(Makiki Valley State Recreation Area, O'ahu) - Gloved hands, swinging blades, cutting with saws, and digging with shovels dug up and chopped down invasive plants along the banks of Makiki Stream April 20, 2024, during an annual Earth Day clean-up.

The DLNR Division of State Parks (DSP), and the N? Ala Hele trails program of the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife, along with several community groups, mobilized volunteers for work along a mile-long stretch of the waterway.

“We’re removing various invasive species, putting in native plants and then working on some hillside erosion prevention,” said Kekai Mar with DSP. He organized the upper Makiki stream project, while simultaneous Earth Day clean-ups were underway at Diamond Head State Monument and at Sand Island State Recreation Area.

Nearly three dozen volunteers worked with the DLNR crews, while downstream another 200 people performed similar work. Before the hard work began, volunteers were provided with gloves and instructions on the tools they’d be using. Emma Ho and Aaron Lowe, of the N? Ala Hele program held up a half dozen target plants to be removed.

“Twenty years ago, we started the work to make the area more native, by bringing in native plants and trees. A recent grant from the Honolulu Board of Water Supply allowed us to hire a service member from Kupu to really start focusing on getting bad plants out and good ones in,” Lowe explained.

Recently DLNR planted 30-40 koa trees. Some of the first plants put in two decades ago are now full grown, elders as Lowe describes them, and with keikis being planted today and previously, he says the streambank is starting to come back and looking good. “It’s kind of that secret garden story where you open the doors and it’s all overgrown and you pull all the weeds, plants and vines, restore native plants and get it looking good again. We’re getting there,” Lowe added.

Mar said, “Having all these community and school groups, our curators, staff, and volunteers from across the state and the country show up, gives the volunteers a real sense of pride. In many cases they’re giving back to the spaces where they live. They want to be part of something larger than themselves.”

In addition to the removal of invasive species another benefit of the work is getting debris out of the stream that can clog it and contribute to flooding downstream. Makiki stream flows all the way to the Ala Wai canal and Marr says what happens mauka has impacts downstream. “It’s important to collectively manage the stream, not just sections or parcels,” Mar explained. DLNR hopes to conduct clean-ups on Makiki stream more often than once a year, so if anyone missed out on today’s opportunity, watch for future ones.