Mālama Hulēʻia

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Mālama Hulēʻia

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Help support our work at RestoreTheFishpond.org

Mālama Hulē‘ia advocates, educates, and leads community efforts to remove red mangrove along the Hule‘ia river, re‐establishes native wetland ecosystems and creates an environmental stewardship program honoring Hawaiian values.

10/14/2026

Registration is open!!

Ma ka hana ka ʻike, ma ka ʻike ka maopopo, ma ka maopopo ka leʻaleʻa. You learn through doing, from learning you gain understanding, when you understand, you enjoy. E naue mai, come and join us for some hana and leʻaleʻa.
Please use the link in bio to register🤙🏽

09/15/2026

Ua ola loko i ke aloha; love gives life within.

The community’s outpouring of aloha across Kauaʻi has been incredible with storm recovery, and that’s Kauaʻi! We humbly ask you to continue to share some aloha with us at Alakoko Loko Iʻa. 💚

Join us for our upcoming Community Workday as we mālama this special place together. There will be plenty to do, including helping us clean up and care for areas impacted by the storm.

📅 Saturday, September 19th
⏰ 8am-noon for a simple lunch
📍 Alakoko Loko Iʻa

Please register in advance: Link in Bio

Come prepared to get dirty! Wear closed-toe shoes and clothes you don’t mind working in, and bring a water bottle and sun protection. If you have your own work gloves, please bring them to help protect your hands as we work through storm debris and cleanup. We’ll have some gloves available for those who need them.

For those looking for another way to kōkua, donations to help us rebuild the sheds we lost in the storm can be made through the link in our bio.

Whether you lend a hand, make a donation, or simply send some aloha our way, we are grateful for the many ways our community continues to show up.

E mālama pū kākou. 💚

08/17/2026

🚜 The big amphibious is officially at work!!!

Today marks a milestone we’ve been working toward for a long time: Mālama Hulēʻia’s amphibious excavator is out in the wetland and clearing mangrove for the first time.

During Hawaiian hoary bat pupping season, June 1 through September 15, we are limiting this work to mangrove under 15 feet tall, consistent with protections for Hawaiʻi’s endangered ʻōpeʻapeʻa. Before clearing began, MH Executive Director Sara Bowen and Helen Raine of ARC conducted a bird and nest survey of the work area, one of the steps we take to ensure restoration work moves forward responsibly (and following our permits!).

Over the next few weeks, our team will gain valuable experience operating the amphibious excavator in the wetland and refining our approach. When the seasonal window opens after September 15, we’ll have some practice under our belts and be ready to begin tackling the taller mangrove that remains.

Getting to this moment took a tremendous amount of support. We are deeply grateful to the foundations, organizations, businesses, partners, and individual donors who believed in the vision and helped Mālama Hulēʻia purchase this specialized equipment. You made it possible for us to build long-term restoration capacity right here on Kauaʻi.

Today, we finally get to see that investment at work.

And yes...we’re pretty darn excited!! 💚

📷/🎥: Punohu Punohu Kekaualua
🚜: Lance Lance Taniguchi-Fu

08/12/2026

🌿 This Saturday, we’re trading our work boots (tabis!) for a booth! 🌿

Instead of our regular Community Workday, you’ll find the Mālama Hulēʻia team at the Koʻolau Limu Festival at Anahola Beach Park, and we’d love to see you there!

Limu is far more than seaw**d—it is a foundation of healthy nearshore ecosystems and a treasured part of Hawaiian culture. It nourishes our reefs, provides food and habitat for countless marine species, and has sustained Hawaiian communities for generations through food, medicine, and cultural practice. Caring for limu means caring for the entire nearshore ecosystem.

Come celebrate this incredible resource with us! Explore hands-on activities, demonstrations, music, local food, and meet organizations from across Kauaʻi working to mālama our ʻāina and kai.

