monitoring, development of a walking path and picnic area, stabilizing and rehabilitating the stream banks, and planting native gardens.