Pilina 

In 1997, there were just two wedge-tailed shearwater nests on TNC’s Mo‘omomi Preserve on Molokai. These beautiful birds lay a single egg once a year. Since then, TNC's efforts to clear away invasive kiawe trees and install fences to keep out invasive animals led to the birds establishing a colony in the thousands. 

Each Fall, TNC staff teams up with partners, donors and volunteers for the annual wedge-tailed shearwater chick banding effort. In the Spring, we again gather with partners and volunteers at dusk to count adults. Today there are over 3,000 shearwaters across 19 acres at Mo‘omomi, the largest colony in Maui County. 

Mo‘omomi is a rare coastal dune ecosystem, a holdover from an ancient era. Not many places like this still exist in the main Hawaiian islands, and having thriving seabird populations established in the main Hawaiian islands is important with sea level rise, which could displace birds in the Northwest Hawaiian islands. 

TNC is working with community members, local organizations, academic institutions and federal, state and county agencies to build resilience and foster reef recovery at Olowalu-Ukumehame. This coalition of more than a dozen partners is working to restore native habitats and build resilience from the uplands to the reef. 

In the uplands, our efforts focus on improving wildfire and ungulate management combined with targeted restoration to reduce erosion and sedimentation to the area’s expansive reef. These efforts will also decrease the need for man-made interventions such as catchment basins downstream. In the lowlands, we are working to restore the once expansive wetlands, which serve as natural sediment catchment and filtration systems. The wetland restoration will also increase habitat for coastal wildlife, while offering opportunities for renewed cultural practices. 

Along the coast, we are engaging the community to create a shared vision to mitigate coastal erosion and flooding using nature-based solutions in concert with a coastal highway realignment project. Efforts on the reef focus on identifying the sediment thresholds of corals and the most thermally tolerant corals and the locations where they are most likely to thrive as ocean temperatures warm to help ensure successful reef restoration.

Born out of an initial effort from the Koʻolaupoko Hawaiian Civic Club, many groups—including some led by a new generation of Native Hawaiian leaders—have joined forces to restore health and abundance to Heʻeia ahupuaʻa (land division) through the perpetuation of traditional practices.  

Historically, Heʻeia nourished Hawaiian wildlife and culture while being one of the most productive places on the island of Oʻahu. Eight streams provided habitat for larval and juvenile reef fish, invertebrates and stream species, including the endemic waterfall-climbing ʻoʻopu (goby) and hihiwai (snails). These streams converged into a wetland estuary cultivated since 1200 AD with hundreds of acres of loʻi kalo (taro fields), before flowing through an 800-year-old fishpond and into Kāne‘ohe Bay. While the wetlands serve as a haven for native waterbirds, the bay’s coral reefs, sand flats and seagrass beds provide refuge for green sea turtles, migrating whales, birthing sharks, foraging manta rays and resting spinner dolphins. 

After working with the Division of Aquatic Resources to remove invasive algae smothering Kāneʻohe Bay reefs, TNC joined forces with Kākoʻo ‘Ōiwi to restore the wetlands and loʻi kalo as a way to reduce sediments that flow into the bay and propel algae growth. Today TNC and community partners continue to mālama this site.