HWMO's Beach Party for Wildfire Awareness

Hawaii Island Seed Bank, Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance, and Big Island Invasive Species Committee joined HWMO in setting up information booths at the event. Credit: DLNR

For this year’s National Community Wildfire Preparedness Day, on May 6, HWMO thew a Beach Party to raise awareness on wildfires and their impacts on our lands, water, and communities. The Beach Party for Wildfire Awareness was held at the Old Kona Airport at the first beach pavilion. We had a number of fun classes, presentations, and activities for keiki. 

Classes included two yoga classes, a morning session with Chelsea Morriss of Soul Happy Wellness, and an afternoon one with Rachel Forsberg. HWMO’s very own Melissa Kunz taught a swing dance class that kept the hype up in the morning. There was also a kids capoeira class held by Mario Hill from Capoeira Agua de Beber - UCA Hawaii. Most of the kids that participated were completely new to the Brazilian martial art / dance. Following the class, a group of capoeiristas from various parts of the island joined in for a capoeira and samba drum performance.

Melissa Kunz teaching a swing dance class.

Capoeira workshop and performances thanks to Capoeira Agua de Beber - UCA Hawaii and friends.

Yoga with Rachel Forsberg.

Morning yoga with Chelsea Morriss.

Several presentations were held in the pavilion that exposed visitors to different partners of HWMO that are doing amazing work to restore our native forests and protect our watersheds. Hawaii Island Seed Bank, Big Island Invasive Species Committee, and Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance shared about their organizations to audiences of various age levels. Those same organizations also set-up information booths, which attracted many visitors, as well. 

Chief Eric Moller speaking about the importance of fire prevention during the Wildfire Lookout! launch event.

A major highlight of the event was a press conference to launch the statewide wildfire campaign called Wildfire Lookout! Speakers included State Representative Cindy Evans and Chief Eric Moller of U.S. Army-Garrison, Fire & Emergency Services who both stressed the importance of fire prevention to protect our islands. Executive Director of HWMO, Elizabeth Pickett, also spoke to the visitors of the event on the importance of preparing far in advance of peak fire season. DLNR Senior Communications Director, Dan Dennison, flew from Oahu to film the press conference, as well as other activities at the start of the day. You can watch the video here: https://vimeo.com/216343233

HWMO’s crafty project assistant, Tom Loomis, set-up a few fun games for keiki including a mini golf course, home defensible space ring toss, and pachinko board to win HWMO prizes. Hawaii Fire Department brought a fire truck for kids to explore and Big Island Goat Dozers brought a goat for kids to pet. 

Wildland firefighter dress up and HFD fire engine exploring.

Various activities for keiki including mini golf.

Flyer for Party for Wildfire Awareness

Visitors had a chance to grind on some ono food from Just the Two of Us Chicken and Waffles and Cool Runnings Food Truck. The Selassie Ites wrapped up the event with a jammin' reggae performance.

A series of door prizes were also awarded throughout the day thanks to our list of generous sponsors: Foster’s Kitchen, Daylight Mind Coffee Company, Kona Haven Coffee, Capoeira Agua de Beber, Soul Happy Wellness, The Original Donkey Balls Store, and Hawaii Water Service Company. 

A big mahalo to these sponsors as well as everyone else mentioned above who made the event possible, including our volunteers, staff, and board members!

People's Climate Movement in Kona

HWMO's Pablo Beimler at the HWMO outreach booth. Credit - Val Barnes

Climate change has already changed the Hawaiian Islands and will continue to do so in the future. It will take all of us to connect the dots and come together for adapting our communities for what lies ahead. One such climate change impact is the increase in conditions ripe for wildfires in Hawaiʻi. To help build this awareness, HWMO joined as one of many information booths at the People’s Climate Movement in Kailua-Kona organized by Rally for Common Ground. Hundreds of people from all walks of life joined the event, which kicked off with a march through downtown Kona.

At HWMO’s booth, following the march, we distributed our new “Climate Change Impacts on Wildfires in Hawaiʻi” flyers, as well as Ready Set Go! and Wildfire Lookout! materials. The overall positive atmosphere gave us hope that our island could come together to tackle challenging climate issues such as wildfire. 

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.

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!

