CONTACT INFORMATION
Kauai Research Station
7370-A Kuamoo Road
Kapaa, HI 96746
Phone: (808) 635-8290
Fax: (808) 822-2190
RESEARCH INTERESTS
The focus of my program is sustainability in the broad sense. How do we redevelop our community’s economy, agriculture, energy use, and environmental management in a way that reflects our provincial nature? We use the traditional Hawaiian concept of ahupua`a as a model for redirecting our island’s socioecological system. This model requires detailed and holistic understanding and management of watersheds by the residential users where information and actions are embedded in a philosophy of local sustainability and the health of community and family.
The focus of my program is sustainability in the broad sense. How do we redevelop our community’s economy, agriculture, energy use, and environmental management in a way that reflects our provincial nature? We use the traditional Hawaiian concept of ahupua`a as a model for redirecting our island’s socioecological system. This model requires detailed and holistic understanding and management of watersheds by the residential users where information and actions are embedded in a philosophy of local sustainability and the health of community and family.
I function largely through a place-based partnership in the ahupua`a of Waipa and Lumaha`i. Here we assist a Hawaiian community-based organization in the redevelopment entire ahupua`a as s demonstration and learning center for our sustainability model. Programs include sustainable agriculture, traditional Hawaiian aquaculture, reforestation, conservation, stream research and water management, environmental monitoring, watershed function research, and energy independence. I develop, direct or participate in formal K through graduate education programs in additional to more informal educational programs. The program emphasizes place-based science as an important way of understanding the ahupua`a system and its components. I direct research programs at several levels, from student projects conducted on-site, to community-based stream assessments, to NSF-funded large-scale ecological monitoring.
