Voices of Conservation

Julia Diegmann

Planner, Kauaʻi Forest Bird Recovery Project

Julia, a geneticist from Germany, came to Kauaʻi when her husband got a job here, and joined the project after meetingCali. She introduces the eight remaining forest bird species, six of them found only on Kauaʻi, and explains how avian malaria spread by mosquitoes and rats threaten them. She also shares her memories of Halepaʻakai camp, where ʻakikiki once lived, and describes the new egg collection and captive breeding work with the San Diego and Honolulu Zoos. She closes by promoting the fourth annual Wings and Woodlands exhibit (November 7–12, 2026) and ways for listeners tohelp.

Dennis Cabral

Artist and Bird Lover

Born in 1941 to a Portuguese plantation family, Dennis recounts how a childhood among mynas, cardinals, owls, and ʻeva folklore grew into a lifelong love of birds. He describes seeing native forest birds at Kōkeʻe, then watching them disappear, which he compares to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and which kept him from returning. He argues that the greatest threat is public unawareness and connects his upbringing, marked byscarcity and care for the land, to his environmental values. He has supported KFBRP through the Wings and Woodlands art show, donating proceeds from his bird paintings, including a tribute to the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō.

Justin, now Mosquito Project Coordinator with DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife and formerly KFBRP’s field supervisor (2015–2023), traces his path from a teenage birdwatcher in Berkeley to nest-searching for ʻakikiki and ʻakekeʻe on the Alakaʻi Plateau, a wet, black-water “waffle” reached by helicopter or a seven-hour hike. He tells the stories of individual birds, including Pakele, who kept breeding until she was the last ʻakikiki anyone could find (last seen in August 2025), and Carrot, the last breeder in his valley, who died of an infection in captivity after being flown to Maui. He describes the grief of watching territories empty in a forest that still looks perfect, the crew’s shared guilt over Carrot, and his quiet goodbye visit to Pakele’s territory the week before the interview. Justin remains “tempered” but hopeful: he sees mosquito control as a workable fix for the one main threat, points to the puaiohi and to refuges like Hakalau, and says more funding and support are needed. He closes by saying he feels a duty to gather the stories of the more than 100 ʻakikiki he knew, an idea he also raised in an earlier planning conversation with Angela as a book or digital compendium with Hawaiian cultural voices and art.

Lisa “Cali” Crampton, Program Manager of the Kauaʻi Forest Bird Recovery Project gives the big-picture story of Kauaʻi’s forest birds: their evolution in isolation, their loss of defenses against predators and disease, and how avian malaria has become “their pandemic” as warming lets mosquitoes reach the Alakaʻi. She lists the network of partners behind the work, from DLNR and the Nature Conservancy to universities and zoos. She reflects on why the birds matter, weaving together aesthetic, ethical, ecological, economic, and cultural reasons, and warns that without action Kauaʻi could lose half or more of its remaining eight species by 2100. The interview ends with her hope that her son will someday see an ʻakikiki in the wild.