Kula Community Watershed Alliance

Kula Community Watershed Alliance is a land restoration initiative led by many of the fire survivors living in the burned areas of the August 2023 wildfire that devastated Kula, Maui. With the guidance of subject matter experts, we have joined together as neighbors in unified support of our land‘s recovery from the fires and the establishment of a safer landscape and optimum watershed health in our area. We are committed to stabilizing and regenerating the disturbed soil, restoring and protecting site-appropriate native flora and fauna, and stewarding the long-term vitality of the lands we call home. As we recover from the wildfire, we look beyond the bounds of the burn scar to the greater community both beside us and down slope from us in hopes of restoring our entire moku (district) of Kula to a more resilient native landscape and healthier watershed.

In August 2023, approximately 230 acres of the Waiakoa watershed in Upper Kula, including over 23 homes and dozens of structures and a thick forest of invasive Australian Black Wattle trees, burned to the ground. This historic wildfire took place inside a steep valley referred to as Pōhakuokalā in higher elevations, and Pūlehu in lower elevations. According to historical record, this invasive tree-dominated landscape was once one of the most biodiverse native habitats on the slopes of pre-contact Haleakalā. A critical source of fresh groundwater and a food source for endangered native species, this area–a montane, mesic forest once hosting a convergence of both windward and leeward species–is in need of our support now more than ever. The people living in this watershed have seen the health of the land decline over decades, and in the aftermath of the wildfire, are eager to restore vitality to the place they call home. This region is equally important for our neighbors down stream: the waters that flow through our gulches feed Keālia Pond and the South Maui wetlands – home to endangered species. This critical watershed has been seriously destabilized and is now at risk in the aftermath of the wildfire. Neighbors immediately joined together to commit to the recovery and long-term stewardship of this special place. The Kula Community Watershed Alliance was founded by those stewards.