Can you put a price tag on the feeling you get when you spot a rare bird at the water’s edge? Or the weightlessness you experience when launching a canoe? How about the glow of feeding your community with fish you’ve caught with your family?
At He‘eia Reserve, a new professional development program for food service workers impacted by COVID-19 supports local community members while advancing a mission of revitalizing Indiginous food systems on Reserve lands.
This month, NERRA’s correspondent-at-large Nik Charov chats with Hawaiian Renaissance Man Dr. Kawika Winter, manager at the new He’eia Reserve, about being a botanist in a marine biology world.
He’eia Reserve works with its partners to manage Indigenous wetland agro-ecology (loʻi kalo) and aquaculture systems (loko iʻa) to feed communities, restore land, support native species, and build climate resilience.
Heʻeia Reserve’s Coastal Training Program (CTP) aided a University of Hawaiʻi COVID-19 working group to expand COVID-19 testing capacity on Oʻahu. The new partnership’s goal is to perform up to 100,000 tests.
Pre-proposals for the National Coastal Resilience Fund, available through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, are due by April 8. The fund will award $31 million to projects that restore and strengthen vital natural infrastructure.