A historic fishpond and loʻi on Maui has received over $800,000 in funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
The amount is specifically allocated for the restoration Waiheʻe Coastal Dune and Wetland Refuge.
The Hawaiʻi Land Trust and the local community have been working to restore the nearly 300-acre site since HILT acquired it about two decades ago.
Olu Campbell, the CEO of HILT, said efforts are underway and they have already been seeing the benefits.
He said that as they have been rebuilding the walls of the fishpond, “the practice of uhau humu pōhaku, or dry stack masonry, which many people don't know how to do, that practice is now kind of being resurrected there at Waiheʻe.”
He said the “ingenious” engineering of the original pond, which once supported two Native Hawaiian communities, has “ancestral knowledge just kind of stored in what's there."
He added that by rebuilding the pond, the community can learn something along the way.
“It's not only the ecosystem restoration, it's the cultural restoration, it's the community building, all of that's happening at the same time,” Campbell said.
The grant will allow them to accelerate that effort, according to Cambell. He said the money will be used to increase their capacity to take a mauka to makai approach and their ability to do community outreach.
The hope is that one day the ahupua’a system that once existed in Waihe’e will be seen again, and it will be able to sustain the community like it once did for hundreds of years.
