One segment of the massive 2018 wildfires that burned an estimated 9,000 acres of Leeward Oʻahu started next to Eric Enos’ farm in Waiʻanae Valley.

Ka‘ala Farm and Cultural Learning Center backs up to wild lands of guinea grass and spindly haole koa trees. Beyond that are the slopes of the Waiʻanae Range, with Mount Ka‘ala towering overhead at 4,000 feet.

Enos has spent decades carving out a small oasis from the former sugar cane fields. Water for the farm’s terraced lo‘i kalo and shade trees originates from Kānewai stream in the Waiʻanae Kai Forest Reserve, which then funnels into dike rock and through hand-laid pipes to his property.

But everywhere around them is hot and dry.

On Saturday, Aug. 4, two busloads of students were visiting when Enos spotted smoke rising from a nearby spot along the narrow road leading to his property. He called the Fire Department, which was already fighting another blaze in Nānākuli. When they arrived, the trucks couldn’t get close as the fire was spreading downwind toward the town, blocking the road.

“We were totally trapped,” recalls Enos.

He gathered the young people near the taro ponds and hoped the winds would keep pushing the fire away. But as some of the flames crept toward them, Enos and his team furiously doused them with 5-gallon buckets of water from nearby Honua Stream.

It bought time for helicopters from the Honolulu Fire Department, the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife, and the Department of Defense to arrive, dumping water from huge buckets.

The fire burned across three valleys, turning the air black and forcing residents to flee. It took two weeks before rains finally extinguished the stubborn patches in the back of Mākaha Valley, says Clay Trauernicht, a botanist and fire scientist in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management at UH Mānoa.

“If you had asked me earlier if climate change is affecting fire, I would’ve been skeptical,” he says. “But after the 2018 fire … I would say we’re definitely seeing the impacts of climate change. Record-breaking heat and incredibly low humidity levels are driving these fires beyond the ability to put them out.”

While Leeward Oʻahu is a hotspot, brush fires are happening more frequently on every island, and in every location, even the wet windward coasts.

Experts such as Trauernicht are sounding the alarm that the rapid spread of invasive grasses, pronounced rainfall and drought cycles that intensify the grasses’ fuel loads, and more people doing reckless things – sometimes intentionally, as with the 2018 Leeward Oʻahu fires, but often accidentally too – have resulted in a 400% increase in wildfires over the past several decades.

From 1904 through the 1980s, Trauernicht estimates that 5,000 acres on average burned each year in Hawai‘i. In the decades that followed, that number jumped to 20,000 acres burned.

The good news is there are ways to slow or stop fires, from targeted grazing to creating fuel breaks to ensuring “defensible spaces” around homes. While Hawai‘i rarely sees the kind of infernos that California gets, dramatic changes are happening to the landscape that are making conditions more dangerous.

The Trouble With Guinea Grass

Sometime around the turn of the 20th century, after the plantation economy had been established, wild grasses from the African savanna made their way to Hawai‘i.

Guinea grass, or Megathyrsus maximus, is remarkably hardy. While the grass turns pale and lifeless during droughts, it bounces back after a single rainfall. In heavy rains, long green shoots can sprout overnight.

Guinea grass grows quickly after rainfall, adding to its fuel load during dry conditions. | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Guinea grass and fountain grass, along with nonnative scrubland, now cover about a quarter of Hawai‘i’s land, or 1 million acres, says Trauernicht. Much of that land was once used for farming and ranching; it now lies vacant, the remnants of faded industries.

A 2020 report from the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture shows that, of the 1.93 million acres designated for agriculture in the state, only 6.2% was being used to grow crops. Another 40% was being used as pastureland. That’s less cropland than in the 2015 census, which was taken shortly before the closing of the last sugar mill on Maui, HC&S, the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.

With many grazing animals gone and fields left fallow, nonnative grasses flourish. And they’re highly flammable. A single spark – from a campfire or a car’s hot catalytic converter rolling across a field – can trigger massive wildfires, such as the July 2019 blaze in Maui’s central valley that burned through 10,000 acres of old sugar cane fields.

“These monotypic strands of grasses are monstrous,” says Trauernicht. “They just attain enormous fuel loads. I can’t find parallels anywhere, and I’ve dug deep in the literature, that compares to the amount of fuels that we get with guinea grasses and even fountain grasses.”

The worst-case scenario, says Trauernicht, is when heavy rains trigger rapid growth, followed by severe drought, which withers the grass and turns it into tinder. “And, boom, our fire risk goes through the roof.”

In September, nearly all of the state fell into the range of abnormally dry to the most dire category, exceptional drought, according to the federal government’s U.S. Drought Monitor.

In the past three years, about 30% of the state has experienced long periods of harsher drought conditions – categorized as severe, extreme and exceptional – where fire risk is high. But the most intense drought in the past two decades was the week of March 9, 2010, when 6.6% of the state was under exceptional drought conditions. Such conditions can kill cattle and crops.

Ranching and Farming in Hawai‘i: 1937 vs. 2015

The maps show major shifts in the amount of land devoted to grazing and growing crops over 78 years. Pastures are marked in red and farms in black. As Hawai‘i’s economy changed and agriculture has shrunk, more land is left fallow and grazing animals are removed. Guinea grass and other nonnative species take over the landscapes. They have extremely high “fuel loads,” making fires larger and more intense.

Source: Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture, “Statewide Agricultural Land Use Baseline 2015”

Native Vegetation Lost

Wildfires spread to Hawai’i’s native ecosystems as well, especially dryland forests, which have been devastated by fire. About 90% of those forests have been lost over the past century.

Michael Walker, head of the wildland fire program at the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW), has seen entire wiliwili forests destroyed by grass-driven fires.

“They’re not fire adept at all,” says Walker. “When a fire rolls through, it’s just going to kill 100% of them, and they’re not going to come back. The native plants don’t have that ability.”

Walker got interested in fire ecology as a student at the University of Florida, where he examined the fire-adapted ecosystems of the Southeast.

He calls the area “the lightning strike capital of the continent,” where fire is a dominant force in the ecosystem’s evolution. Many pine cones, he explains, only release their seeds with the heat of intense fires; the seeds then germinate in the bare mineral soil left behind.

But Hawai‘i is altogether different. Historically, lightning is rare and volcanic activity was fairly short in duration. Unlike much of the mainland, Hawai‘i’s plants evolved “in the absence of fire as an ecosystem driver,” he says.

The result is a grass-fire cycle, “where every time a forested area burns, it becomes a more hospitable environment for these nonnative grasses and shrubs to reproduce and thrive,” says Walker. He calls it “the nouveau Hawaiian savanna.”

What’s often missing, he says, are large animals to eat the grasses, as you’d find in Africa. “The pasture grasses and other grasses have started to alter these landscapes in a way that it’s hard to reverse.”

Area Burned Each Year in Hawai‘i Has Risen Dramatically in Recent Decades

Starting in the 1990s, an average of 20,000 acres burns each year, which is about four times the average seen in 1904 to 1989. The spike in 1969 was from a single wildfire in Pu‘u Anahulu on the Big Island, which burned 41,000 acres. In 1904, after a huge wildfire burned for months on the Hāmākua coast, Hawai‘i’s forest reserve system was launched and began reporting on wildfires.

