Trust for Public Land in Hawai'i - 2023

Hawai‘i

THERE IS SO MUCH TO BE PROUD OF IN 2023 AND MORE TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE YEAR AHEAD

A Letter from Hawaiʻi State Director, Lea Hong

Trust for Public Land celebrated our 50th Anniversary throughout 2023. With your support, we have preserved treasured landscapes that stand as a testament to the enduring impact of TPL’s work, protecting more than 77,000 acres of ‘āina across Hawai‘i. These lands are some of the most iconic and beloved culturally significant outdoor spaces—places that are healing communities and the land, while uplifting our local economy and delivering critical, nature-based solutions in the face of climate change.

And we are just getting started! It is an exciting time to be a part of the TPL community, as we look to new opportunities to connect to nature, our histories, and each other. Over the last year we:

• Welcomed two experienced staff, Aka Wedemeyer, Sustainable Hawai‘i project manager, and Carlos Castillo, Sentinel Landscapes coordinator;

• Fully funded and launched our Sentinel Landscapes program, initiating and fostering critical partnerships to advance conservation, working lands, and national defense priorities;

• Successfully launched our Corporate ‘Ohana program, raising $120,000 and garnering support from some of Hawai‘i’s most respected and beloved local businesses;

• Advanced the protection of our 50th special place in the 50th state during our 50th anniversary year—the Halulu Fishpond Access property on Kaua‘i in partnership with Waipā Foundation; and

• Reaffirmed TPL’s commitment to connecting everyone to the outdoors.

With your enduring support, we will continue to build parks and protect ‘āina for kama‘āina, making Hawai‘i a healthier and more equitable place for everyone.

ā

Lea Hong Associate Vice President Hawai‘i State Director Edmund C. Olson Trust Fellow

Mahalo

nui,

TPL Hawai‘i staff participate in A Day on the Land at Kahuku Point, 2023. © JENNY SATHNGAM

Celebrating 50 Years of Impact, Thanks to You!

To mark TPL’s 50th anniversary and Earth Day, in April we celebrated our annual A Day on the Land event during a nationwide TPL-led Community Impact Day. The event was our largest, single-day effort to strengthen the connection between people and green space in communities across the country. We held events in 13 cities, engaging more than 600 donors, volunteers, and corporate, community, and public partners. In Hawai‘i alone, more than 140 community members joined us to care for Kahuku Point on O‘ahu’s North Shore.

More people than ever are turning to our public lands to find peace, solace, recreation, and healing. As TPL celebrates 50 years of connecting everyone to the outdoors, we are gathering our biggest supporters and advocates throughout the years—our volunteers, community partners, donors, and corporate partners LIKE YOU—to affirm our shared legacy of outdoor access for generations to come.

MAHALO TO OUR INAUGURAL CORPORATE ‘OHANA MEMBERS

Mahalo to our Corporate ‘Ohana members who are investing in Hawai‘i’s future and leading impactful change to ensure ‘āina is protected in perpetuity across our islands.

AES

Alexander & Baldwin

ALOHA Collection

American Savings Bank

Bank of Hawai‘i Foundation

Central Pacific Bank Foundation

First Hawaiian Bank Foundation

Hawai‘i Gas

Hawaiian Electric

HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union

James Campbell Company

Macy’s

Oceanit

Title Guaranty Hawaii

Ward Village Foundation

Ulupono Initiative

© JENNY SATHNGAM

Volunteers joined us to plant native species, weed, and mālama ‘āina at A Day on the Land at Kahuku Point, which TPL helped protect in 2015.

Aloha ʻĀina Program

Protecting Our 50th Special Place in Our 50th Year in the 50th State!

This year, in partnership with Waipā Foundation, TPL worked toward protecting its 50th special place in Hawai‘i during our 50th Anniversary year—Halulu Fishpond Access on Kaua‘i. The property includes part of Halulu Fishpond and the community path to Waipā’s coastal zone along Hanalei Bay. Each year, thousands of lifelong learners and participants in Waipā Foundation’s ‘āina-based programs explore the property to learn about and enjoy the fishpond, coastal wetland, and estuary.

Protecting Halulu Fishpond Access enables Waipā Foundation to finally own land in the ahupua‘a they have stewarded for decades.

Maunawili Funding Wins

In 2023, TPL secured State Legacy Land and City & County of Honolulu Clean Water and Natural Lands funding totaling $13.6 million to protect the Pālāwai and Makali‘i properties in Kailua, O‘ahu. Pālāwai and Makali‘i are agricultural and lo‘i lands that are part of our larger Maunawili Forest & Lo‘ i land protection effort that includes 1,084-acres of critical waterways, dozens of cultural and historic sites, and fertile agricultural and conservation lands.

