A brush fire on the slopes of Maunakea burned more than 2,000 acres before it was contained last week, narrowly missing the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, a critical habitat for endangered native birds.
The refuge can't seem to catch a break — from cuts by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to the impacts of the government shutdown. The Conversation visited the refuge on the one day a year it was open to the public.
Just hours before the visitor day began in September, the only occupants of an open field at the refuge were a group of nēnē.
Volunteers soon directed four-wheel drive vehicles to overflow parking, and 500 pairs of hiking boots flattened the grass, still slick with the morning's dew.
The nonprofit Friends of the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge runs the "Find Your Wild" event, which reached capacity this year. 2025 marks the 40th anniversary that Hakalau has been managed as a National Wildlife Refuge by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“The annual event here always feels like a family reunion,” said Springer Kaye, the interim manager of the refuge. “I was an intern here in 1999, so some of the folks that are volunteering or on the board of the Friends of Hakalau were my mentors back then, when I was in my 20s. And so it's really special to just walk through, walk down the road, see everyone enjoying the forest so much, and really notice the changes.”
Bill Stormont, a Friends of Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge board member, reflected on when Hakalau was identified as an important habitat for endangered forest birds on Hawaiʻi Island.
“There was enough remnant koa and other habitat around for them to still be here. And so that began the effort to designate Hakalau. And that came 10 years later. Staff followed, and then the work began of doing the habitat protection work, and the tremendous volunteer work that has happened over the last 35 years, of over 700,000 trees planted here, 90% by volunteers," Stormont said.
Staff and volunteers are planning for the future of the refuge, even as they react to a changing political climate that's directly affected their work.
The refuge recently opened a new greenhouse, in partnership with the Friends of Hakalau, that houses around 8,000 native plants in total.
Eric-Preston Hamren was terminated by DOGE and reinstated earlier this year. He's back in his role as nursery manager and is surprisingly optimistic about the future of the forest.
“It's taken us a year and a half, and we're just getting our first plants ready to go out the door, back planted into the forest,” Hamren said. “Our goal is to get up to 30,000 plants a year.”
The Friends of Hakalau has been building up a nest egg in the form of a $3.5 million endowment fund. So far, the group has raised over $2 million. Board member Ken Kupchak shared the plan to ensure a future for the refuge.
“We started about six, seven years ago, and the people come, they see it, and they want to contribute. … And that's designed to help maintain this place if there are gaps in federal budgets and things of that nature,” Kupchak said, before the recent federal shutdown. “We picked our target as a number of what it would take to maintain it for a year, if there was no funding.”
In the months after the Department of Government Efficiency cuts and reinstatements, six of the 17 staff members at the refuge have left. Most of those positions haven't been filled.
Between Oct. 1 and Nov. 12, the federal government shut down for the longest stretch in U.S. history. All but two of the Fish and Wildlife employees at Hakalau were furloughed.
HPR spoke with Peter Stine during the shutdown about its effects. He's a retired Fish and Wildlife Service employee and the current Friends of Hakalau board president.
"Since the shutdown, the refuge staff is, by and large, not working," Stine said. "We've made so much progress in adding healthy, productive forest over the many years. All of that has come to somewhat of a halt. Who knows what the longer-term implications will be, but it's definitely not good for a place that needs care and feeding constantly."
Friends of Hakalau does not see its financial efforts as a replacement for federal support, Stine said.
"We're there to help, but we cannot, and in my opinion, should not be a substitute for the responsibility that the federal government has to operate the refuge."
The Friends of Hakalau will be holding a 40th Anniversary Gala and Fundraiser on Nov. 21 at the Kona Salt Farm.
Editor's note: Ken and Patty Kupchak, in support of the Friends of Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, are underwriters of HPR.
This story aired on The Conversation on Nov. 20, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