Waimea Middle School Career Day

When it comes to solving our sometimes daunting wildfire issues, we need a whole collective of individuals and groups from a wide spectrum of disciplines and backgrounds. On Wednesday, February 15, HWMO’s Community Outreach Coordinator, Pablo Beimler, shared this important lesson with Waimea Middle School students at Career Day. To get the message across, Pablo tapped into the creative and artistic minds of the students. 

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Emoji created to express sorrow over a wildfire-ravaged island.

After starting with a viewing of the Prevent Wildfires to Protect Our Ocean YouTube video produced by HWMO, Pablo had the students draw their ideal Big Island complete with healthy watersheds and thriving communities. Each student was then asked to create an emoji that best expressed how the island scene made them feel. 

Then, it was time to introduce wildfire to the picture. The students were asked what impacts a wildfire could have on the island. With each impact, whether it was smoke, burnt forests, polluted waterways, or damaged powerlines, the students wreaked havoc on their island by drawing fiery scribbles over the resources affected. By the end of the exercise, their islands had gone through a rough time. The students then developed new emojis to express how they felt about their new island scene. 

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Adding ideas for people/careers that can contribute to a Fire Adapted Community.

To wrap it up, Pablo had each of the students write or draw two types of people or activities on Post-it notes that could help create a Fire Adapted Community. A whole range of amazing, creative ideas were developed, including having politicians, celebrities, family members, scientists, botanists, and gardeners be a part of the big picture. Each student was asked to place their Post-it note on a poster of an island scene to demonstrate that it will take all of us to keep this waʻa afloat. 

Wiliwili Festival 2017

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Young artist creates a beautiful "Prevent Fires to Keep Ocean Clean" sign.

In the first big event of 2017, HWMO joined a number of other organizations in hosting an informational booth at the Wiliwili Festival, usually held in September. The festival, put on by long-time HWMO partner Waikoloa Dry Forest Initiative, was delayed until January due to an unusually late bloom for the storied wiliwili trees of Waikoloa. Throughout the day, serene live music filled the air as hundreds upon hundreds of visitors of all ages strolled through the Waikoloa Stables to learn about conserving natural resources and protecting our forests and watersheds.

HWMO introduced a brand new booth layout in conjunction with Pacific Fire Exchange (PFX) and the Waikoloa Village Fire Management Action Committee. With many helping hands, HWMO held several fun activities for keiki: wildfire prevention sign making and a new game called "Building and Testing a Strong Fire Adapted Community." The game attracted young builders and creative minds who constructed bridges or buildings out of craft sticks and binder clips. In order to receive a set of building materials, the young builders had to answer a series of scavenger hunt questions all related to information at our booth (including who is the owl you see all over our booth? - answer: Kaleo the Pueo). Once the keiki built their structures, none identical to the other, they had to carefully place hot embers (secret revealed: heavy river stones painted with fiery colors) on the structures to test their strength. Each craft stick had an important contributor of a Fire Adapted Community labeled on it. In the end, we were amazed by the strength of the Fire Adapted Community structures created. All of them withstood the ember attacks!

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A big mahalo to Waikoloa Dry Forest Initiative for the opportunity to share information about wildfire prevention and preparedness with the community, including during a one-hour workshop in the afternoon. Find out more about the great work WDFI does in the community here: http://waikoloadryforest.org/

Aina-Based Education Systems Mapping Workshop

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Posting and discussing input on challenges and opportunities of ʻaina-based education in Hawaii.

Across Hawaii, more and more emphasis is moving towards ʻāina-based education (environmental education, learning systems rooted in the land, etc.). However, there are many challenges that ʻāina-based educators face (as well as opportunities for these alternative education systems to blossom).

On October 26 in Waimea, Hauʻoli Mau Loa Foundation invited several groups working in the ʻāina-based education world on the Big Island to provide a workshop space to better understand those challenges and opportunities. Pablo Beimler represented HWMO at the meeting and gave his input coming from the wildfire education perspective. The participants shared their experiences with one another through a novel input collection process that will be presented as a “systems map” in 2017. 

HPA In-Class Presentation

As Fire Prevention Month reached its final week, HWMO Community Outreach Coordinator, Pablo Beimler, met with high school students at Hawaii Preparatory Academy in Waimea to talk about wildfires and their impacts on our waterways and oceans. Ms. Tani Cordova invited HWMO just in time — her students were in the middle of learning oceanography. Pablo gave a crash course on fire ecology and how wildfires could change soil chemistry and thus the ability to retain water.