Source: Clay Trauernicht, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, UH Mānoa.

Battling Wildfires

Walker, along with about 200 others at DOFAW, have taken workplace cross-training to new levels. When “gray sky” duties call, teams drop their “blue sky” activities, such as grant writing and restoration work, and gear up to battle blazes.

With 26% of the Islands under the forestry division jurisdiction, much of it rugged and difficult to access, firefighting can be challenging work. Depending on the weather and terrain, the teams might use hand tools to shovel dirt and bulldozers to cut firebreaks – earthen paths where vegetation has been cleared.

Until recently, their firefighting duties were completely unfunded, says Walker. Fire suppression had been bundled into DOFAW’s tiny $600,000 annual budget for all forestry and wildlife efforts. Some of its equipment is from the Vietnam War era.

But after the past legislative session, Walker says state funding rose to $3 million, supplemented with grants and federal assistance from the U.S. Forest Service. It’s enough to start purchasing off-road water-hauling trucks that can better reach wildfires and building water tanks in remote areas where helicopters can refill.

DOFAW firefighters put out hot spots on Aug. 6, 2018, along the firebreak above Eric Enos’ property. Native trees are currently being planted in the foreground area. | Photo: Clay Trauernicht

The DOFAW team supports county firefighters working in urban areas as well. When the eastern slope of Mānoa Valley burned in September 2020, Walker worked with a “hand crew” on the hillside and directed helicopter drops and water cannon blasts from fire trucks parked along the streets.

“I was concerned it was going to burn houses and more forest,” recalls Walker. “Wild grass burns really hot and really quickly. The fire can get out of control.”

Hawai‘i’s Agricultural Footprint Continues to Shrink

The drop between 2015 and 2020 was mostly the result of Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. closing on Maui, which took 38,810 acres of sugarcane out of production.

Source: Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture, “2020 Update to the Hawai‘i Statewide Agricultural Land Use Baseline.”

Source: Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture, “2020 Update to the Hawai‘i Statewide Agricultural Land Use Baseline.”

Big Island Burns

That happened last year, when the largest fire in recent years exploded on the northwest slope of Mauna Kea on Hawai‘i Island. The 2021 Mana Road fire, which burned 42,000 acres, or more than 62 square miles, started on a red-flag warning day and was swept by winds up into the mountains then branched in different directions.

“There was no way to do a frontal attack, and the ruggedness of that area really didn’t lend itself to being able to put dozer lines in quickly or being able to attack from the flanks,” says Eric Moller, Hawai‘i Island deputy fire chief, who was working on the fire’s incident management team.

As more people and resources arrived from DOFAW, the National Park Service and the U.S. Army Garrison on Hawai‘i Island, the fire eventually was wrestled under control. But it was a herculean effort, with resources stretched thin.

“In California, you’ll hear about a 4,000-acre fire just north of LA with 200 firefighters on the scene,” says Moller. “We’ll have a 20,000-acre fire with 35 people fighting it,” including volunteers.

For context, fire scientist Trauernicht says the Mana Road fire burned 1% of the island’s land area. Over the course of a year, wildfires in California burn, on average, 0.7% of the state’s land area. Across the islands, the percentage of land burned each year can rival that of Western states.

Hawai‘i Island faces some novel challenges as well, such as wildfires crisscrossing through fountain grass, an invasive grass found on the island’s arid leeward side. In the morning, as the winds travel down the mountains, fire is pushed along the dry tops of the grass, burning it off and exposing the moist bunches underneath. But at night, he says, the winds reverse course and send the fire back up to burn the now dried-out understory.

“It’s insidious,” says Moller, “and it bounces back from fire very, very quickly.”

Moller says he isn’t an alarmist, but people should know that conditions are changing. “We’re getting bigger fires,” he says. “Lightning strike fires were very rare when I got here (in 2003), yet now it’s starting to happen more often.”

Elizabeth Pickett, co-executive director of the Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization (HWMO), agrees the changes are pronounced.

“Fifteen years ago, we talked about a fire season, and it had a lot to do with when the fuels (grasses) were dry and when it was most windy. Now we’re starting to see fires happen on both the wet and dry sides of every island,” says Pickett.

The threat is real and not going away, adds Moller. “And we don’t have the money or equipment to effectively safeguard all the communities. They need to take those steps themselves.”

Communities Take Action

Elizabeth Pickett began working in wildfire management as an environmental scientist interested in coastal waters. It became clear, though, that Hawai‘i’s ocean health is directly linked to wildfires, which strip the vegetation and send reef-smothering sediment into nearshore waters.

With Nani Barretto, Pickett leads HWMO, a small Waimea-based nonprofit that punches far above its weight. The organization has become a hub for the wider community – scientists, government agencies, large landowners, neighborhood groups and firefighters at the county, state and federal levels – to share information and resources.

And Hawai‘i, she warns, is a fire-prone state that hasn’t prepared properly for the risks. “Our budgets, our policies, legislation, fireworks laws – nothing has really caught up to the threat that we see on the ground.”

The organization’s first major success came in 2005, when it helped the Kona Coast’s Waikoloa Village create a firebreak between homes there and the wildlands. Just days after the project was completed, a 25,000-acre fire burned to the break and spared the houses.

Pickett focuses on large-scale issues, such as mapping high-priority areas for vegetation management. But she also works directly with residents across the Islands to help them protect their homes and communities.

The organization’s fire-prevention guides, including Ready, Set, Go and the Firewise Guide to Landscape and Construction, advise people to clear away debris from gutters and under houses, keep lawns short, trim the lower branches of trees, replace wooden fences with stone, invest in shingled roofs made with fire-resistant material, and many other strategies.

Some residents are taking steps. In Makakilo, Craig Fujii, a retired fire captain from Alameda County, California, is well aware of the risks. His house looks out on the foothills of the Wai‘anae Range, with sweeping views to Diamond Head.

From his backyard, a low rock wall drops to arid land below, one of many “urban-wildland interfaces” across O‘ahu’s heavily populated south side. He’s cleared away shrub trees and grasses and created a small-scale firebreak. The long-term goal is to make the rock wall higher to better protect against the wind and potential flying embers.

He says the biggest worry is a brush fire that starts near the highway, gets swept up the mountain by ocean winds and gains speed as the rising heat of the flames preheats the fuels on the slopes and intensifies the fire.

People Are Triggers

Pickett, Trauernicht and other researchers analyzed wildfire records from 2005 to 2011. They found that grassland and shrubland made up the vast majority of land burned (an average of 8,427 hectares, or 20,815 acres, per year).

But 66% of wildfires actually started in populated areas, and there are far more of those kind of fires than most people realize. O‘ahu sees about 500 to 600 ignitions a year, says Trauernicht, most of which are quickly extinguished by the Fire Department.

In total, there were 7,054 reported wildfires across the state during the seven-year span studied, and 6,218 listed a cause of ignition. Of those, 1.5% were attributed to natural causes, 2% to arson, 16% to accidents and the rest were “undetermined” or “unknown.”

But in nearly all cases, people are to blame, with the top causes being campfires, fireworks, and heat and sparks from vehicles and equipment, says Pickett.

In the high-risk fire zone of East Honolulu, Elizabeth Lockard, who lives near the entrance to Koko Head District Park, has witnessed numerous ignitions in the park. One was in 2011, when an employee at the park’s public shooting range discharged a flare gun, charring a patch of mountain above the targets.

