The Kohala Center

10/06/2026

Join The Kohala Center as we celebrate Hāloa! Come build pilina, taste dishes made with kalo, share recipes, enjoy ho‘okanikapila, and talk story with old and new friends.

📅 Friday, October 16, 2026
⏰ 8:00 – 11:00 a.m.
📍 Lindsey House, 65-1291 Kawaihae Rd., Waimea

The Kohala Center’s main office is located behind High Country Traders across from Parker Square.

To learn more and to register, visit kohalacenter.org/events or click the link in our bio.

This event is supported by the Richard Smart Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation.

10/01/2026

Weʻre Hiring! The Kohala Center is looking to fill two full-time positions: Hawaiʻi Native Plant Specialist and Waihona Native Collections Manager, based across Kohala, Waimea, and Honokaʻa.

Both roles offer an opportunity to work with native plants, ʻāina, and community while supporting native food forest restoration efforts, seed and living collections, and community stewardship.

If you or someone you know have experience with Hawaiʻi native plants or a deep commitment to mālama Kohala or Waimea, we’d love to hear from you.

Learn more by clicking the link in our bio or visit koha.la/careercenter for the full position description and details on how to apply.

09/17/2026

Mālama Kohala: Taking Care of ʻĀina That Has Taken Care of Us

This summer, Jasmine “Jay” Bois joined The Kohala Center as a Pacific Internship Programs for Exploring Science (PIPES) intern. Growing up on Hawaiʻi Island, Jay’s relationship with ʻāina has been shaped by time spent outdoors and with her family–fishing, hiking, or exploring the mountains. Her project, Mālama Kohala: Taking Care of ʻĀina That Has Taken Care of Us, grew from that relationship with ʻāina and a desire to give back to the places that have cared for her and her family. As Jay shared, she began the internship with “a realized love of caring for the ʻāina and an ancestral calling to give back to what has cared for me for many years.”

Jay spent the summer alongside our field crew learning about Kohala’s Cloud Forest through observations, hands-on learning, and time on the ʻāina. She assisted with invasive species removal, stream and forest surveys, and fence-line maintenance across the ʻEke and Laupāhoehoe Nui Units to mālama the important sources of wai and native forest ‘ohana that sustain our communities.

To learn more about Jay’s journey, visit the link our bio to view her StoryMap, which brings together her experiences, observations, and reflections from her time in Kohala’s Cloud Forest.

09/10/2026

From ʻĀina to Waʻa: Food Preservation for Voyaging and Community
In June, TKC staff, along with representatives from our local mahiʻai community, joined Nā Kālai Waʻa for a two-day hands-on canning workshop at the Waimea Community Center. Together, participants prepared chicken lūʻau using moa from Whittle Farms and lūʻau from the Terukina ʻohana’s T7 Farm, along with pickled cucumbers grown by Hawaiʻi Farming in Lālāmilo.

For years, Nā Kālai Waʻa has worked to perpetuate the knowledge and practices of growing, preparing, and preserving food to sustain voyaging and community. In 2019, hundreds of community members helped provision 14 crew members aboard Makaliʻi for the month-long Hanaunaola voyage to Nīhoa and Mokumanamana (Necker Island) entirely with food grown, harvested, and prepared by community.

This workshop offered an opportunity to carry these practices forward. Working side by side, participants prepared ingredients, cooked, filled jars, and learned the steps involved in safely preserving food, gaining practical skills for preserving locally grown and raised foods beyond the day they are harvested.

Mahalo nui to Nā Kālai Waʻa for sharing their ʻike and guiding our hana, and to Whittle Farms, T7 Farm, and Hawaiʻi Farming for providing the locally grown and raised ingredients that made this gathering possible.

09/04/2026

Growing Puʻukapu Together as Community

For generations, Puʻukapu has been a place connected to feeding and nourishing Waimea. Today, we’re learning from that legacy building healthy soil, growing a food forest, and exploring what it means to cultivate ʻāina together.

We hope what we learn at Puʻukapu can take root across Waimea and Kohala, inspiring more ʻohana, farms, and communities to grow food and strengthen our pilina with ʻāina.

Comment below and share with us what you’re growing or what you’d like to
grow in your ʻāina.

06/04/2026

Registration is now open for our Hoaʻāina Stewardship Day at Kahaluʻu Bay and Beach Park on Saturday, June 13, from 8 a.m. to 12 noon!

Join us for a guided, half-day learning journey designed to deepen our pilina with place through mālama ʻāina, cultural learning, and hands-on stewardship. Together, we'll explore Kahaluʻu as ʻāina lei aliʻi, engage in kilo (intentional observation) along the shoreline and in the water, share moʻolelo of this cherished wahi pana, and collectively create a moʻolelo of the day.