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Post-fire erosion in Maui 2016.

Halfway through his presentation, Pablo showed students the recently debuted Prevent Wildfires to Protect Our Ocean, featuring the intense wildfires and subsequent flooding in Maui this year. Students asked great questions after the presentation, sparking interesting conversations about wildfire in Hawaii. Encouraging to know these bright, thoughtful, enthusiastic teens will make positive impacts on our world in their adult lives. 

Water Heroes Performances

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Water Heroes sing a song about coral reef protection. 

Educating our youth about the environment can come in many forms, whether in the classroom or out in the field. But, it can also take form through performance arts. The Honolulu Theatre for Youth (HTY) is doing just that. Known for their intricate costumes, lyrical flows, and ability to communicate important lessons to the keiki of Hawaii, the HTY Tour Company visited each of the main islands to perform their new show, H2O: The Story of Water and Hawaii. Through playful songs and skits, the group of five performers brought their show to Waimea at the Kahilu Theater on October 17. Hundreds of students from North and South Kohala schools watched, sung, laughed, and learned as the Water Heroes, dressed in metallic superhero costumes of various shades of blue and white, shared stories about water’s importance in our lives in Hawaii and how our water quality has been diminishing over time. 

Students pick up HWMO stickers and bookmarks after the show.

Towards the end of the show, the Water Heroes comically introduced the keiki to water saving measures they could do in their own home. They then invited HWMO’s Pablo Beimler to the stage (for two different shows) as a local Water Hero. Pablo shed light on the impacts wildfires have on our watersheds and coral reefs and emphasized that each and everyone of those in the room could make a significant difference protecting our lands and waters by preventing wildfire and sharing those messages with their ʻohana. As Pablo left the stage, the performers gave him a watery salute by spraying water on him. At the end of each show, Pablo handed out native Firewise plant bookmarks and Kaleo the Pueo stickers. 

Mahalo nui loa to the HYT Tour Company for an amazing show and for the opportunity to share our message with the keiki. 

Ewa Beach Emergency Prep Fair 2016

A day after HWMO’s Pablo Beimler met with Kamaile Academy students for wildfire lessons, he headed over to Ewa Makai Middle School for the Ewa Beach Emergency Preparedness Fair on September 10th. With over 1,000 attendees interested in emergency preparation tips, the venue was the perfect place for HWMO to set-up an outreach booth and share Ready, Set, Go! Guides, Native Firewise Plant bookmarks, and more. Keiki who stopped by had the opportunity to dress up as wildland firefighters and take home a special Polaroid photo of the moment. 

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A family stops by for Ready Set Go! information and wildland firefighter photo shoot.

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Taking home a Polaroid of herself in wildland firefighter gear.

Mahalo to Ewa EPC for inviting us for the second straight year! Always a worthwhile event.

Kamaile Academy 7-9th Grade Fall Wildfire Lessons

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Teaching about native Firewise plants by playing a game show.

For the second time this year, HWMO’s Pablo Beimler was invited by STEM teacher, Jamiel Saez, to teach students about wildfires at Kamaile Academy in Waiʻanae. Wildfire was fresh on the minds of many of the students after a busy wildfire year in West Oʻahu. Students ranging from 7th to 9th grade learned the importance of understanding the fire triangle to solve our wildfire issues. By focusing on “fuels,” Pablo taught students that they could make an impact by planting native plants around their homes and in and around the school. Native Firewise plants can significantly reduce the fire threat around structures, an eye-opener for many of the students. 

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Students play fire tag to learn about the fire cycle with a fitting fire-prone landscape as the backdrop.

At the end of each class, students participated in the Firewise Plant Game Show. Three judges were chosen to be Pablo’s “landscaping apprentices” and were there to give the final say on whether a selected plant would be worthy of being in our Firewise garden or not. A “plant model” would walk a sample of a plant around to each student in the classroom. After the plant model walked around and students made their observations, “audience members” raised either a happy face emoji, sad face emoji, or “meh” face emoji of their own creation. Their mission: to influence the decisions of the judges who had to make a quick decision based on consensus. 

One of the classes also had the opportunity to play fire tag outside, learning the fire cycle and its impacts on the native forests of Hawaiʻi. As a special treat, Pablo performed a slam poetry piece for the students - a nice incentive for being a well-behaved class.