Hawaii Island: Pohakuloa

Hawaii Island (Kailapa) Vegetative Fuels Management Collaborative Action Planning Workshop

Thank you to everyone who joined us!

Thank you to everyone who joined us!

Fire follows fuel. On February 26 at the Hawaii Innovation Center in Hilo, we convened a huge group of 48 people on Hawaii Island representing a patchwork of different agencies, groups, and organizations across a variety of fields to come together to plan for collaborative, large-scale vegetation management to reduce wildfire risks throughout the island. This was part of a series of workshops on Oahu, Kauai, and Hawaii Island we held in February on this matter (we had a similar meeting on Maui in 2018). Big mahalo to the Kailapa community, a nationally recognized Firewise Community on Hawaiian Home Lands in Kawaihae, for hosting us at their beautiful new pavilion.

During the workshop, participants:

  • Checked out the results of recent efforts to map current management of hazardous vegetative fuels (thanks to all of the information that partners contributed).

  • Identified and discussed shared regional fuels management priorities to mitigate the risks of wildfire across our island landscapes through a facilitated series of small and large group conversations.

Marking values at risk and important areas for risk reduction.

Marking values at risk and important areas for risk reduction.

Sharing ideas for next step priority actions.

Sharing ideas for next step priority actions.

Voting for priority project ideas.

Voting for priority project ideas.

The knowledge and priorities of the participants will contribute to planning next steps in the ongoing collaboration to manage vegetative fuels to reduce wildfire and protect our communities and natural resources.

We are all in this together and it takes all of us!

Stay tuned via our website, social media, and e-newsletter (sign up at the bottom of this page) for final project-related products before this summer.

Mahalo DOFAW, UH CTAHR Cooperative Extension / Pacific Fire Exchange for co-organizing with us.

Hawaii Island (Hilo) Vegetative Fuels Management Collaborative Action Planning Workshop

Thank you to everyone who joined us!

Thank you to everyone who joined us!

Fire follows fuel. On February 22 at the Hawaii Innovation Center in Hilo, we convened a large group of 20 people on Hawaii Island representing a patchwork of different agencies, groups, and organizations across a variety of fields to come together to plan for collaborative, large-scale vegetation management to reduce wildfire risks throughout the island. This was part of a series of workshops on Oahu, Kauai, and Hawaii Island we held in February on this matter (we had a similar meeting on Maui in 2018).

During the workshop, participants:

  • Checked out the results of recent efforts to map current management of hazardous vegetative fuels (thanks to all of the information that partners contributed).

  • Identified and discussed shared regional fuels management priorities to mitigate the risks of wildfire across our island landscapes through a facilitated series of small and large group conversations.

Mayor Harry Kim sharing about the importance of fuels management for public safety.

Mayor Harry Kim sharing about the importance of fuels management for public safety.

Marking values at risk and areas for fuels treatments.

Marking values at risk and areas for fuels treatments.

Chief Eric Moller pointing out values at risk at PTA.

Chief Eric Moller pointing out values at risk at PTA.

The knowledge and priorities of the participants will contribute to planning next steps in the ongoing collaboration to manage vegetative fuels to reduce wildfire and protect our communities and natural resources.

We are all in this together and it takes all of us!

Stay tuned via our website, social media, and e-newsletter (sign up at the bottom of this page) for final project-related products before this summer.

Mahalo DOFAW, UH CTAHR Cooperative Extension / Pacific Fire Exchange for co-organizing with us.

Special thank you to Mayor Harry Kim, Chief Moller from US Army-Garrison, FES and Chief Okinaka from Hawaii Fire Department for joining us at the workshop.

PTA Earth Day 2018

It may have been freezing cold up in the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, but that didn’t stop HWMO and other organizations committed to protecting the environment from educating youth from all over the island. HWMO set up a booth at the Pohakuloa Training Area on April 20th to teach keiki of all ages about the mauka to makai (summit-to-sea) impacts of wildfire.

PTA Earth Day 4/20/18

Collaborative Vegetation Management Mapping Workshop 1 - Mauna Kea Partners

Mauna Kea partners were busy at work mapping fuels management projects on Google MyMaps.

Mauna Kea partners were busy at work mapping fuels management projects on Google MyMaps.

Across the state, there are many vegetation management projects that are helping to reduce the fire threat around natural/cultural resources and near communities. However, there currently isn’t a way to track all of these projects and the desired areas for future management of flammable vegetation. Stemming from an idea communicated to us from an HWMO Technical Advisor and US Fish and Wildlife partner, Dawn Bruns, we have received US Forest Service funding to create a statewide database and map of vegetation management projects. 

