What items are eligible? Drink pouches, chip bags, cookie and candy wrappers, gum wrappers and packaging, pens and markers, tape dispensers, glue containers.

Upcycling in action: To encourage upcycling, the Kalihi Valley nonprofit KAUPA held a fundraising contest during Spring Semester 2010 at Kalihi Waena Elementary School. Ms. Honold’s 4th-grade class collected the most items for upcycling, and donated the proceeds to KAUPA’s nonprofit efforts. In return, the kids were rewarded with a Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Party!

Another contest will be held during the Fall Semester, so get your family, school, work, church, sports, or neighborhood together and start gathering those items we usually throw away. For more information, email kaupa4kalihi@hawaii.rr.com, or call Barbara Natale at (808) 381-3643.

Mahalo for helping to divert waste from the landfill, and making Oʻahu an even more beautiful place . . .

The response has been tremendous: One teacher says that by learning what helps and harms our earth, the students are now applying this knowledge to their everyday life. Another teacher applauds the curriculum for featuring hands-on activities, providing for learning styles that differ from the traditional lecture approach. The elementary school principal notes that not only are students learning about native Hawaiian land and stream use, they’re building relationships with each other and applying theory to a real-life setting.

If you want to learn more about the Kalihi Ahupuaʻa curriculum, please contact Dana Guilizia, KAUPA’s Education Coordinator at (808) 489-0884 or gulizia@hawaii.edu.

The goal is to visually represent the cultural, environmental, social, and political issues and stories of the community. Local artists Meleanna Meyer, Prime of 808 Urban, Solomon Enos, and Kahi Ching will be assisting on the first mural of many along the stream. The rough vision to depict the area from mountain to sea, with native flora, fauna, and local people. To add your input to the vision, click here to take KAUPA’s quick online survey (and receive a free KAUPA reusable bag!).

To be selected as a Kalihi mural artist, you must be 16-30 years old, with a serious interest in art, developing your talent, and transforming this public space. Submit a 1-page essay (handwritten or typed) about your thoughts and feelings about Kalihi and Kalihi stream. At the top of the page, include your name, age, address, and phone number.

Submit your essay by email to kaupa2create@yahoo.com, or postal mail to:

Public Art Kalihi
PO Box 17673
Honolulu, HI 96817

Selected artists will be notified by July 16, 2010, and required to attend workshops on July 17, 24, and 31. Mural painting will begin the first week of August!

Every 2nd Saturday, volunteers with KAUPA (Kalihi Ahupuaʻa Ulu Pono Ahahui) splash through the stream in their boots, clearing the waters and restoring the streambank with native plantings. Since 2007, volunteers have donated 8,000 hours, removing almost 10,000 lbs (5 tons) of garbage and 8,000 lbs of metals, while planting over 400 native plants. It’s mind-boggling to think all this debris could have washed down into Keʻehi Lagoon, through Honolulu Harbor, and out into the ocean!

If you’d like to join KAUPA’s efforts, contact Chana Dudoit at dudoitc@gmail.com or (808) 282-9449. For more info, click here to visit the KAUPA website.

Next cleanup:
July 10
8:30am-11:30am
Meet at Kalihi Waena Elementary School, 1240 Gulick Avenue.
Wear closed-toe shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.
KAUPA provides gloves, boots, bags, tools, and light refreshments.

Upcoming in August:
Volunteers will help build three traditional Hawaiian dry-stack walls along the streambank, to reduce erosion and provide terracing for more plantings. KAUPA is honored to have master stone mason, Billy Fields, to share how to build these kipapa-style walls.

Student ReefTeachers

School is out for the summer, but students of all ages are learning how to protect the reef at Kahaluʻu Bay, Hawaiʻi Island (Big Island), and to share that sense of stewardship with all who enjoy it.

Student ReefTeachers educate visitors about reef etiquette—such as avoiding touching and standing on coral, taking anything from the reef, feeding fish, or coming within 10 feet of turtles. They also share what they’ve learned about the many fish and invertebrates living at the bay, practice water quality monitoring, and do data collection and coral reef surveys. The students’ knowledge of the reef and its inhabitants always draws a crowd.

Students draw from the Queen Liliʻuokalani Children’s Center, Junior Lifeguards, Wilderness Ventures, Na Kahumoku, and University of Hawaiʻi … If you know students interested in becoming ReefTeachers, please contact Cindi Punihaole at cpunihaole@kohalacenter.org, (808) 895-1010, http://www.kohalacenter.org/kahaluubay/about.html.

