Land and People

Dr. Gerry Carr, Emeritus Professor of Botany at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa has studied and taught the evolution of plants in the silversword alliance, a unique group of Hawaiian plants encompassing an extraordinary diversity of forms and habitats. In this episode, we talk about the importance of plant taxonomy in understanding the interrelations between seemingly disparate species and get into harrowing and fun stories of his fieldwork--from Haleakalā, Maui to Ohikilolo in the Wai`anae mountains of O`ahu. His passion for photographing the unique features of plants spans many decades and can be found here:

https://s10.lite.msu.edu/res/msu/botonl/b_online/vascular/default.htm

Entomologist Dr. Ken Kaneshiro at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa has studied and taught Hawaiian evolution and biology to countless generations of students through the story of the 1,000+ species of Hawaiian drosophila, picture-wing fruit flies descended from a single ancestor. His passion for conservation biology began as a dishwasher on the drosophila project, and has extended to his founding of the Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program which has trained many of today's conservation stewards in Hawai`i. As the Program Director for the Center for Conservation Research & Training at the Pacific Biosciences Research Center, he continues to connect students of all ages to the life sciences which stems from his advocacy for a close relationship to nature across all disciplines, social and ethnic backgrounds.

Dr. Scott Rowland has studied and taught geology at the University of Hawai‘i volcanologist for 41 years, having earned teaching distinctions including the Board of Regents and President’s awards. He shares with us his research into remote-sensing volcanology to help determine the ages of different lava flows across the Hawaiian Islands. We also revisit the processes that caused the 2018 Kīlauea volcanic eruption which devastated homes, roads, beaches and harbors in Hawai‘i as well as several destructive Hawaiian earthquakes in the 19th and 20th century. Through his telling, we gain an extended sense of time from the formation of the Hawaiian archipelago 80+ million years ago to the present day. To learn more about Scott and download his roadside geology guidebooks go here: https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/FACULTY/ROWLAND/

As the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust's Director of ‘Āina Stewardship, Dr. Scott Fisher has worked for two decades to restore the coastal sand dunes and wetlands of Waihe‘e on Maui. His unusual background is that of an infantryman in Kuwait during the Gulf War where he witnessed unparalleled ecological devastation. In war torn Papua New Guinea he pursued his PhD in peace and conflict studies focused on indigenous knowledge as a means of social and environmental sustainability. He bridges local Maui communities and Hawaiian indigenous knowledge with the study of the ancient ecology of coastlines to help bring life to Waihe‘e, Nu‘u and other sacred and significant places.

Native Nursery on Maui is one of the largest Hawaiian native plant growers in Hawai`i founded by lifelong friends and partners Ethan Romanchak and Jonathan Keyser. With twenty years of experience in native species horticulture, rare plant propagation and ecosystem restoration, their business now includes growing citrus to help re-claim and make productive once more thousands of acres of former sugar lands in the central valley. We talk to them about growing up on Maui, running a business together, and witnessing the massive changes in Maui--from commercial development to environmental challenges including the recent fires.

Dr. Kalehua Krug is a mea kākau (traditional tattooist), musician, activist and school principal at the Hawaiian immersion school Ka Waihona o ka Na`auao in Nānākuli, West O`ahu. His advocacy for land and indigenous philosophy not only stems from his personal journey into Hawaiian identity, but his desire to improve kānaka (Hawaiian) health and educational outcomes, and to expand aloha `āina (love and connection to land) to all. We gain an understanding of how his activism, art and language is rooted in research, learning through practice and an urgency for greater environmental sustainability that transcends ethocentric notions of self.

For over five decades landscape designer, sculptor and naturalist Leland Miyano has connected people to Hawaiian native ecosystems through his gardens in Kahulu`u, at the Bishop Museum and at The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu. In 2019, he created an award winning double hulled canoe installation comprised of invasive guava branches which reflects a Hawaiian sense of place while acknowledging the massive ecosystem transformations Hawai`i has undergone.  He shows us his native Hawaiian garden at the Atherton Halau, his work in stone and wood, and talks about his life-long passion for endemic species from snails to plants as an expression of connectivity between science and art.

Hannah Kihalani Springer of Hawai`i Island is a storyteller, environmental activist, and scholar of Hawaiian history for many decades. As a former trustee for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and advocate for land and sea conservation, she has headed up the nonprofit `Ahahui o Pu`u Wa`awa`a which advocates for the conservation and management of forest systems including endangered Hawaiian plants. Her perspective and that of her husband retired fire fighter Michael Tomich is one of hybridity--in their support for ranching and sheep herding in fire prone grasslands while at the same time restoring native species. She brings us the mo`olelo (place based stories) of Kaʻūpūlehu which demonstrate how we might bring a holistic and reverent relationship to `āina (land) based in aloha kekahi i kekahi (love for one another).

Emily and Ann Fielding, the mother-daughter marine duo of Maui have both lived and worked in Hawai`i to help educate and conserve the ocean, its creatures, coral reefs across the Pacific. Ann's experience is as an underwater naturalist where she introduced visitors, kama`aina and students to the abundance of Maui's coral reefs and their creatures. Emily has worked in many capacities from helping to protect one of the largest marine protected areas in the world--Papahānaumokuākea--to conserving the marine life of the Hawaiian archipelago as The Nature Conservancy's Hawai`i Marine Conservation Director. Together they bring us a vision of what real and lasting ocean sustainability might mean for both people and the environment, based on their many decades bridging education, science and culture via community-based management. 

For nearly four decades, Department of Land and Natural Resources aquatic biologist Skippy Hau has been in and out of Maui's oceans, estuaries and streams surveying for Hawaiian fish, shrimp, snails, corals, limu (seeweed) and nearly every living thing he could observe underwater. Growing up as a fisherman's son in Kaneohe, O`ahu, Skippy's love of the sea and streams extends to his on-going survey work, research projects, and his students. He paints the picture of his team's painstaking biology which advocates that diverted water be returned to streams, not only for the benefit of both fresh and salt water creatures but also for traditional Hawaiian subsistence farming.