Meeting participants worked in groups to map their fuels management projects.

Meeting participants worked in groups to map their fuels management projects.

We held our first workshop with our partners from the Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance (MKWA) and Three Mountains Alliance (TMA) on January 30 at the Hawaii Innovation Center in Hilo. Elizabeth Pickett, HWMO Executive Director, started the workshop off with an introduction to the project, emphasizing how important this project will be for future collaborative fuels management projects. Dr. Clay Trauernicht, Wildfire Extension Specialist of University of Hawaiii CTAHR Cooperative Extension and Co-Coordinator of the Pacific Fire Exchange, gave a brief course on fire science and pre-fire planning and management. Pablo Akira Beimler, HWMO Community Outreach Coordinator, followed with a training on Google MyMaps, which was the main platform we used to collect data from meeting participants. 

Cheyenne Perry, Coordinator of Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance, points out areas where he hopes there can be collaborative vegetation management projects on Mauna Kea.

Cheyenne Perry, Coordinator of Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance, points out areas where he hopes there can be collaborative vegetation management projects on Mauna Kea.

For the rest of the workshop, meeting participants began mapping their current and desired vegetation management projects on Google MyMaps. Once the projects were mapped, we projected the new data onto a screen and had the groups share about their work areas and what they envision for a more fire-safe Mauna Kea. 

HWMO will be spending the rest of the summer holding workshops across the islands. If you would like to participate, please contact admin@hawaiiwildfire.org. 

Special mahalo to MKWA Coordinator, Cheyenne Perry, and TMA Coordinator, Colleen Cole, for being our first workshop partners. Mahalo also to Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project and U.S. Army-Garrison for joining our workshop and being our workshop “guinea pigs”!

Collaborative Vegetation Management Mapping Workshop in Hilo with MKWA and TMA 1/30/2018

PTA Earth Day

We had a great time hanging out with our partners from U.S. Army-Garrison Fire & Emergency Services and keiki from around the island.

We had a great time hanging out with our partners from U.S. Army-Garrison Fire & Emergency Services and keiki from around the island.

U.S. Army-Garrison, Fire and Emergency Services (US-AG, FES) has been a long-time partner of HWMO and has assisted on many of the largest fires the state has seen, including the Mauna Kea Fire in 2010. On April 20th, in celebration of Earth Day, Pōhakuloa Training Area (PTA) played host to several conservation and technology partners, including HWMO.

Busloads of students from around the island were dropped off to explore the various exhibitions. HWMO was situated next to the Army firefighters and their trucks. Keiki had a blast using water hoses as target practice and dressed up in HWMO’s wildland fire gear to take home Polaroid photos of themselves in it. HWMO also shared about the importance of planting natives around homes, certainly a worthy project to tackle on Earth Day!

PTA Earth Day 4/20/17

3rd Annual HWMO All-Partner Meeting

All of our projects are collaboratively-based. This has been the key to our success, as it has made our projects grounded, relevant, and truly effective.  As a way to honor these incredible partnerships and to keep each other up-to-date about the latest happenings among wildfire professionals in Hawaii, we held our 3rd Annual All-Partner Meeting at the Pohakuloa Training Area off of Saddle Road.
 
The November 20th event followed the Big Island Wildfire Coordinating Group's (BIWCG) final meeting of the year. New officers for BIWCG were elected, including President (Assistant Chief Gantry Andrade, HFD), Vice President (Jay Hatayama, DOFAW), and Secretary (Elizabeth Pickett, HWMO) to ring in the new year. After the conclusion of the meeting, BIWCG members joined HWMO’s other partners for a delicious plate lunch made with fresh, mostly local ingredients by the staff of HWMO.  
 
The HWMO All-Partner Meeting commenced with a roundtable meet-and-greet where partners introduced themselves to the group and shared updates from their agency or organization. HWMO's Elizabeth Pickett then shared a presentation recapping HWMO's successful year of achieving its 3 major objectives: Creating a Solid and Sustainable Organization; Increasing Awareness and Understanding of the Wildfire Issue; and Providing Technical Assistance. Midway through the presentation, Education and Outreach Coordinator, Pablo Beimler, provided a brief recap on the many successful outreach events HWMO held and participated in this year. Following the HWMO presentation, DOFAW's Wayne Ching, who is retiring at the end of this year, gave a brief speech about DOFAW's wildfire-related efforts and the vision for the agency's future. Shortly thereafter, Elizabeth Pickett gave a presentation put together by Dr. Clay Trauernicht that highlighted his recent research on the severity of the wildfire issue in Hawaii.
 
