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Funding and Staffing Cuts Harming Our Forests and Wetlands

ByKate Righter

Over the past few months, there has been an enormous numbers of cuts to federal programs, grants, and staffing. This is a partial list of the impacts to organizations helping protect and restore Hawaii’s natural environment. Please email me: info@katerighter.com or fill out the contact form if you have more you’d like me to add.

Fundraisers for Hawaii Non-Profits

These organizations are collecting donations and looking for business partners and other funding resources to keep their important programs going.

Funding Cuts and Freezes

Maui Forest Birds — Protecting Maui’s endangered forest birds and to restore their native forest habitats.

Wildfire Safety Advocates of Waikaloa — Advocating for enhanced wildfire safety measures for Waikōloa Village. (Note: wildfires not only cause harm to people’s lives, homes, and businesses, but destroy native forests and animals, but also pollute the ground, air, and waters.)

  • $75,000 grant suspended to remove trees from around high-risk power lines: HPR Article

Hui o Ho’ohonua (HOH808)– Clearing invasive species from waterways around Puʻuloa, or Pearl Harbor, which also helps reduce the risk of flooding in the area.

  • Grant funding suspended, organization had to let go of all employees: HPR article

Staffing Cuts

Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge — Restoring, protecting, and conserving biological diversity at Hakalau Forest, while also providing wildlife-dependent recreation such as wildlife observation and photography, environmental education and interpretation, cultural experiences, and scientific research.

Kauai National Wildlife Refuge Complex — Protecting migratory seabirds and threatened and endangered species including the nēnē (Hawaiian Goose) and ʻaʻo (Newell’s Shearwater) populations and their habitats.

Other Agencies and Programs Affected

University of Hawaiʻi’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology — Research into sea level rise, flooding, coastal erosion, and other climate impacts is important to policymaking and already provides the basis for several laws passed by the state Legislature.

  • Expected stop-work order on major source of funding, a grant from the federal Office of Naval Research: HPR article

National Park Service — Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii island, Haleakala National Park on Maui, and the USS Arizona Memorial and its visitor center at Pearl Harbor National Memorial.

Prevention of the spread of the brown tree snake — Workers on Guam who have kept the invasive brown tree snake out of Hawaiʻi were recently spared from losing their jobs in a federal cut — but are now being forced from the facilities where they work. The U.S. General Services Administration has ended the lease for facilities on Guam where about 60 contracted U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services employees work to keep the invasive snake off departing planes and ships.

  • Lease for building ended, location for program unknown, status of employees up in the air: HPR Article

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