COUNT
THE NUMBER OF NATIVE FISH COLLECTED AT KAIMUKI HIGH SCHOOL HAS GONE UP OVER TIME
120
NATIVE FISH FROM EACH SURVEY OF THE STREAM TREND LINE OVER TIME
80
40
0
-40
YEAR
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
“Cory used to come to our site before he had any assis- tance. He used to cut all of our grass and make that space safe, make a pathway for the kids,” she recalls, reminded that a labor of love, at the end of the day, is an intentional choice to sustain something you love. “I wondered, ‘Wait, are you doing this at every location?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, some of them are even more overgrown.’” Explains Yap, “Access to streams has all but been fenced off and overgrown. No one has an idea of what a stream is anymore because it doesn’t look like a stream. If this is a life-giving resource, why is it fenced off? So, creating something that is a stream to them? That’s super important.” At conferences outside Hawai‘i, Yap often frames the work Pa‘ēpa‘ē o Waikolu does by talking about how fragile and unique the Hawaiian Islands’ biodiversity is and how its remarkable habitats are disappearing. He’ll ask, “How can we reconnect to evaluate and protect these places that don’t exist anywhere else?” Scientists always respond, “This story needs to be told.” For example, the Hawaiian Stream Index of Biological Integrity, a stream health report card, ranks Mānoa Stream’s status as “impaired,” a step down from “poor,” because of the absence of so many native species that should be there. In some areas where students have
been working, Pa‘ēpa‘ē o Waikolu has managed to tip the needle from “impaired” to “poor.” This measurable progress is more than the State of Hawai‘i — which spends hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to hire professionals to do stream survey work without removing invasives — has been able to achieve. “But it doesn’t stay that way unless we’re actively going out all the time,” Yap says. “It will revert because the majority of the community is not doing this. Manage- ment has to be a long-term goal. You can’t just restore a stream, and it’s restored.” Yap and Charuk hope that Pa‘ēpa‘ē o Waikolu will raise communities of informed stewards that value and conserve Hawai‘i’s watersheds. Yap points to the community-driven management model of the Hā‘ena area on Kaua‘i, where people grow kalo, regulate shade, grow plants that control erosion, and apply indigenous knowledge specific to that area to enable its stream to thrive. “Abundance can clearly happen in the presence of people, but they must have the mindset that they are the ones driving it,” says Yap of the Ala Wai watershed. “It’s not something that we expect in this urban place. But it doesn’t mean it can’t happen.”
VOL.63 I NO.3 I 2025 I 25
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