Once protected, ownership of Pālāwai and Makali‘i will be transferred to nonprofits Ho‘okua‘āina and Kauluakalana, respectively, to transform these lands back to ‘āina momona (fertile lands); perpetuate ‘āina-based education; and increase the island’s food security.

With a heavy heart, we bid a fond aloha to Dr. Noa Emmett Auwae Aluli (aka “Uncle Emmett”) who passed away in late 2022. Uncle Emmett was a Native Hawaiian activist, physician, and our longest serving Hawai‘i board member and cofounder of TPL’s Aloha ‘Āina program. Uncle Emmett encouraged TPL to help return land to Native Hawaiians. He even traveled to the continent to catalyze TPL’s commitment to expand and increase its work with tribes and Indigenous communities nationwide.

Uncle was perhaps most well-known as a central figure during the 1970s Hawaiian Renaissance; he was part of a group of activists who stopped the U.S. military from using the island of Kaho‘olawe for bombing practice. He accomplished so much for Hawai‘i and the lāhui with breakthroughs throughout his life that will continue to benefit future generations, and we were privileged and humbled to work with him.

Uncle Emmett’s legacy continues with TPL’s Aloha ‘Āina program, which protects and returns culturally important lands to Native Hawaiian organizations for community stewardship. We will forever be encouraged and guided by his gentle yet firm way to do what is pono. Moe mālie e ‘anakala. Rest peacefully, Uncle.

Ka wā ma mua, ka wā ma hope—we look to the past to move forward in our future.

Community gathering at Halulu Fishpond Access on Kaua‘i. © TPL STAFF

© TOBY MCLEOD/EARTH ISLAND INSTITUTE

Sustainable Hawaiʻi Program

Our vision for Hawai‘i is ‘āina momona—self-sufficient islands abundant in food, healthy forests, and clean water.

That is why we are conserving Hawai‘i’s working lands through our Sustainable Hawai‘i efforts. This program aims to improve food security, diversify our economy, and protect upland native forests to safeguard fresh water, control runoff that pollutes our oceans, and enhance outdoor recreation opportunities.

Protecting the Wai(wai) of Maui Protecting the Water (and Wealth) of Maui

Nā Wai ‘Ehā (the Four Great Waters of Waikapū, Wailuku, Waiehu, Waihe‘e) are located over the ‘Īao aquifer, the primary source of drinking water for Maui and irrigation water for Central Maui. As Native Hawaiians knew, these precious lands abundant with wai (water) hold immeasurable waiwai (value, wealth), including streams, native forests, priority watershed, critical habitat for native plants and animals, and significant cultural sites. TPL is working with the State’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW), Maui County, and the community to acquire and protect these 11,020 forested acres.

Our hearts reach out to the ‘āina and people of Maui. To those who have lost family, homes, pets, livelihoods, everything—we send our deepest aloha.

On Maui, 43 percent of private coastal areas are agricultural lands, and all of this land is at risk of conversion to residential use. In partnership with DOFAW, TPL’s East Maui Coastal Rainforest effort aims to protect a sevenmile stretch of coastline and forested lands bordered by the famous Hāna Highway and Pacific Ocean. This complex effort will occur in phases, with the long-term vision of protecting more than 900 acres to connect a larger landscape and create opportunities to enhance public access to forest and shoreline areas for recreational, cultural, and subsistence uses.

TOP: © DLNR DOFAW; INSET: JONATHAN C KEAO

Parks for People Program

THREE YEARS OF IMPACT AT ‘A‘ALA PARK

With the launch of Parks for People in 2020, we brought our community participatory planning process to Hawai‘i. As a result, surrounding residents, park users, and businesses have come together to articulate a shared vision for a safe and welcoming ‘A‘ala Park while honoring its storied past and looking toward a shared future.

In Phase 1 (2020–23), we listened closely to diverse community voices, activated the park with communitydriven events, and added upgrades to the space to make it more welcoming. And we invested our resources in a new full-time staff position to oversee this vital work.

TPL partnered with community organizations, service providers, and public agencies to include the whole community. We hosted listening sessions and focus groups and interviewed and surveyed thousands of park users, unhoused community members, residents, nearby business owners and employees, government officials, and more than 30 nonprofit service providers. We met people where

they were—attending health and community fairs, enlisting the help of local “park listeners” to talk with individuals as they used the park, and measuring park usage and activity. Guided by this deep engagement, the community’s priorities and diverse voices were uplifted and reflected in a detailed summary report.

We partnered with the University of Hawai‘i Community Design Center (UHCDC) to create a community-driven proof of concept for the future of the park. Informed by our past community engagement work, we hosted 12 design sessions and engaged over 300 stakeholders, narrowing down three initial proof-of-concept designs to one final design.