To conclude this year’s All-Partner Meeting, HWMO presented the first ever Partner of the Year Award to long-time partner and integral member of the Hawaii wildfire community, Mr. Wayne Ching, for his countless years of help and expertise. We couldn't have made it this far without him! In fact, we wouldn't be the successful and effective organization we have become without all of our partners. We extend a heartfelt thank you to all of you who have helped HWMO grow and blossom over the years.  We hope to see you and many more at next year’s meeting. Mahalo!

Banner photo: Partner of the Year, Wayne Ching (DOFAW) presents to around 25 of our partners.

California-Nevada-Hawaii Forest Fire Council Training & Seminar - 2014

The Big Island's Waikoloa Beach Marriott played host to this year's California - Nevada - Hawaii Forest Fire Council Training and Seminar (April 9-11), drawing attendees from all over the three listed states and from the Pacific Islands. HWMO and PFX teamed up to set up a booth to disseminate information about Hawaii's wildfire issues and what's being done to mitigate them - as a highlight, PFX's first Fact Sheet was rolled out at the event: Wildfire in Hawaii (link). Day One kept the audience captivated with a variety of informative and exciting talks spanning the world over.  Attendees were informed about the latest Australian bushfires (Richard Woods), East Bay Regional Park District's WUI projects (Brad Gallup), Maui Fire Department's IMT3 activities (Henry Lindo, Jr.), and the International ICS program operating in Indonesia, Vietnam, and a variety of other countries (Rusty Witwer). Paul Steensland and Alan Carlson brought the attendees along an exciting two-hour long ride through a twenty-year investigation and hunt for the Rumsey Canyon Serial Arsonist. Preceding these great presentations, Wayne Ching, Division of Forestry and Wildlife's long-standing and soon-to-retire Fire Management Officer, as well as organizer of this year's event, was honored by those in attendance. DOFAW's Protection Foresters from each main island, Patrick Porter (Kauai), Jay Hatayama (Hawaii Island), Ryan Peralta (Oahu), and Lance De Silva (Maui) led a few morning toasts to Wayne and his remarkable career. To cap off the tribute, all attendees simultaneously revealed red shirts with a picture of Mr. Ching and a list of major incidents he had worked on in his career, either wearing or waving the shirt in a sort of Red Shirt Salute. Here's HWMO's video capturing the moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCMFzUdQK30

Day Two took members out of their seats and into the outdoors for a field tour. Following a beautiful hike along the Ala Kahakai Trail along Anaeho'omalu Bay, members caravanned over to Puako to visit the community's fuelbreak, which HWMO provided funding and assistance. Peter Hackstedde, Puako Community Association President and a new addition to the HWMO Board of Directors spoke about the fuelbreak efforts, with Elizabeth Pickett, Executive Director of HWMO and Co-Coordinator of PFX, chiming in. The group then took a driving tour through the entirety of the fuelbreak, which runs three miles and borders the entire Puako community, providing a buffer of at least 60-100 feet between houses and the mesquite (kiawe) forest. For the second time since PFX's first field tour in June 25, 2013, Wayne Ching decided to replicate the experience and discussion of the Mauna Kea 33 Fire at the physical location of the fire at Mauna Kea State Park, which threatened the last remaining population of Palila, who number less than 2000, only a few miles away. Special guests Miles Nakahara, retired HWMO President and retired DOFAW Wildlife Biologist, Eric Moller, USAG-P, FES Deputy Fire Chief, Glen Timbal, USAG-P, FES Assistant Fire Chief, Susan Cordell, US Forest Service PSW-IPIF Research Ecologist, and Mr. Hatayama joined Mr. Ching to highlight the first-hand experiences of fighting the fire. The group discussed fire boundaries, initial and extended attack details, incident command, mop-up, results of the After Action Review, suppression challenges and successes and the post-fire impacts of the fire. The discussion concluded with the ramifications on future fire and resource management for this area and its included and nearby critical habitat. Chief Moller added a nice plug for PFX, "It really does develop a concerted effort. For one, it protects my firefighters because we now have a better understanding of what's going on, but it also helps the community and the managers, set their lands up so that they're not fire-prone. It is a win-win-win all the way around," said Chief Moller. Ms. Cordell and Mr. Nakahara agreed with Chief Moller and recognizing PFX's efforts. Audio from the field tour can be heard on the left hand column.