In 2017, another started higher up the mountain, behind the shooting range. Ocean winds helped spread the fire and black smoke, forcing hikers to scramble down to safety. An investigation into the cause was inconclusive.

Several other fires have broken out in the park, none of them minor, says Lockard. She says she’s frustrated with the nonchalant attitude of investigators and the fact that nothing changes. “But what is the catalyst to change if there’s not loss of life or property?” she asks.

Matt Glei, who lives in Kalama Valley, remembers coming home on the evening of July 4, 2010, to see fire racing toward his house. That blaze started from illegal fireworks.

“The firefighters were running up the mountain in full kit, dragging hoses from a pump truck,” recalls Glei. “It was scary to watch, and it’s hard, hard work.”

Glei is a leader of the Kamilonui Valley/Mariner’s Cove Firewise Community, which is part of a nationwide network committed to reducing fire risk. The local Firewise branch, which is overseen and funded by HWMO, has 15 active groups in the Islands, most on Hawai‘i Island.

The sole O‘ahu community started after a series of fires in 2017 and 2018 burned the valley’s slopes and threatened the farmhouses and nearby suburban development. Today, about 450 households have banded together to protect their neighborhood.

In June, for example, the community rented dumpsters to clear away debris lining an unused gravel road, which serves as a firebreak between a fuel-covered mountain and two dozen homes in Mariner’s Cove.

Managing Vegetation: Where to Start First

Managing wild grasses and shrubs is essential for reducing wildfire risk. In 2018 and 2019, the Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization brought together 182 people – lawmakers, landowners, ranchers, emergency responders, community members and others – for six planning meetings across the Islands. Participants mapped areas that have hazardous vegetation and weather, high rates of ignitions, and that pose high risks to communities, natural resources or infrastructure. The results are heat maps that target areas to prioritize.

Source: Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization, “A Collaborative, Landscape-Level Approach to Reduce Wildfire Hazard Across Hawai‘i, 2018-2019.”

Fighting Back with Animals and Trees

While most of the Firewise communities use people and machines to clear away vegetation, others are turning to managed grazing.

On O‘ahu’s West Side, Ka‘ala Farm and Cultural Learning Center operates on a shoestring, but its land management and fire mitigation practices are ambitious. Enos says the operation recently removed 40 tons of trash that was dumped along Wai‘anae Valley Road and cleared an area for fire trucks to turn around.

The team is now clearing swaths of scrubland and planting trees that do well in the environment, such as mango, sandalwood, ‘ō‘hi‘a lehua and ‘ulu. Much of the hard work is handled by 10 hungry sheep, which strip away the bark and leaves of haole koa and devour the green blades of guinea grass.

A.K. Ahi, left, and Eric Enos with grazing sheep at Ka‘ala Farm and Cultural Learning Center. | Photo: Chavonnie Ramos

A.K. Ahi teaches at the center and leads the grazing effort. He cordons the sheep in a mobile paddock and moves them from patch to patch. Eventually, as the animals breed, he plans to move the flock to a large tract of land that adjoins the center.

“The ranch side has 1,000 acres, and it’s all dry grasses. It’s a huge fire hazard for us,” says Ahi.

Photo: Chavonnie Ramos

While free-roaming cows and other hoofed animals can wreak havoc in forested areas, “strategic, managed grazing is our best tool for fire-fuels management and risk reduction,” explains Pickett. She says there’s a strong “anti-ungulate” faction among environmentalists, but that Hawai‘i’s wildfire problem would be far worse without grazing.

Ahi also volunteers to help clear a nearly milelong firebreak on a northern slope above the center’s property, which is managed by the Wai‘anae Mountains Watershed Partnership.

Yumi Miyata, the partnership’s coordinator, has introduced a vegetated section to the firebreak made up of native plants, which students in Wai‘anae, Nānākuli and Mililani help grow and plant. She says the goal is to restore sections of the forest and shade out the flammable understory of grasses.

These kinds of vegetated breaks, or lines of trees planted on the landscape, helped slow down the intensity of the Mana Road fire on Hawai‘i Island, says Trauernicht.

While low humidity and high winds caused the fire to rip through grazed pasture land, it bypassed areas with trees. “You can see that the fire burned around those areas,” he explains, while the grazed areas failed to stop the fire’s spread.

Many of the island’s large landowners are looking at how they can “disrupt the continuity and connectivity of the grasslands with tree planting,” he says. Parker Ranch, for example, is working on a huge reforestation project on 3,300 acres of grassy pastureland on the slopes of Mauna Kea.

Trauernicht says he’d like to see the state government get on board and subsidize agriculture as a public good. “There are lots of examples in Europe of forestry agencies paying farmers to graze fuels, just for the fire risk reduction.”

In the meantime, the Parker Ranch restoration and smaller projects like those at Ka‘ala Farm are making an impact. Now, Pickett says, is the time to scale up efforts throughout Hawai‘i’s vulnerable communities and landscapes.

“One of the biggest things we need to prepare ourselves for in relation to climate change is fire,” she says. “The more we do toward wildfire preparedness, protection, mitigation, and even community building is climate change resilience in action.”

The global accelerator Hatch uses its Kona branch as part of its mission to reduce the footprint of farmed and alternative seafood.

Co-founder and partner Wayne Murphy calls Hatch the world’s first aquaculture accelerator. “There’s an amazing array of aquaculture technologies that we have invested in. We’ve sent out a global call for applications pretty much every year since we started” in 2017, he says.

Hatch has three locations: in Norway and Singapore and at Kailua-Kona’s Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park, also known as the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority.

The 2019 cohort was in-person and its 14 startups began their accelerator training and development in Kona before moving on to Norway and ending in Singapore. Due to the Covid pandemic, the 2020 cohort was completely virtual and included eight startups.

Crystal Johnson, who is in charge of business development for Hatch, is from Ha‘ikū, Maui, and was mentored by her father in the seafood industry. She says he gave her an in-depth knowledge of seafood development and procurement.

The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority in Kailua-Kona. | Photo: courtesy of Hatch Blue

The Natural Energy Laboratory is an excellent location for Hatch, she says.

“NELHA in Kona is one of the world’s premier aquaculture parks. Almost nowhere else in the world has what this park has,” Johnson says.

Water is pumped into the park from the bottom of the deepest underwater sea cliffs in the world. The water’s temperature allows for cold water species to thrive and if surface water is added, warm water species can be grown too.

“You can grow a variety of species in warm or cold water where in most aquaculture parks you don’t have a choice,” she says. “It provides a huge range.”

No startups from the Hatch portfolio are based in Hawai‘i, but one team from the 2020 cohort spent about a year in Hawai‘i. Sea Warden, co-founded by Zack Dinh and Shelby Oliver, provides monitoring solutions that allow seafood companies to share and trade data.

Related stories: Hawaiʻi is the World’s Shrimp Breeding Capital, Entrepreneurs Inspired by the Ocean, Aquaculture Ahi: The Holy Grail of Fish Farming

“Hatch has been such a wonderful boost for us and a treasure trove of knowledge and networks,” says Dinh, who credits the accelerator for putting his company on the map and helping it to “quickly pivot toward pond aquaculture.”