The community will continue to lead our work in Phase 2 (2023–26). Together with our growing network of stakeholders, we will ensure that the park is designed by and for the community—incorporating residents’ needs and concerns throughout the planning and construction processes.

© JOHN BILDERBACK

In the Year Ahead Your Partnership Will Support...

After half a century, TPL’s impact is deeply woven into the fabric of local neighborhoods. We have worked alongside communities—from Kaua‘i’s North Shore to New York City— to connect people to the outdoors and to one another. From creating neighborhood parks to expanding national parks, community is at the center of everything we do. In Hawai‘i, TPL is honored to have protected more than 77,000 acres of precious ‘āina, empowering all to aloha ‘āina. This impact is made possible by our partners and supporters—YOU!

Aloha ʻĀina

Protect and return culturally important lands to Native Hawaiian organizations for community-based stewardship. TPL is raising $495,000 to support this work over the coming year, which will help protect Pālāwai and Makali‘i (O‘ahu) and ‘Anaeho‘omalu Kapalaoa (Hawai‘i Island).

Sustainable Hawai‘i

Safeguard lands that produce Hawai‘i’s food, forests, and water. TPL is raising $617,000 to support this work over the coming year, which will help protect Maunawili Forest, Kāne‘ohe Pali, Kōkua Learning Farm (O‘ahu); Nā Wai ‘Ehā and East Maui Coastal Rainforest (Maui).

Parks for People

Transform ‘A‘ala Park into a safe and welcoming community space. TPL is raising $984,000 to conduct Phase 2, which will support planning, permitting, construction documents, community-driven dynamic programming and events, and ultimately an enhanced park designed with and for the community.

GERBODE FOUNDATION MATCH

Double your impact! In honor of TPL’s anniversary, Gerbode Foundation is matching five new gifts of $10,000 this year to inspire transformational gifts in support of our work in Hawai‘i. Gerbode has been with TPL from the beginning, making its first donation in 1973 and steadfastly supporting our commitment to connecting everyone to the outdoors ever since.

Mahalo to Gerbode Foundation for your unwavering belief in us through these 50 years. You can help TPL leverage this exciting opportunity by making a new $10,000 gift, which will be doubled!

© TPL STAFF

HAWAI‘I ADVISORY BOARD

We are grateful for our volunteer leaders who advise, guide, and inspire our work across Hawai‘i Nei!

Ka‘iulani Sodaro, Chair, SVP, Planning & Development, Ward Village/Howard Hughes Corp.

Race Randle, Vice Chair, CEO, Maui Land & Pineapple Company

Bob Hines , Mediator, formerly Hawai‘i State Energy Office

Chris Hochuli, Senior VP, Wealth Management Advisor, Merrill Lynch

Steve Kelly, President, Kapolei Properties Division, James Campbell Company LLC

Ala Keolanui, Partner, O.K. Farms

Troy Keolanui, Co-Founder, O.K. Farms

Mark Linscott , Site Administrator, Kāhi Mōhala

Earlynne Maile , Project Manager, Young Brothers

Mino McLean, Realtor, Island Sotheby’s International Realty

John Meier, Conservationist

Catherine Ngo, Chair, Central Pacific Bank & Central Pacific Financial Corp., and President, CPB Foundation

Blake Oshiro, Senior Advisor to State of Hawai‘i Governor Josh Green

Jeff Overton , Principal Planner, G70

Mahina Paishon-Duarte, Co-Founder, Waiwai Collective

Mike B. Pietsch , President & Chief Operating Officer, Title Guaranty Hawaii

Brad Punu , Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Green Climate Fund

Kirstin Punu , Senior Development Manager, Hawai‘i Project Development, AES

Tom Reeve , Conservationist

Jonathan Sprague, Director of Conservation, Pūlama Lāna‘i

Dr. Rachel Sprague, Director of Conservation, Pūlama Lāna‘i

Jan Sullivan , Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer, Oceanit

EMERITUS: Edmund C. Olson , Landowner, Farmer, and Philanthropist

tpl.org/donate/hi

Lea Hong Associate Vice President Hawai‘i State Director Edmund C. Olson Trust Fellow 808.470.2141

Lea.Hong@ tpl.org

Leslie Uptain

Pacific Region Director of Philanthropy 808.470.2139

Leslie.Uptain@ tpl.org 1164

“The health of the land is the health of our people and the health of our nation.”

— Dr. Noa “Uncle Emmett” Auwae Aluli

COVER, TOP: © JENNY SATHNGAM; © BETTER BLOCK HAWAII; © MICHELLE MISHINA KUNZ; LARGE: © TPL STAFF; THIS PAGE: © MICHELLE MISHINA KUNZ