Community members of all ages are welcome. If you'd like to participate in the in-water kilo activity, please bring your snorkel gear. Feel free to bring lunch and stay after the program to talk story with fellow hoaʻāina and our team.

Space is limited—register today through the link in our bio.

Community members of all ages are invited to sign up for The Kohala Center’s 2026 Hoaʻāina Stewardship Experiences! Registration is now open.

05/29/2026

For the past nine years, The Kohala Center has advocated for the temporary closure of Kahalu‘u Beach Park in order to give cauliflower corals in Kahalu‘u Bay a chance to spawn and regenerate with minimal disruption. We are thrilled to share that 2026 was the most successful and abundant coral spawning event we’ve witnessed. So many cauliflower coral were spawning at once that the water throughout the bay became cloudy, a phenomenon not seen at Kahaluʻu in many years. For those who have dedicated years to caring for this sacred place, this moment was deeply moving.

This year also marked the first time we were joined by a team from the Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) to support spawning observations. Together, the recovery we witnessed is a powerful example of what becomes possible when community, kilo, and daily care come together in service of something greater than ourselves.

For Kathleen and the ReefTeach volunteers who carefully kilo the reef, the recovery is proof that daily, on-ʻāina community stewardship works.

If you would like to support our work and help us continue caring for Kahaluʻu Bay’s coral reefs, please consider making a gift today through the link in our bio. Your support helps us remain present every day: caring for the coral reef that protects the coastline, provides habitat for fish, and sustains the cultural and ecological health of Kahaluʻu.

’u

05/12/2026

Rooted in Resilience: Impacts of Kona Low Storms

In March, following the Kona low storms that swept across Hawaiʻi, we gathered for our quarterly kilo monitoring at Keawewai. Our native plants made it through one of the driest seasons in recent years: “how did they withstand the unusual torrential rains and flooding?” we wondered.

In the aftermath of these storms, what was revealed to us was the resilience of our native hoa lāʻau growing along Keawewai Stream in an area outplanted in 2021. This planting includes hundreds of ʻōhiʻa lehua, ʻiliahi, ʻāweoweo, māmane, and koaiʻe. Together these kumu ‘āina are teaching us how native species respond to dynamic rain and stream conditions, contribute to sediment reduction, and strengthen watershed resiliency over time.

Koaiʻe in particular demonstrated tremendous resilience, withstanding the force of water that overtopped portions of the stream bank and displaced piles of kikuyu grass embedded within its understory. Despite this pressure, the endemic koaiʻe remained firmly rooted, continuing to stabilize the bank even as the surrounding landscape shifted.

As our native forests return home, so does our kuleana to ‘āina. ‘O Kohala Ua ‘Āpa‘apa‘a!

05/06/2026

We were excited to welcome new and returning community members to Niuliʻi for a day of kilo, moʻolelo, and hana. Following months of drought, recent rains have enabled the return of many of Niuli‘i’s native coastal plants including ʻākulikuli, ʻilima, and ʻōhelo kai. Additionally, we observed the rapid spread of pothos vine weaving through the naupaka and hala groves. While golden pothos is often grown as a small, decorative house or garden plant, when left unchecked it can grow exponentially and begin to choke out native coastal hoa lāʻau.

Guided by these observations, our collective hana focused on careful removal of the invasive pothos vines to help protect and support our native coastal communities. Despite the hot, muggy conditions, we were able to clear a truckload of pothos and help restore space for new native growth. We closed the day by returning to moʻolelo, sharing the story of ʻOhiʻohikupua as a reminder of our kuleana in caring for Niuliʻi’s hala grove.

Removing the pothos vines reminds us of a lesson that everyone can be aware of at home: who and why you are planting matters. Even in our own backyards and gardens, the choices we make can have lasting effects on the surrounding ʻāina. As we tend to our own places of cultivation, may we do so with intention and awareness, choosing hoa lāʻau that supports the health and balance of ʻāina.

04/25/2026

Registration is now open for our next Hoaʻāina Stewardship Day at Keawewai on Saturday, May 2, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. These guided, half-day learning journeys are designed to deepen our pilina with Hawai‘i’s natural and cultural landscapes, create space for meaningful exchange between place and people, and share in mālama ʻāina on this island we call home.

For this Hoaʻāina Stewardship Day experience, participants will engage with the ʻili ʻāina nāhelehele of Keawewai, a piko for the dryland-mesic forests of Kawaihae on Kohala Mountain.

Space is limited to 25 participants to ensure a safe and meaningful experience for all. Details on meeting location and what to bring will be shared in the days leading up to the event.

You can by clicking the link in our bio or visiting our website at kohalacenter.org. For more information, please contact us at [email protected] or 808-887-6411.