How to protect our homes against the next disaster… It’s a question many are still wondering, more than two years after the deadly Lahaina fires.
A new digital guide on fire-resilient landscaping is now available thanks to the Surfrider Foundation, Pacific Fire Exchange, and the Hawaiʻi Wildfire Management Organization.
Two of the authors of the report recently spoke with The Conversation. Sara Gabrielson is the Pacific Fire Exchange regional coordinator for the Hawaiʻi Wildfire Management Organization. Kathryn Dressendorfer is the ocean-friendly gardens coordinator at Surfrider Foundation.
They hope to encourage homeowners and renters to take care of their landscape with this guide.
"This is really for the layperson," Gabrielson said. "You don't need expertise in plants. You don't need to be a master gardener. You don't need to be a fire expert. This is really trying to get information that is available to the general public, to people who are living in these areas who want to landscape with fire prevention in mind."
The guide recommends starting closest to your home and working outward by clearing flammable materials, such as invasive weeds and grasses.
Choosing native and non-invasive plants that remain green during the dry season can also help reduce fire risk.
Dressendorfer explained that since the Maui wildfires, there has been fear that surrounding plants and trees pose wildfire risks to homes.
"Plants aren't just decorative. They're food sources. They're culturally significant. They're incredibly important to our climate resilience and to our healthy watersheds and clean water throughout the places that we live and work and play, and so it's incredibly important that we recognize those benefits," she said.
Gabrielson told HPR that wildfires are a natural hazard that individuals can prevent through landscaping.
"What we do around our home truly makes a difference in wildfire prevention and then saving your home from burning down," she said. "Wildfire resilient landscaping is just one step in that process, and home hardening is certainly another step in that process. But what we do directly around our home really does matter."
There will be a virtual webinar held on Tuesday to encourage residents of West Maui and beyond to engage with the free resource. View the full guide here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Jan. 26, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