Sea Warden “produces data that is useful for farmers. We can warn them about potential hazards like disease outbreaks and provide advice,” he says.

Hatch says it has invested up to $150,000 in each of over 30 companies around the world. At the beginning of the year, Hatch received enough funding to continue its accelerator program for another four years.

“It gives me and the Hatch team an opportunity to invest in further resources in Hawai‘i,” co-founder Murphy says, and to do “what I hope will be a very successful job of attracting international talent and investment to Hawai‘i and to NELHA from an aquaculture perspective.”

From street level, Waikīkī feels like a dense urban environment packed with invincible structures. But viewed from the air, its vulnerabilities are clear: All that heft is situated on what looks like a low-lying island, buffered on one side by a thin ribbon of sand and on the other by the murky Ala Wai Canal.

The area is remarkably vulnerable to water, like much of Honolulu’s flat urban corridor. Water pours down streams in the Ala Wai watershed during heavy rain, often slipping over the banks of the canal.

When rainfall coincides with king tides – an exceptionally high tide seen in winter and summer – streets can flood from Mō‘ili‘ili to Māpunapuna as seawater inundates the porous ground, lifting the water table to create new wetlands and simultaneously blocking the drainage system.

Then there’s permanent sea level rise. For years, climate scientists have warned that the ocean would swallow more and more coastline as glaciers melt and water expands in a warming climate. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts a 3- or 4-foot rise by 2100 if global warming stays under 2 degrees Celsius, and a more than 6-foot rise if warming exceeds that mark.

“We know that change is coming to our shoreline, whether we’re prepared or not.”

– Matthew Gonser, Chief Resilience Officer & Executive Director of Honolulu’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resilience

Chip Fletcher, the associate dean for academic affairs at UH Mānoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology and a leading climate scientist, says worst-case scenarios are highly plausible.

What’s more, he says Hawai‘i and other Central Pacific islands can expect additional rise because of “fingerprinting,” a phenomenon that originates with the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica and other glaciers. The ice exerts a slight gravitational pull on the water surrounding it. As the ice melts and that pull subsides, distant locations can experience sea level rise that is more than the global average.

“This is not your average thorny problem,” says Fletcher. “Sea level rise is an unsolvable problem that needs to be managed so we can decrease the amount of loss and suffering and damage that we experience.”

On O‘ahu, rising oceans have washed out roads and beachfront homes have collapsed from coastal erosion – costly, painful problems, but isolated. The future will bring much worse.

The Hawai‘i Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission’s report from 2017 estimates that, statewide, 3.2 feet of sea level rise would displace more than 20,000 people and destroy over $19 billion worth of land and structures, not counting a lot of critical infrastructure.

These human and financial impacts would hit the urban core heaviest, including the epicenter of the state’s tourism sector, Waikīkī. On NOAA’s sea level rise viewer, a 3-foot rise would flood areas near the Ala Wai Canal. At just 4 feet of sea level rise, more than half of Waikīkī would be underwater. At 6 feet, it’s all submerged, along with much of the southern coast.

Waikīkī’s Vanishing Beaches

Like many residents, I hadn’t visited the shoreline between Kaimana Beach and Magic Island in years. It was time to get off Google maps and go see for myself.

The beaches were in worse shape than I expected. Tourists may envision strolling along Waikīkī’s fabled sands, but it’s one of the least walkable stretches on the island – narrow, clogged with people and structures, or literally gone.

Heading west from the Kapahulu groin, a sprawl of sunbathers and gear tossed across the loose, crunchy sand drives me inland to the sidewalk. I finally turn left into the Royal Hawaiian Center that leads to The Royal Hawaiian hotel.

The beachfront is blocked by a fence. Back inside, I soak up the hotel’s calm, stately interiors before heading west to the Sheraton Waikiki. The beach fronting the Sheraton has largely disappeared, and the elevated walkway is shut for safety reasons. I move through the patio area, past an infinity pool lined with sunbathers, then down past a patch of sand and people huddled under a lone tree. Circling the edge of a tiny pocket beach, I finally reach an uncrowded stretch: the seawall straddling the Halekulani Hotel, closed for renovations, and the deep Pacific pressing against it.

Beyond the seawall, waves make the path unpassable. It’s about 2:30 in the afternoon in late July and low tide is at 3:41, so most times of the day would be worse than this.

Nuisance Flooding Could Turn into Permanent Inundation

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts a 3- or 4-foot rise by 2100 if global warming stays under 2 degrees Celsius, and a more than 6-foot rise if warming exceeds that mark. The IPCC report released in August 2021 says the world will reach 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2040 or sooner, and it’s irreversible. Under most scenarios, warming will continue through the century, though dramatic cuts to global emissions could stabilize temperatures.

Here’s what that could look like in Waikīkī and the surrounding area:

Map based on the NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer, updated July 2020,  The viewer shows the scale of potential flooding, but not exact locations. It does not account for future erosion, construction or mitigation efforts. The SLR scenarios are mapped to average high tides and factor in hydrologic connectivity, or how surface and subsurface water connects. | Animation: Amy Ngo

■  Waikīkī at 2 feet of sea level rise  – The first impacts will be flooding, depicted in light orange, at the Ala Wai Golf Course. The deep navy blue is the ocean and the Ala Wai Canal, as well as the convergence of the Mānoa and Pālolo streams flowing into the canal.
■  Waikīkī at 3 feet of sea level rise  – Canal spillage and groundwater inundation become more pervasive. Rising seas enter the permeable rock and push up the water table, creating wetlands and blocking drainage systems.
■  Waikīkī at 4 feet of sea level rise  – Much of Waikīkī, as well as low-lying residential and commercial areas, are regularly submerged. The flood zone grows further at 5 feet of SLR.
■  Waikīkī at 6 feet of sea level rise  – Coastal flooding and groundwater inundation are catastrophic and require dramatic adaptations and even retreat. NOAA says it has a high degree of confidence about the extent of flooding at 6 feet, but less confidence at lower levels of sea level rise.

An Engineered Shoreline

No one with a financial stake in Waikīkī – and that’s nearly everyone in Hawai‘i – is ready to give up the beachfront, a proverbial golden goose. If the beaches were completely eroded, Waikīkī would lose an estimated $2.2 billion annually from tourists going elsewhere, according to a UH Sea Grant College Program analysis published in 2018.

In the decades between the first seawall being erected in 1890 near Kapi‘olani Park and the construction of the Ala Wai Canal in the 1920s, which drained the area’s wetlands and duck ponds, dozens of projects were completed – groins, more seawalls, coral dredging and sand fills. The shore became a fortified, engineered construction.

Since 1949, about 25% of O‘ahu’s beaches have narrowed or been lost to artificial hardening, and at least 60% are now in a state of chronic erosion, according to the O‘ahu Resilience Strategy, a set of action items released by the city in 2019. Yet coastal experts agree that beaches are more effective at keeping water at bay than hardening tactics, and far less prone to failure.

“Beaches are not just for recreational purposes and for tourists. They’re also important as a buffer between the properties and the ocean,” says Rick Egged, president of the Waikīkī Beach Special Improvement District Association. Among other projects, the nonprofit association collects fees from commercial properties to help pay for the area’s shoreline projects.