The final day of the event kept the excitement rolling with an engaging and impactful lineup. Two of the most important events of the history of wildfire within the last decade made their way into the lineup - both events occurred in 2013. John Truett gave a moving and harrowing review of the Yarnell Hill Fire which claimed the lives of 19 firefighters in Arizona last year. Mr. Truett reviewed the chain of events that led to the fatality, as well as the incredibly challenging orchestration of the ceremonies thereafter. We will never know the full stories, since those were lost with those who had fallen, but the talk gave a clearer picture of the day's tumultuous proceedings. The room fell respectfully silent after the presentation ended with an emotional video honoring the 19. Following a presentation about emergency preparedness at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (David Benitez), Incident Commander Jerry McGowan gave an insightful and entertaining presentation reporting the details of the 3rd largest fire in California's history, the Rim Fire, and the unprecedented conditions that firefighters were up against, as well as how the incident was managed given a multi-agency, multi-state response.   
HWMO and PFX had the honor to share a presentation before these speakers. Ms. Pickett gave background on HWMO and the many projects it's currently involved in throughout the state, including Hazard Assessments, Community Wildfire Protection Plans, and fuels management projects. Clay Trauernicht, PFX Co-Coordinator and UH Manoa CTAHR Wildfire Extension Specialist, took over the reins to present the latest Hawaii wildfire history data and analyses. To present this information within the context we were in was certainly a highlight for HWMO and PFX. "Definitely the heaviest line-up of speakers I've ever had the honor to share a podium with. It's a truly inspirational group of folks involved with fire across the western region," exclaimed Mr. Trauernicht. Video of the presentation can be seen here in a 2-part YouTube series: http://youtu.be/55JogNF7Jfc.

Banner photo: Elizabeth Pickett, HWMO Executive Director, gives a presentation on the final day of an impressive line-up of speakers.

Western State Fire Managers Meeting - Puako Community Fuelbreak Tour

Based on great feedback from a collaborative lessons learned PFX Field Tour held on June 25, 2013 at Mauna Kea State Park on Hawaii Island to review a 2011 fire that exhibited extreme behavior and threatened human lives and critical habitat, Wayne Ching of Hawaii Department of Land Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife Fire decided to replicate the experience and discussion with Western State Fire Managers at their March meeting. 

The tour continued over to the Puako Community Fuelbreak where Peter Hackstedde, Puako Community Association President and a new addition to the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization Board of Directors spoke about the fuelbreak efforts. Elizabeth Pickett, Executive Director of Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, chimed in about HWMO's funding and assistance of the project. She also detailed the HWMO and PFX organizations as a whole and their strong partnership with one another. In addition, Elizabeth presented the newly created and delivered Ready, Set, Go! Hawaii Wildland Fire Action Guides and handed out copies to all of the managers, along with Overview Packets for HWMO and PFX. The group then took a driving tour through most of the fuelbreak, which runs 3 miles and borders along the entire Puako community, providing a buffer of at least 60-100 feet between houses and the mesquite (kiawe) forest.

Banner photo: Peter Hackstedde (white T-shirt) speaks to the group (including Wayne Ching of DOFAW, in blue polo) behind an aerial panorama of the Puako Community Fuelbreak.

Annual HWMO All-Partner Meeting 2013

HWMO and its firefighting and natural resource management partners gathered at the Pohakuloa Training Area to share updates about fire mitigation and planning work that has taken place throughout the last year. HWMO released, for the first time, results of our statewide community hazard assessments, as well as draft maps of a statewide fire event history. Over fifty partners from eighteen agencies and organizations attended the event, as well as two County Council Members and State Representative Cindy Evans.

The PFX field tour, following the meeting, to Mauna Kea State Park was the first tour PFX had organized in its young existence. The tour highlighted, at the physical location of the Mauna Kea State Park Fire, the first-hand experiences of fighting the fire - topics included fire boundaries, initial and extended attack details, incident command, mop-up, results of the After Action Review, and suppression challenges/successes. These topics were led by five of our partners (including one of our very own Board of Directors):

  • Eric Moller, PTA Army Fire Chief
  • Glen Timbal, PTA Army Assistant Fire Chief
  • Jay Hatayama, DOFAW Protection Forester
  • Wayne Ching, DOFAW Fire Management Officer
  • Miles Nakahara, HWMO President

The tour concluded with a discussion on the ramifications on future fire and resource management for this area and its included and nearby critical habitat.

Banner photo: Field Tour of Mauna Kea State Park, after the meeting, to highlight the 2010 wildfire.