📍 Koʻolau Limu Festival
🗓️ Saturday, August 15
⏰ 10:00 AM–5:00 PM
📍 Anahola Beach Park

We hope to see many familiar faces stop by our booth to say aloha! 💙🌿

07/15/2026

🌿 Join us for our July Community Workday! 🌿

There’s something special about spending a morning caring for a place alongside people who love it, too. Whether it’s your first visit to Alakoko or you’re a familiar face, we’d love to welcome you on Saturday, July 18 - 8 am & Stay for lunch at noon!

Every stone moved, every w**d pulled, every native plant cared for helps restore this remarkable place for generations to come. Together, those small acts become something much bigger.

👉 Register using the link in our bio.

Come prepared with:
☀️ Sun protection
💧 Plenty of water
👟 Closed-toe shoes that can get muddy
🧤 Work gloves (if you have them)
😊 A willingness to work together and have fun!

Mahalo for being part of this community. We can’t wait to see you at Alakoko!

04/16/2026

Heyyy 👀 you know what to do… community workday registration is OPEN 🌿🤙

Join us for a morning of mālama ʻāina at Alakoko loko iʻa—caring for this place alongside community, and continuing the work of restoration and connection.

We’ll be in and around the water for this one, so come ready to get a little wet, a little muddy, and fully present with the ʻāina. There may even be a few moments to learn and connect in ways we don’t always get to 👀

✅ Register now — link in bio
✅ First time volunteering with us? Please complete the waiver
✅ Come ready to work, learn, and kōkua

Bring with you:
☀️ Sun protection
💧 Water bottle
👟 Closed-toe shoes you don’t mind getting muddy
🧤 Gloves (if you have them)
🧢 Hat

We’ll bring the tools, guidance, and a good crew.
Mahalo for showing up for this place 🌿

04/09/2026

🌿 Walking, looking, assessing, sharing, learning, planning. Always doing.

We spent the morning walking the site alongside a Soil and Water Conservation District planner, taking a closer look at how different parts of the system are functioning and where we go next.

From the upland areas, down through the puna and wetlands, and along the Huleʻia River, it is all connected. What happens in one place carries through the rest.

This is part of the work behind the scenes. Taking inventory, asking questions, and building a plan that can support future restoration and agricultural work.

🌺 Last image is paʻu o Hiʻiaka. You see it moving across the landscape, covering and holding the ground. Named for Hiʻiaka, it carries a certain presence when you come across it.

03/25/2026

Ua kipa mai ka papa Mālaaʻo o ke kula ʻo Kawaikini iā mākou i kēia p**e. Ua huli nō nā lima i lalo ma ka huki mangrove, huki a me ka hoʻomākaukau kā ʻuala, ua hānai i nā hoa a ʻohi huamoa a laila ua hīmeni aku i nā pua ʻamaʻama.
Mahalo nui ke kipa ʻana mai e nā hoa o ka papa Mālaaʻo!!!

Kawaikiniʻs Kindergarten class visited us at the fishpond this week. Little but mighty and not afraid to work; they pulled mangrove, harvested ʻuala and prepared cuttings to replant, fed the chickens and grabbed the eggs for aunty and ended their visit by giving their aloha to our baby fish with a song.

03/18/2026

After the storm, the ʻāina is alive with wai moving from mauka to makai 🌧️🌿

At Alakoko loko iʻa, this is when the work really shows up. These flows remind us how everything is connected, and why restoring this system matters.

Join us this Saturday for a community workday—hands-on, a little muddy, and always worth it.

🕗 8:00am sign-in
🥙 Lunch provided

Come prepared:
• Clothes you don’t mind getting muddy
• Covered shoes or tabis
• Water bottle
• Sun/rain protection

Muddy conditions in play

🔗 Register at the link in bio

02/18/2026

A quick update for our community 🌿

There will be no volunteer workday this Saturday.

Our team is supporting several other community efforts this month, and we’re taking a short pause so we can show up fully 🤍

We look forward to gathering again in March and getting back out together 🌊

Mahalo for your steady support.
E mālama pono this weekend 🌺

Next Community Workday: March 21st

Address

Lihue, HI
96766

Website

http://malamahuleia.org/

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