“The bottom line is that to protect a lot of these urban areas, you’ve got to armor them in some way. And the first step is to build a beach because that’s better than just a wall,” says Egged.

The process of coaxing sand to accumulate continues in earnest. In May, the final leg of a major beach project was completed, with 20,000 cubic yards of marine sand spread in front of the Moana Surfrider and Royal Hawaiian resorts. In June, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources released a draft environmental impact assessment for a fresh batch of projects, including a proposal to build a beach to front the Sheraton Waikiki and Halekulani resorts.

Unlike most projects that focus on maintenance, this is “a big, visionary, ambitious plan for (a group of ) T-head groins and beach fill – we’re building a beach where there never was one, as historically the beaches were very small in that area,” says Dolan Eversole, an extension agent with the UH Sea Grant College Program who works with the Waikīkī association. Eversole sees his role as translating the science of climate change into practical suggestions.

He says stakeholders he works with have started listening in earnest. “Among local government, state government and private developers, there was a very noticeable shift in perception and acceptance of the science, starting about five years ago,” says Eversole. Before that, “people were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re going to wait and see.’ ”

Eversole has been collaborating with Chip Fletcher, Wendy Meguro of the UH School of Architecture and others to host what they term design charettes, small-group discussions geared at getting people to think about adaptation strategies. In June, I joined a group of civil engineers as they tossed around ideas that ranged from the straightforward, such as moving critical infrastructure and flood-proofing lower levels, to more dramatic steps such as elevating streets and moving commercial activity off the ground floor.

Others went big and suggested digging out Waikīkī’s streets and replacing them with canals – a Venice on the Pacific. Advocates say it’s the kind of radical idea that might actually help the area cope with chronic or permanent flooding.

Creating a Beach in Waikīkī Where None Exists

A draft environmental assessment for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources envisions installing T-groins to create a beach in front of the Sheraton Waikiki and Halekulani hotels. Currently, seawalls are the main barrier between the water and the properties.

Source: “Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, Waikīkī Beach Improvement and Maintenance Program”; prepared for the Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources and partnered with the Waikīkī Special Improvement District Association; released June 2021. | Illustration: Amy Ngo.            ■ Seawall and Walkway   ■ Existing Groins will be rebuilt   ■ New Groins

Living Shorelines, Adaptations and Retreat, at 6 feet of Sea Level Rise

With 6 feet of rise, the city will need visionary ideas to cope. UH Mānoa professor Judith Stilgenbauer’s map of Honolulu shows ferries linking the southern coast, with “living shorelines” such as wetlands and tidal marshes serving as a buffer between the ocean and the built environment.

Areas needing adaptations or strategic retreat are marked in blue and yellow. Adaptations could be building up the land, elevating structures or designing buildings to withstand flooding.

Source: “South Shore Promenade and Coastal Open Space Network Study: Resilience and Connectivity”; Hawai‘i Office of Planning and UH Community Design Center; Professor Judith Stilgenbauer, principal investigator; released November 2020. | Illustration: courtesy of University of Hawaiʻi Community Design Center

Living with Water

Some of the more intriguing ideas for dealing with rising oceans come from the UH Community Design Center on the Mānoa campus. Judith Stilgenbauer, a professor of landscape architecture and urban design, led a research and design team that looked at returning public lands to natural wetlands and opening up the largely industrial shoreline to recreation.

The result was a report called the “South Shore Promenade and Coastal Open Space Network Study,” released late last year with the help of state funding. The renderings reimagine some of Honolulu’s scrappier areas – such as Ke‘ehi Lagoon and a portion of the Kalihi Kai waterfront – as well as the Ala Wai Canal and the stretch from the ‘Aiea Bay Recreational Area to the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center.

Long-term, the plan envisions the entire southern shore linked by wetland buffers and coastal parks, all walkable and bikeable, with ferries and water taxis that stop along the shoreline and travel up the canal. This may seem fanciful, but if Honolulu sees the higher end of predictions for sea level rise, learning to live with lots of water will be a necessity.

“If we think strategically about moving things back from the shoreline or negotiating easements for the spaces we need to prevent sea level rise from affecting the built environment, why not then also create better connectivity along the shore and more recreational opportunities?” asks Stilgenbauer. “In many cases, we’re turning our backs on this beautiful waterfront.”

Among the three specific sites explored in the report, the one that gets the most attention is the Ala Wai Canal and the city golf course along its mauka edge. By creating wetlands spanned by wooden walkways, the plan tackles three water problems: rising oceans flooding the canal; rainwater flowing down the watershed; and groundwater inundation, which is already happening.

This kind of green infrastructure “allows the water in, absorbing it, but also increasing the distance between development and water, in many instances by creating physical barriers in the form of wide, landscaped berms,” explains Stilgenbauer.

She calls them soft, nature-based solutions that stand in contrast to hard, engineered solutions.

“An engineer is mainly concerned with keeping the water out,” says Stilgenbauer. “But urban designers or architects tend to be generalists, and we worry about things like beauty and ecological performance and social aspects. A big component of sea level rise has to do with social and environmental justice,” she says, as underserved communities can’t afford to move away or adapt.

Matthew Gonser, who is the chief resilience officer and executive director of Honolulu’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resilience, finds the designs inspiring.

“I think those visions really help us think about what’s possible. … The challenge now is that we haven’t had to consider this kind of integrated and coordinated infrastructure in a very long time – probably not since the city was first being built,” he says. “And in that case, a lot of it was either being done independently, whether it’s the state building the harbor or the airport, or private industry working on properties downtown all the way through Waikīkī.”

First Signs of Sea Level Rise

UH’s Fletcher warns that before ocean water begins encroaching on land, sea level rise in Hawai‘i will appear most often as “nuisance flooding.” Odd gurgles of water rising from storm drains on sunny days, standing water in grassy sections along the Ala Wai Canal, moderate rains that turn low-lying streets into ponds.

With a team of graduate students, he tracked rising oceans to rises in the water table, and first recognized the problem of groundwater inundation – a leading indicator of sea level rise.

“This is not your average thorny problem. Sea level rise is an unsolvable problem that needs to be managed.”

– Chip Fletcher, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, UH’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology

“Water tables rise and fall in synchrony with the tides in the oceans,” says Fletcher. “You can build all the seawalls in the world and keep the ocean out,” he says, “but the groundwater is still going to get you.”

During high tides, even without rain, the groundwater gets pushed up through storm drains, flooding streets. “It is already happening now,” he says, “but it’s going to seriously accelerate 10 years from now.”

Eversole from the UH Sea Grant College concurs.

“There are well-developed methods for controlling erosion and wave run-up along the coast. We’re going to try to build a beach and maintain a beach in Waikīkī, and we’ll keep doing that until we can’t afford to do it anymore. But with the groundwater table, there is no way to really prevent that from happening,” he says.

“If you think of the geology of Honolulu, it’s like a sponge, and you can put concrete over the sponge, but the water finds a way in.”

– Dolan Eversole, Extension Agent, UH Sea Grant College Program

Beyond the damage caused by flooding, the water is also filthy. Sewage leaking from corroded underground pipes and cesspools mixes with the brackish water.

Some shoreline areas such as Kaka‘ako Waterfront Park are built on landfill, which is just piles of accumulated rubbish, “so we don’t know what all is buried there and what could leach into the water table,” says Stilgenbauer.