“You can’t beat the office location! We do it because it’s fun. And it’s rewarding to see visitors light up as we try to enrich their experience. They often go into orbit when we show them a turtle.”

ReefTeach Volunteers

Everyday ReefTeach volunteers don their bright blue shirts and arrive at the Kahaluʻu pavilion carrying books, storyboards and signs. They take special care assembling an information tent for beachgoers to enjoy. Their message is clear—help protect the reef!

Volunteers of all ages teach snorkelers and swimmers to identify and avoid touching live coral. They explain to visitors about the different fish and invertebrates, as well as the ecology of the reef. Most importantly, they have fun!

For more about becoming a ReefTeach volunteer at Kahaluʻu Bay, Hawaiʻi Island (Big Island), go to the Kohala Center website, or contact Cindi Punihaole at cpunihaole@kohalacenter.org, (808) 895-1010.

Rocky, the Honu

Kahaluʻu Bay on the Island of Hawaiʻi is well known for its clear, shallow water and abundant tropical reef fishes. There are also many green sea turtles (honu) that live in the calm protected waters of the bay. Most commonly seen is Rocky, affectionately named after the area he climbs onto each day to bask. Rocky has been known to lay out for hours on end while countless visitors gather round to take photos.

ReefTeach volunteers play an important role in protecting Rocky and other honu encountered at Kahaluʻu. Everyday ReefTeachers encourage visitors to keep at least ten feet from turtles, not to feed the fish, and to make sure not to step on the coral while snorkeling—all the while enjoying the beautiful surroundings of the bay.

Become a ReefTeacher and help keep Rocky and the other reef creatures safe. For more information, go to the Kohala Center website, or contact Cindi Punihaole at cpunihaole@kohalacenter.org, (808) 895-1010.

ReefTeachers are helping protect this natural resource. Run by the Kohala Center, volunteers help educate beachgoers about the ecosystem of coast, reef, and ocean, and how they can support it. ReefTeach positions are free* and open to volunteers of all ages, individual or group, after a one-time onsite training (of about 2 hours).

For more about becoming a ReefTeacher, go to the Kohala Center website, or contact Cindi Punihaole at cpunihaole@kohalacenter.org, (808) 895-1010.

* For large volunteer groups, check with the Kohala Center first about a small donation to help cover costs of extra staffing and related expenses.

They’ll be needing lots of volunteers to help tackle this exciting task!

Visit www.auwahi.org to join in, or go to www.lhwrp.org to learn even more (such as about the 840-acre exclosure at Nuʻu Mauka and Kaupo Ranches, and the 5,200-acre fenceline in Kahikinui).

Summer trip dates:
June 19
July 10
July 31
August 21
September 11

“Last Saturday was another excellent day up on the mountain … thirty-plus volunteers, and over 1,200 trees in the ground, we had kupuna [elders] planting alongside teenagers, and veterans working with first-time visitors. Out on the far western edge of Auwahi II, we planted on an exposed slope butting up against the fence line; there aren’t very many big trees over there right now to buffer the sun’s heat, but the mountain took care of us—we worked in a cool veil of light breezes and rolling cloud cover.

“To call it spiritual would be a bit like calling the ocean wet, but here’s the thing. We were planting, laying down a web of ʻaʻaliʻi keiki, and we could hear laughter and the clanging of ʻoʻo beyond the next rise, and then, before we knew it, we had worked our way to the edge of another plot where the ʻaʻaliʻi were already in place, bright splashes of green peeking up through the thick, brown kikuyu mat. It was like we had painted ourselves into a corner.

“The fence ran along one side of us and everywhere else that we tried to go, well, the poʻe kokua [volunteers] had already been there, and the foundation was established. It’s a pretty incredible problem to have, if you think about it; after four years, it looks as though the base planting for Auwahi II is in place. Lucky thing, too, since we’ve got a new little plot to malama [care for] next door, Auwahi III, just waiting for the chance to come back to life.

“Trekking back through the exclosure at the end of the day was like a walking tour of a forest’s evolution; we left behind the dry patchwork of recent plantings for a zone of low shrubs and thinning ground cover until we were winding through a stand of overhead trees where leaf litter covered the forest floor and the next generation of keiki were beginning to peek through. And watching over it all stood the silent sentinels of this forest, the guardians who endured, waiting, hidden beneath a drab and fading exterior, for this time to come. They are the makua [parents] and kupuna of this land and as the forest resurrects around them, they are beginning to display their former splendor, new leaves unfolding like verdant, glossy jewels, whispering amongst themselves of the days to come.”

Next trip date: May 22, 2010

Visit www.auwahi.org to join in, or go to www.lhwrp.org to learn even more.