Friends of Hakalau Forest 2025 Endowment Fundraising Campaign!

2025 Goal

The Friends of Hakalau Forest NWR established an endowment fund in 2015 with the goal of raising $3.5 million. A stable and robust endowment, managed by the Hawaii Community Foundation, is essential to provide a reliable source of funds for the foreseeable future to support the many necessary conservation activities on and around the National Wildlife Refuge.

With your help over the last 10 years, the Endowment has grown just over $2.5 million. Your gift NOW can help us reach this year’s goal of $2.7 million. This would put FOHF much closer to reaching our final goal of $3.5 million by the end of 2026, a very exciting prospect!

While ambitious, this goal is possible through the generous donations of our Friends and many other interested parties who see the value in saving endangered Hawaiian birds.

Our final goal is to raise $3.5 million which will enable us to allocate $140,000 each year in perpetuity to help save our endemic birds and plants in their habitats. Mahalo nui loa to everyone involved. Your gift will ensure our endangered birds have a future for generations to come. We are so very grateful for your continued support – please help us reach our 2025 GOAL!

SAVE THE DATE:

Annual Meeting January 24th at 10am HST

at the UH Hilo Science and Technology Building

Featuring: Vision for Mauna Kea over the next 20 years

by Cheyenne Perry, Coordinator,

Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance

More information in early January.

Refuge Update

USFWS

The staff at Hakalau NWR are excited to be back at work! We want to say a big mahalo to all the staff and volunteers who continued lending steady support even while most operations were paused. 

KUPU Volunteers and Staff maintaining the fence line.

During the closure, only a narrow slice of essential work could move forward under direction of the refuge manager and horticulture lead. A small crew of Kupu members kept up with fence repairs, and herbicide treatments were applied to ensure upcoming outplanting sites would be ready for our return. Partners from Pohakuloa Training Area continued to monitor nene nesting and control predators.  Volunteers also played a key role, assembling frost protection devices and assisting with selective outplanting. Their efforts helped keep restoration momentum alive when so much else was on hold. 

O'ahu Army Natural Resources Volunteers

The shutdown wasn’t the only major event this quarter. On November 7, a wildfire swept across approximately 2,100 acres of gorse-dominated land immediately adjacent to the refuge. Thanks to rapid response efforts of multiple agencies, the fire never crossed into refuge boundaries, but its proximity was a stark reminder of the challenges facing Hawai‘i’s upland ecosystems as weather patterns shift and invasive species create additional risks on the landscape. We want to thank volunteers from the O'ahu Army Natural Resources program who helped evacuate endangered plants and our seed bank from the refuge during the fire.

With staff now fully back at work, field operations are ramping up quickly. Trapping efforts have started in the Maulua Unit, where reducing the pig population remains essential to protecting native understory communities. The team is working hard to repair fences, control invasive plants, and stabilize conditions as we strive to get back on schedule.

This season also marks a moment of transition for the refuge community. Four long-serving staff members; Refuge Manager Tom Cady, Deputy Refuge Manager Donna Ball, Administrative Officer Lynne Hanzawa, and Maintenance Mechanic Bruce Dempsey—have officially retired. Together, they represent decades of service, leadership, and dedication to protecting Hakalau’s unique forest. Their retirements are both a celebration and a milestone, closing an important chapter in the refuge’s history while inspiring those who remain to carry their work forward.

As the refuge settles back into its rhythm, we’re reminded once again how much this place relies on partnership; between staff, volunteers, and supporters like the Friends of Hakalau Forest NWR, who ensure the work continues, even in uncertain times.

FIND YOUR WILD 2025 MAHALO!

HAKALAU FOREST NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE CELEBRATED ITS 40TH ANNIVERSARY in combination with this year's FIND YOUR WILD EVENT (previously WALK FOR THE WILD) on September 13, 2025. Five hundred participants attended this event, including volunteers and exhibitors. A fog blew in during the opening ceremonies, but it quickly lifted and a beautiful sunny day followed. Participants walked through the forest for up to 5 km with knowledgeable guides pointing out native birds and plants. At the turn-around point in the walk, University of Hawaii (UH) - Hiloʻs Listening Observatory for Hawaiian Ecosystems (LOHE) students provided stamps, hand puppets, and other educational items.

To celebrate the Refugeʻs 40th Anniversary, shuttle vans and volunteer drivers from Hawaii Forest & Trail kindly transported attendees from the Pua ʻĀkala area to administrative headquarters where tours of the newly renovated greenhouse were conducted. Bird banding was demonstrated and current research on native birds were explained at the University of Hawaiʻi Research station. 

In addition to exhibits by Friends of Hakalau Forest and U.S. Fish and Wildlife, there were 10 other exhibitors at the Refuge. They included American Bird Conservancy, Big Island Invasive Species Council, Department of Forestry and Wildlifeʻs Snail Extinction Preservation Program, Hawaiʻi Wildlife Center, ʻImiloa Center, Terraformation Hawaiʻi, UH College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources (CTAHR) Rapid Ōhia Death, UH - Hiloʻs Elala Biodiversity Lab, and Waikōloa Dry Forest Initiative. Attendees received free postcards featuring native snails, or a My Hawaiʻi Native Bird Checklist to take on their walk in the forest, as well as lots of other conservation information.

Everyone left with smiles. We hope you can join us in 2026. More information will be sent in the Summer 2026 Newsletter.

Hawai'i Island Festival of Birds Mahalo!

Mahalo to everyone who stopped by our FOHF booth at the Hawai'i Island Festival of Birds on October 26th! And big mahalo to Jim Jacobi, Springer Kaye, Steve Kendall, and Cara Thow for the amazing panel presentation "40th Anniversary of Hakalau Wildlife Refuge – A story of vision, passion, execution and hope for the future"!

Left to Right: Springer Kaye, Cara Thow, Steve Kendall, and Jim Jacobi

Birds Not Mosquitoes Newsletter Fall 2025 Issue

Article: The Power of Place: Hakalau Forest NWR

Check out the amazing Audubon Magazine article about FOHF's former Board Member Bret Nainoa Mossman, "This Man Is on a Quest to Document Hawaii’s Far-Flung Bird Specimens—and Maybe Even Bring Some Home"

New Friends of Hakalau Forest NWR Calendars!

Hot off the presses! Two new items!

Hakalau Forest NWR Calendars are available for the holidays!



If you're looking for some unique holiday gifts this year, check out all of our merchandise at the FOHF NWR Store.

Check out the David Shepard Collaboration Shirts and Pareau pictured below!

Pictured in this print are the ʻakiapōlā'au and Hawaiʻi ʻakepa, in their habitat of koa and ʻōhia trees, with the lichen koa umi covering their branches. These critically endangered bird species find a safe home in the Hakalau Forest NWR.

INTERESTED IN A VOLUNTEER TRIP?

Want to get into the forest and help with the restoration projects on the refuge? Please see the dates below and contact information for the trip leaders. If you're willing and able to spend the weekend helping with our efforts, send a message to the corresponding trip leader.

These trips fill up fast, so be sure to contact our trip leaders today!

The Friends of Hakalau Forest NWR is a membership organization. Membership dues and donations to the Friends are our only source of funds allowing us to cover our expenses (for example this newsletter) and to make grants.