Another landfill site, Māpunapuna, is built on old fishponds and is literally sinking. At times, heavy rains and king tides make the streets impassable.

Driving through water that hits the top of your tires could become common elsewhere too. A 2020 study from Shellie Habel, a coastal geologist and extension agent with the UH Sea Grant College, predicts that by the 2030s, even four-wheel-drive vehicles could run into trouble as groundwater inundation and storm drain backflow overwhelm city streets and trigger widespread drainage failures.

Architects and Planners are Reimagining the Southern Shoreline

Creating wetlands at the Ala Wai Canal at 3 feet of sea level rise – UH Mānoa professor Judith Stilgenbauer envisions turning the Ala Wai Golf Course into wetlands. The spot is already impacted by groundwater inundation and will be one of the first urban areas to experience chronic flooding with just 2 feet of SLR.

In the near term, nine holes of the current 18-hole course would remain intact and wetlands introduced to absorb water. An elevated boardwalk lets water flow underneath and pedestrians and bikers travel along the canal’s mauka bank. In the long term, the wetlands would naturalize and expand, taking over the golf course, absorbing more water and supporting more biodiversity. Ala Wai Boulevard would be elevated, and elevated landforms added along Date Street and the Ala Wai Community Park.

The cross-section shows the wetlands at 3 feet of sea level rise. | Source: “South Shore Promenade and Coastal Open Space Network Study: Resilience and Connectivity”; Hawai‘i Office of Planning and UH Community Design Center; Professor Judith Stilgenbauer, principal investigator; released November 2020. | Illustration: courtesy of University of Hawaiʻi Community Design Center; Amy Ngo

Small Steps Forward

Like climate change more generally, sea level rise is an immense problem with no easy answers – and no central decision-making authority to select, fund and implement the kind of wide scale adaptations needed to withstand huge influxes of water.

Jessica Podoski, a hydraulic engineer and climate change expert with the Honolulu district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, says the state has to decide which areas to protect, which ones can adapt to rising seas, and which should be abandoned altogether.

“There will always be stakeholders with opposing interests, and Hawai‘i’s leaders need to have a vision for what the future of our state will look like,” she writes in an email. “The hard decisions and investments must be made now in order to head off more difficult and costly choices in the future.”

Some of those battles played out in the Corps of Engineers’ plan for the Ala Wai watershed, which was designed to prevent the kind of devastating flooding a 100-year storm would inflict on the city. (The Corps’ focus is storm-driven flooding and not sea level rise specifically, notes Podoski.) The plan featured a huge pumping station, as well as floodwalls and detention basins extending into the upper reaches of Mānoa, Pālolo and Makiki valleys. Community opposition contributed to the plan’s escalating price tag, which reached $651 million.

Though the project was killed, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi announced in July that the city had signed an agreement with the Corps of Engineers to revisit it.

Gonser from the city climate office says the Blangiardi administration understands the gravity of the situation facing Honolulu.

“We know that change is coming to our shoreline, whether we’re prepared or not. And we know that we will need to take action,” he says. “So the administration is super committed to engaging with the community and coordinating with the state, and trying to maximize our funding opportunities.”

Some funding ideas on the table are collecting stormwater fees, leveraging bonds and tapping federal funds, including “earmarks” in the federal budget. The infrastructure deal that passed through the U.S. Senate in August (but still faces a House vote as of this writing) includes at least $2.8 billion for the state to rebuild roads and bridges with climate change in mind, invest in clean energy, improve water and wastewater facilities, implement flood control projects and restore coastal habitats.

In July, Gov. David Ige signed into law two bills that specifically address sea level rise. One requires home sellers to disclose whether their properties are vulnerable to sea level rise. The other requires the Hawai‘i Office of Planning to identify state facilities that could be impacted by sea level rise and flooding. Some expect that city and state guidance to build for 3 feet of rise will become law soon and that shoreline setbacks are coming.

In the private sector, newer constructions such as the Whole Foods Market on Kamakee Street and the South Shore Market in Ward Village are slightly elevated, with entries above street level. Owners of the Princess Kaiulani hotel, tentatively slated to be torn down in 2022, plan to rebuild significantly above grade.

Architects and developers are going beyond the building code and considering sea level rise in both design and siting, says Nathan Saint Clare, a principal at the architecture firm AHL. For many large projects, they’re looking to build in areas away from the shore; Saint Clare’s team also employs features such as terraced walls and landscaping that can handle floodwaters.

Saint Clare sees Waikīkī’s hospitality sector as a creative source for new designs and adaptations. “We’ve got some great ones here – leading brands that have projects all over the world – and they’re going to bring some of their best ideas” to tackle the problem.

“A Lack of Anxiety”

Add them up, and there’s real momentum. But is it enough? Most people I spoke with don’t think so.

“What we run into is a lack of anxiety,” says Fletcher. “Developers, government officials, legislators, individuals all have different levels of anxiety about climate change. If you have high anxiety, you’re more motivated to implement potentially radical-looking policies or potentially expensive policies.” Most people fall in the medium range, he says.

There’s not nearly enough infrastructure work being done, says Matt Heahlke, a civil engineer and regional manager with Goodfellow Bros., which has worked on coastal projects around the Islands. “What really needs to happen is the community leaders and government need to realize that this is a priority and put emphasis on how we’re going to rebuild our infrastructure – to make it a daily conversation about how to be ready for sea level changes.”

Egged, the Waikīkī Beach Special Improvement District Association president, started a neighborhood advisory committee that includes lifeguards, beach boys and “everyone we could think of” to talk about problems and come up with solutions. Like others, he thinks this kind of community approach is the best way to build awareness and get buy-in.

“What are the issues we need to be worrying about right now? And what do we need to be planning to do in the 5- to 10-year level? And then the 10- to 20-year level, and so on,” says Egged. “I think that’s the kind of plan we need to work on together as a community because, otherwise, the whole issue starts to sneak up on you and become emergency situations. And that’s never the best way to do it.”

But that’s often how things work, with a dramatic event catalyzing change.

“Maybe it takes a major hurricane surge … to some of those high-value coastal areas for us to really become more serious about them, either rebuilding in a way that’s more resilient, or at least planning for future scenarios like sea level rise,” says Stilgenbauer. “Maybe that’s human nature.”

In September, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service named the Phyllostegia glabra, a member of the mint family that grew in the moist forests of Lāna‘i, as lost to extinction.

It’s a familiar story in the Islands, where about 44% of the nation’s endangered and threatened plant species live a precarious existence. Scientists believe the isolation that allowed so many unique species to develop here has also left them vulnerable to changes in the ecosystem.

Today, about 90% of Hawai‘i’s flora are not found anywhere else, says Tim Chambers, rare plant program manager for the Army Natural Resources Program on O‘ahu, which partners with the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. About 10% of Hawai‘i’s original flora are already extinct, and over 30% are endangered, he says.

The Army’s seed conservation lab at Schofield Barracks works to stem the loss by maintaining a permanent stock of rare seeds, both to serve as “a kind of long-term Noah’s ark,” as Chambers puts it, and to propagate more plants. It currently houses 22,482,131 seeds.

