Claim OwnershipLand and People
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Hawai`i conservationist and artist Melissa Chimera and University of Hawai`i Mānoa fire and ecosystems scientist Dr. Clay Trauernicht talk with land protectors in Hawai`i and the Pacific about the places they cherish through their professional and ancestral ties. We paint an intimate portrait of today’s land stewards dealing with global crises while problem solving at the local level. Brought to you by the Cooperative Extension Program at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Music ”Raindrops” courtesy Lobo Loco.
35 Episodes
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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.
We bring together the family and colleagues of Dr. Lloyd Loope, Maui research biologist and ecologist based at Haleakalā National Park who passed away in 2017. We reflect on his legacy as the cornerstone for Hawaiian invasive species management as we know it today and mentor for so many in island ecosystem conservation. Pat Bily of The Nature Conservancy, Teya Penniman of the Maui Invasive Species Committee, Chuck Chimera of the Hawai`i Invasive Species Council and Lloyd's daughter Brook and son Marshall speak to his unmatched intellect and laser focus, his grace and humility, and above all, his extraordinary dedication and foresight in recognizing the importance of research and conservation across boundaries.
Keahi Bustamente is the field coordinator for the Maui Nui Snail Extinction Prevention Program. He works across three islands--Maui, Moloka`i and Lāna`i--searching sometimes all day in the steepest, most remote mountains for a single individual. He speaks candidly about the logistical, physical and knowledge challenges in this work as well as the gift his mentors have given him in showing him the species and places most will never see. His kuleana is that of husband, father and professional mentor to others, while recognizing that this essential knowledge is likewise passed down to the next up and coming conservationists.
In this episode, co-host Melissa Chimera brings together stories of women in the field from Kerri Fay, terrestrial program manager with The Nature Conservancy and Ane Bakutis, Moloka`i coordinator for the Plant Extinction Prevention Program. Together they share their perspectives as women working in physically demanding jobs across remote locations, managing the logistical and interpersonal complexities of people and land, while simultaneously raising children and advocating for malama `āina in their communities and respective places. They share an honest reflection on the female perspective of those in mid-career conservation, specifically the challenges and opportunities of the past twenty five years, as well as insight into what needs to happen next in terrestrial land conservation.
Hawaiian land and water activist Ke`eaumoku Kapu of West Maui is descended from a long line of kalo (taro) farmers and care takers of his ancestral home in Kauaula. He and his family's hard won land-back struggles and stream water repatriation in the face of powerful corporate interests serve as the backdrop of his current efforts to help his community in the aftermath and the re-build of Lāhaina town which was completely burned to the ground in August 2023. He not only speaks to the difficulties ahead and long road to recovery, but also paints a vision of Moku`ula and the thriving fishing, agricultural and historical village Lāhaina might become in the future.
Hank Oppenheimer is a field botanist in Hawai`i for more than 30 years, re-discovering plants thought to be extinct and finding species new to science. He is the Maui Nui coordinator for the Plant Extinction Prevention Program which aims to find, stabilize and help recover the rarest of the rarest Hawaiian plants. Hank has also been witness to significant fires--not only the Lāhaina catastrophe of August 2023--but other fires impacting communities and ecosystems that up until recently escaped the public's attention. We talk candidly about the hardships he and others experience in Maui Komohana (West Maui) and what the long road to recovery might look like now and in the future.
Dr. Chris Schuler, a researcher with the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa’s Water Research Resources Center is a hydrologist and ground water modeler who experienced first hand the impacts of wildfire on Maui in 2023 where he and his family live. In his work which spans from American Samoa to Hawai`i, he speaks to the importance of applied environmental research serving communities directly. In his work and that of his collaborators, he helps test for potential pollutants most importantly in drinking water, which underscores how science can give agency to affected people and places experiencing incomprehensible tragedies in real time.
Since 1991, Hawai`i water and environmental policy and planning expert Dr. Jonathan Likeke Scheuer has helped people seek a shared, sustainable prosperity for the communities and `āina involved, including the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, the Hawai`i State Land Use Commission, the Hawai`i Land Trust Board, and the O`ahu Island Burial Council. In the aftermath of the August 2023 wildfires on Maui, Melissa and Clay talk with Jonathan about the 2021 book he co-authored with Bianca Isaki WATER AND POWER IN WEST MAUI. We come to understand how water in Hawai`i is inextricably tied to the transformation of land, an on-going legacy we are living with today.
Dr. Tom Giambelluca, University of Hawai`i (UH) at Mānoa geography and environment professor has been studying and teaching Hawaiian weather and climate in relation to the land and water across the archipelago for 46 years. In the aftermath of the devastating fires on Maui, we ask him to unpack the local atmospheric trends of the past and future, specifically how climate warming is creating greater risk for more wildfires in Hawai`i. As director of the UH Water Resources Research Center, we get to ask him how different land covers (native and invasive) affect the hydrology of a given area--specifically water in the streams, on the ground, and in the air.
Dr. Katie Kamelamela, is a Hilo-based Assistant Professor in the Global Discovery and Conservation Science Center at Arizona State University and studies ethnoecology, ecological restoration, Indigenous conceptions of wealth, and Indigenous economies. She shares with us her on-going research into modern and Hawaiian contemporary uses of various plants like kiawe (mesquite), maile and ti (kī) and how these relationships are ever evolving. Dr. Kamelamela takes us to one of her most cherished places: Kaho‘olawe Island in her role as member of Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana, a grassroots organization dedicated to island's repair and the principles of Aloha ‘Āina. Our discussion brings to light some of the environmental parallels between the island's historical neglect and the ongoing catastrophic fires of Maui. She shares with us the potential for the land to bring about healing, a kind of reciprocity for both the land and its care givers--a testament to the possibility of relationship between the most vulnerable places and those wanting to restore them.
Dr. Mark Merlin, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa professor in the School of Life Sciences, Botany program has taught Pacific island biocultural history across many disciplines: geography, ethnobotany and biology. His fifty years of teaching human relationships to island environments past and present as well as his field research has taken him from Hālawa Valley on Molokai in the 1970s to Pohnpei, Yap, Kosrae islands and everywhere in between. He paints the picture of Pacific Islanders' intimate relationships to sacred, medicinal plants like awa (kava) and how those Pohnpeian and Samoan ceremonies and diverse, native lifeways connect to indigenous movements today.
Bonus Episode Season 1: Dr. Clay Trauernicht and Melissa Chimera talk with renowned chanter, dancer, songwriter and educator Kekuhi Keali`ikanaka`ole about the intimate connection between humans and the Hawaiian landscape as practiced in Hawaiian lifeways. Her perspective is that of a descendent from the legendary Kanaka`ole family, most notably her grandmother Edith Kekuhi Kanaka`ole, one of Hawai`i's first educators who made language and dance accessible to all. She talks about connecting conservation science to Hawaiian thought and understanding through her work with Hālau `Ōhi`a and the ways in which we might connect more deeply with the creatures and plants which surround us. Visit https://www.kekuhi.com/ for more information on how you can enroll in programs and learn directly from Kekuhi.
Co-hosts Melissa Chimera and Dr. Clay Trauernicht reflect on Season One of "Land & People"; what they learned, surprising moments, favorite parts of producing the show, and what's next for Season Two.
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