Kohala Watershed Partnership

History & Mission

Kohala Mountain’s watershed and native forest found within is the main source of drinking and irrigation water for North and South Kohala and parts of Hāmākua. The native forest functions like a sponge, capturing rain and fog and replenishing streams and groundwater.

In 2003, the Kohala Watershed Partnership (KWP), a voluntary group of major private landowners, public resource managers, and committed organizations, came together to protect and restore Kohala’s native forested watershed across property boundaries for water recharge, biodiversity, Hawaiian culture, and other benefits.

KWP’s work in the 67,000-acre watershed is guided by a 20-year management plan linked below that defines actions for minimizing threats to the watershed while preserving its resources.

Irrigation water ditch — Drinking water reservoir

Click any image to view in a slideshow.

Partners

Parker Ranch
Kahuā Ranch
Makani Ua Ranch
Ponoholo Ranch
Kamehameha Schools
Queen Emma Land Company
Laupāhoehoe Nui, LLC

Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources
Hawaiʻi Department of Hawaiian Home Lands
Hawaiʻi County Department of Water Supply
The Nature Conservancy
The Kohala Center

Our Logo

The Kohala Watershed Partnership’s logo features loulu, native palm trees with fan-shaped leaves. Two endangered species of loulu are found on Kohala, including Pritchardia lanigera and Pritchardia gordonii. The latter was recently identified and is only found on Kohala. The loulu are an example of the unique native species that are essential to our watershed forests. 

Management Priorities

The Kohala Watershed Partnership’s primary management goals are to:

Protect water resources
Protect and restore native watershed forest
Control feral animals and invasive plants

KWP works towards these goals through activities such as fencing, feral animal removal, invasive plant control, outplanting native plants, monitoring, and community outreach.

Forest recovery after fence installation (PC_ TKC) — Collecting pilo seeds

Click any image to view in a slideshow.

Ecosystem Highlights

The Kohala watershed includes about 67,000 acres of forest and grasslands on the windward and leeward slopes of Kohala Mountain. It is rich in natural and cultural resources, unique ecosystems, and rare and endangered plants and animals. The windward slope is dominated by wet and mesic lowland and montane forests and shrublands. Whereas, the leeward slope is characterized by montane wet forest with an abrupt transition to pasture at ma uka fencelines. Within the forest, montane bogs are found on poorly drained flat areas at high elevations, and the cliffs of windward valleys are vegetated with shrubs and trees. As a result of this range, the Kohala watershed supports over 155 known native plants and animals, some of which can be found nowhere else.

The last known member of the tree snail family Achatinellidae on Hawaiʻi Island, Partulina physa, can still be found on Kohala but is on the brink of extinction. The Kohala Watershed Partnership along with some of its partners, the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Parker Ranch, and Ponoholo Ranch, are working to ensure their survival.

Native land snails are significant in Hawaiian culture. Some of the many recorded names for them are kāhuli and pūpūkanioe. In the moʻolelo kaʻao (legend) of Laukaʻieʻie written by Moses Manu from 1894 to 1895 in Hawaiian newspapers, the forest goddess Laukaʻieʻie learns the following mele (song, chant) from a pūpūhinihiniʻula (a type of land snail) at her mountain home on Kohala:

Kāhuli aku,
Kāhuli mai,
Kāhuli lei ʻula,
Lei ʻākōlea.
Kōlea, kōlea,
Kiʻi i ka wai,
Wai ʻākōlea,
Wai ʻākōlea.

Turn that way,
Turn this way,
Land snail wreathed in red,
Garland of the ʻākōlea.
Plover, plover,
Fetch the water,
Water from the ʻākōlea,
Water from the ʻākōlea.

Pūpūkanioe (Partulina physa) on ʻōhiʻa — Montane wet forest on leeward Kohala

Click any image to view in a slideshow.

Top Threats

Some of the main threats to Kohala’s watershed are hooved animals such as pigs, invasive plants such as kāhili ginger, and diseases such as Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death.

Invasive kāhili ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum)

Pig impact on forest understory — Invasive kāhili ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum)

Click any image to view in a slideshow.

KWP Area

KWP Priority Projects Map — KWP Priority Projects, June 2024

KWP Landownership Map — KWP Landownership, April 2023

Click any image to expand.

How You Can Help

Please contact the Kohala Watershed Partnership Coordinator if you are interested in learning more, getting involved, or supporting KWP with a donation using the contact information below.

News, Updates, Job/Volunteer Openings:

The Kohala Watershed Partnership is a project with the Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Please visit www.rcuh.com/work/careers to look for job openings with KWP.