To get them, field crews scour the Wai‘anae mountains for rare plants, traversing both Army lands and surrounding areas owned by the state, the Board of Water Supply and Kamehameha Schools. A sister program runs at the Army’s Pōhakuloa Training Area on Hawai‘i Island.

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

The seeds are painstakingly extracted, counted and weighed by hand, here by lab manager Makanani Akiona. They spend a month in dry chambers, a low-humidity environment that naturally extracts the seeds’ water without using damaging heat.  

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Then it’s into the freezers for storage – sometimes for 20 years or more. Most seeds are stored at regular freezer temperatures of -18 degrees Celsius, but some need even colder temperatures to remain viable, from -80 degrees to -196 degrees Celsius.  

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Seeds are regularly brought out of the freezers to germinate in the lab’s growing chambers, which mimic day and night, as well as the temperatures the plants like best.  

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Here, tiny seedlings have sprouted in a petri dish of clear agar gel. They’re then moved with tweezers to a container of artificial soil, where they grow into robust Schiedea trinervis, an endangered member of the carnation family found only on Ka‘ala, the Wai‘anae Range’s highest peak.  

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Once they get hardier, these and other varieties are transported to greenhouses or returned to the wild. About 2,000 endangered plants are replanted each year, along with 11,000 common plants. 

The seed lab also works to recover habitats, protecting plants from rodents, snails and other hungry creatures. Kapua Kawelo, natural resources program manager of the Army Garrison in Hawai‘i, says one of the program’s first successes was saving the Cyanea superba from extinction.  

In 1995, two years after the seed program began, there remained only five of the trees, whose Hawaiian name is haha. “We controlled the predators, secured the fruit and cultivated the plants for replanting,” says Kawelo. Now thousands are growing. “The Army is really a big player in Hawai‘i for the conservation of natural resources, in particular the conservation of plants,” she says. 

NAME: Alan Friedlander

JOB: Marine Biologist, Chief Scientist for National Geographic’s Pristine Seas Project and Director of UH’s Fisheries Ecology Research Laboratory

BEGINNINGS: “I grew up surfing on the East Coast and moved after college to San Diego for warmer waves,” he says. “I joined the Peace Corps and worked with the local fishing community on an outer island in Tonga.

“I realized how important healthy oceans were to people and the encyclopedic knowledge within a lot of these communities about how the ocean worked. I decided I wanted to try to understand and help protect the ocean for the benefit of all.”

So Friedlander got his master’s in oceanography, then worked in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and elsewhere in the Caribbean before getting his doctorate at UH.

CHALLENGES: “We work everywhere from the tropics to the poles. I’ve been in Antarctica and the Arctic. Diving under the ice has its own challenges. The first time I was in the Russian Arctic, I got frostbite and I’ve been chased out of the water by polar bears and walruses.”

Friedlander says he has been surrounded by a hundred sharks in the South Pacific and though he has not been bitten, a shark bit his team’s rubber boat once, he says. Luckily, the boat had multiple air compartments, so it was able to limp home.

TRAVEL: In addition to Antarctica and the Arctic, he’s been to seemingly countless exotic places.

“We were in Cape Horn, the most treacherous body of water on Earth at the southern tip of South America between the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Southern Ocean. Being in the middle of nowhere sometimes has crazy consequences but you see amazing things as well.”

He’s also been to Rapa Nui (Easter Island); the Juan Fernández Islands off Chile; the Galápagos; Malpelo Island off Colombia; Cocos Island, which is famous for its hammerhead sharks, off Costa Rica; the Revillagigedo Islands off Mexico; Niue, a small country between the Cook Islands and Tonga; Palau; Rapa Iti, one of the southernmost islands in French Polynesia; the Seychelles; Mozambique and Gabon in Africa; and in the Atlantic, the Selvagens, Azores and Tristan da Cunha, the most isolated populated island on earth.

“I think that’s probably it. How many is that?”

Photo: courtesy of Alan Friedlander

EQUIPMENT: “Before everything else, you need a boat and many places we go are so remote that it’s hard to find a nearby boat to charter.” When his team first went in 2005 to the Line Islands, which are south of Hawai‘i near the equator, the team used a rusted World War II boat that was falling apart.

“We ran out of food, all kinds of stuff. But it was kind of ‘misery loves company.’ It was such an amazing trip because we had this just great group of scientists on board and everybody was like a little kid out there.”

Friedlander says many of these places are relatively unexplored, so the teams do as much as possible.

That includes “basic scuba diving surveys for fish, coral, kelp or whatever is there. We do rebreathers with deeper diving or technical diving that can take us down 50 to 100 meters. We have used submersibles that got us down to 500 meters. We’ve used deep-water drop cameras that National Geographic developed in the deepest parts of the ocean, including the Marianas Trench.

“We do a lot of collecting, including water samples, looking at microplastics. We have been collecting microfossils in the sediment because they’re a good indicator of previous climates.”

MISCONCEPTIONS: “One misconception about most marine biologists is that you scuba dive all the time. That is actually my job, but most marine biologists aren’t as fortunate.

“I think a lot of people become biologists or scientists because they don’t like people or numbers, but having worked a lot on policy, you need skills with both. Being at sea for weeks can be challenging for people. Fortunately, we all get along very well.”

OCEAN MANAGEMENT: “The oceans are resilient and manage themselves very well. It’s people that need to be managed. We need to figure out the optimal way to balance human needs and a healthy ocean.”

COVID-19 PIVOTS: His last pre-pandemic expedition was to Palau. Since then, he’s done a lot of writing and worked at Pūpūkea on O‘ahu’s North Shore and at Molokini, off Maui.

He says many areas thrived during Hawai‘i’s tourism shutdown. “Nature rebounds really quickly when people go away. Even though Hanauma Bay, Pūpūkea and Molokini aren’t being fished, the animals respond negatively to too many people. They don’t reproduce the same way, they don’t feed the same way.”

This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

New styles to suit every need, personality and driving desire are about to debut in the electric vehicle market. By 2045, forecasts suggest half the vehicles on Hawai‘i’s roads will be electric.

That’s half a million vehicles. The challenge facing the state and Hawaiian Electric Co.: Where will everyone plug them in?

“We have about 14,000 EVs on the streets now,” says Aki Marceau, Hawaiian Electric’s director of electrification of transportation. That’s about 1.4% out of 1.04 million passenger vehicles registered in Hawai‘i today.

That per capita rate puts Hawai‘i fourth or fifth highest among the states, Marceau says, but, “we’re still in the early adopter phase.”

The same goes for EV charging infrastructure: Hawai‘i is among the leading states but it’s still early and we have a fraction of the publicly available chargers that Hawai‘i’s drivers will eventually need for widespread EV use.

Chris Yunker, managing director of resilient clean transportation and analytics for the state Energy Office, says this about EV infrastructure: “We’re making good progress and are one of the leaders in the nation, but we have a ways to go.”

Marceau says Hawaiian Electric is committed to helping create that infrastructure.

“One of the biggest priorities for Hawaiian Electric is providing a network of chargers that anyone can access,” she says. “We want it to be reliable and serve our community.

“In the earlier days, especially when car batteries weren’t as powerful, there was concern around range anxiety. We’re hearing less of that now, and instead hearing charging anxiety – ‘Oh, maybe there’s someone at my charger.’ That’s one area of opportunity and we’re hoping to expand that.”

