Forestry & Wildlife

Join the celebration of Hawai‘i’s endemic trees at the 2021 ʻŌhiʻa Love Festival. Expanding from a single species to an entire ecosystem, this year’s festival theme is “Celebrate Forests.”  

(HONOLULU)- The DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) announces the opening of the 2021-2022 Game Bird Hunting Season on Saturday, November 6, 2021. The fall game bird hunting season will run through Sunday, January 30, 2022. To comply with federal mandates, including the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and to meet current state regulations, the last day for hunting mourning dove will be January 16, 2022.

(Līhuʻe) – It was last seen on Hawai‘i Island five years ago and thought possibly to be extinct. A rare, critically endangered fern that grows on ʻōhiʻa and on a few other native tree was recently discovered by a team from the Hawai‘i Plant Extinction Prevention Program (PEPP). 

(HONOLULU) – Imagine your job is hanging 300 feet on a thin rope, on nearly vertical cliffs, in Waimea Canyon on Kaua‘i. This is precisely what Adam Williams, a botanist with the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW), and Scott Heintzman with the state’s Plant Extinction Prevention Program (PEPP) do on a regular basis. 

(HONOLULU) – 100,000,000 is a hard number to wrap your head around. One trillion is even tougher and that’s the number of trees a new challenge hopes to plant, conserve, or restore this decade worldwide. https://www.1t.org/ 1t.org is part of the World Economic Forum’s efforts to accelerate nature-based solutions and was set up to support the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030. 

(KAHULUI) – The rusting fence around the Kanahā Pond Wildlife Sanctuary on Maui is closer to being replaced with a predator-proof fence, with Governor Ige’s Wednesday release of initial funding for the project. The bird sanctuary, surrounded by urban and industrial development, has also been a focus of this week’s mass clean-up of trash, vehicles, and camps from adjacent Amala Place. 

(Kailua, Oahu) – While prepping to board a nearby amphibious vehicle, Hawai’i State Senators Chris Lee and Jarrett Keohokalole are briefed by DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) Administrator David Smith and staff on the ecological significance of the Kawainui Marsh State Wildlife Sanctuary. Last month, the two senators embarked on a tour of the restoration efforts in the historic wetlands. 

(Kahului, Maui) – As Maui County crews and contractors continued cleaning up trash, personal belongings, and abandoned vehicles from a ¾ mile stretch of Amala Place, staff from three DLNR divisions (Land, Forestry & Wildlife, Conservation and Resources Enforcement) began removing illegal camps from adjoining State lands. 

(HILO) – The Mana Road fire that burned along Old Saddle Road on the slopes of Mauna Kea on Hawai‘i Island was one of the largest wildland fires in recorded Hawai‘i history. In late July and early August, it scorched more than 42,000 acres of mostly grassland above Waimea and largely on the Parker Ranch. 

(Līhuʻe) – Two fences, one predator proof and the other ungulate proof, are currently under construction in the Nā Pali-Kona Forest Reserve and adjacent Kōke’e State Park. Much of the funding for the project is coming from the Department of Defense’s Readiness Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program. The funding is the first in the nation for what is considered a non-mitigation project.