The momentum away from gasoline power and toward electric vehicles is widespread. President Joe Biden earmarked $174 billion in his proposed federal budget to support and invest in electric vehicles. General Motors has committed to phasing out all gas and diesel-powered vehicles by 2035, and other car companies worldwide are dramatically increasing EV production.

Beyond Single-Family Homes

HECO estimates there will be a need in 2030 for 46,720 private charging stations. That includes single-family homes, condominium buildings and the parking lots for fleets of company vehicles.

The utility also estimates there will be a need in 2030 for 3,651 public charging stations in the parking lots of places like shopping centers, rail stations, office buildings and hotels.

Many people and organizations have a stake in creating Hawai‘i’s EV infrastructure: car manufacturers and dealers; electric utilities; policymakers and government leaders at the county, state and federal levels; advocacy groups and oversight agencies such as the state’s Public Utilities Commission, which evaluates pilot programs that look at EV infrastructure strength and approves rates for charging stations.

Hawaiian Electric’s EV fast-charging station at Waianae Mall. | Photo: courtesy of Hawaiian Electric

Scott Glenn, chief energy officer in the state Energy Office, says there is a huge difference between how most EV owners charge their vehicles today and what is needed in the near future.

“Today, a lot of the conversation is if you have a charger. From the infrastructure point of view, if you live in a single-family home there’s no reason not to get an EV. You should be able to do your daily life on a charge.”

But if Hawai‘i wants widespread EV use, it will have to be easier for other people to charge: those living in condos or other multifamily buildings, people at work and tourists who rent cars.

Glenn says serving tourists means more than just adding charging stations to hotel parking lots. “The last thing we want is having a tourist drive to Hanauma Bay and not have a charge to get back to town,” he says.

Melissa Miyashiro is the managing director for strategy and policy at Blue Planet Foundation, which advocates for ending the use of fossil fuels. She suggests a policy that requires new construction to include EV charging infrastructure. “Vancouver is an interesting example because they require that new construction be 100% EV ready,” she says.

Glenn adds another issue: self-driving vehicles.

“If autonomous vehicles take off the way people are projecting, car ownership will be less,” Glenn says. “You call them for an errand, and then afterward your car drives off to help someone else. Where do we charge them? Who owns them? It could be a totally different paradigm of ownership in the next 10 years.”

Once finished, the Honolulu rail system will keep a lot of cars off the road and possibly fuel the need for charging stations where people park for rail trips.

Planning for the Future

Hawaiian Electricʻs 2019 report, “Critical Backbone Study: Planning Methodology,” quantified the need for both public and private EV charging.

“A main takeaway from the report,” Marceau says, is that by 2030 “there’s a seven times increase in need for public charging over existing development in 2019.”

The U.S. Department of Energy says Hawai‘i now has 361 EV charging stations statewide, with a total of 739 charging outlets or ports.

Twenty-five of those stations are fast or “super chargers” installed by Hawaiian Electric as part of a pilot program. Each has one outlet. You can most commonly find them in shopping centers and other commercial centers.

A DC fast charger takes just 15-30 minutes to fully charge a vehicle; an AC level 2 (240-volt) charger takes several hours; and the typical home charger, AC level 1 (120-volt), usually requires an overnight charge.

“When you go to the fast chargers that HECO has installed, they’re super convenient and they work in 20 to 30 minutes and you can run an errand and get on your way.” – James “Jay” Griffin, Chair, Public Utilities Commission

Hawaiian Electric says it plans to add four more fast chargers by the end of the year.

While the PUC has capped the number of fast chargers during this evaluation process, HECO is requesting approval to turn the pilot program “into a full program to expand our ability to own and operate public chargers,” says Marceau.

The PUC says it has sped up its evaluation process by following the model of Vermont, where there are quicker evaluations.

“We’ve tried to establish a structure that still has review and accountability, but more flexibility, so utilities can identify different concepts they want to test and learn more quickly if we want to go forward or not,” PUC chair James “Jay” Griffin says.

Marceau says Hawaiian Electric wants community feedback before determining how many chargers to install. “There are a few different steps that need to happen before we decide how many to apply for,” she says.

It costs HECO $150,000 to $175,000 to build a charging station, says Marceau, with the charger itself costing around $30,000 and the remainder covering infrastructure.

“We try to put it close to where infrastructure exists and not do a lot of utility realignment,” she says.

“Right now there’s a great need for charging so we want to make sure we have enough chargers in specific locations across our service territory. We have 40%-50% (of charging stations) on O‘ahu and the rest are 50/50 on Maui and the Big Island. I actually think we need more in the urban core. The ones on Ward Avenue are the most highly used.”

(Kaua‘i’s electricity comes from a coop, Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative.)

More Demand than Ever

Marceau says Hawaiian Electric saw a significant drop in charging starting in April 2020, early in the pandemic. But by December it had popped up again, and by January it was even greater than the year earlier. The utility’s pricing is based largely on solar power, which means the cheapest charging period is when the sun is shining. Prices rise in the evening, then decline again as people go to bed and the demand for power diminishes.

The public charging rate on O‘ahu is 49 cents a kilowatt-hour from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., rises to 57 cents from 5 to 10 p.m., and drops to 54 cents from 10 p.m. to 9 a.m.

Hawaiian Electric estimates that during the least expensive time on O‘ahu, it costs about $15.68 to charge a 2018 Nissan Leaf up to 80% capacity on a public fast charger. That compares to $8.64 on a level 1 charger at a private home during off-peak hours.

HECO also asked the PUC to approve two other pilot projects: the creation of 10 bus charging sites – approved on May 7 – and one for 30 commercial vehicle charging sites that would be used by businesses transitioning their fleets to EVs and other businesses. Both are “Make Ready” programs: Hawaiian Electric installs the infrastructure and another company installs chargers and maintains them.

“It’s not cheap to own and operate public charging and we support third-party charging as well,” says Marceau. “This allows the opportunity for others to provide public charging. Tesla is looking at providing some public charging in certain areas on O‘ahu right now, and an organization called Electrify America is looking at providing public charging on O‘ahu as well.”

The state Legislature passed bills this year to offer rebates for creating charging stations, and to direct 3 cents of the $1.05 tax per barrel on imported oil into a fund to pay those rebates. That 3 cents translates to between $700,000 and $800,000 a year.

“That’s an important piece of the puzzle,” says Glenn. “Since it’s a dedicated fund then businesses don’t have to fear it running out and missing it. Knowing that the fund is there, they could start working toward using it and applying for it.”

Here are prices per kilowatt/hour for Hawaiian Electric’s DC Fast Chargers on four islands. | *These four locations on Maui are offering discounted rates: Lahaina Aquatic Center, Queen Ka‘ahumanu Center, Pi‘ilani Village shopping center and Pukalani Terrace Center. | Source: Hawaiian Electric Co. Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative has not installed public charging stations, but private shopping centers on Kaua‘i have.

Targeted Money

Miyashiro of the Blue Planet Foundation applauds the Legislature’s new funding for the rebate program, which was established in 2019, but ran out of its original $400,000 in funding. “This provides more long-term funding,” she says. “We anticipate it to be more” than the original allocation.

The legislative bill allows a $4,500 rebate for installation of a new level 2 charger and $3,000 for a level 2 charger that replaces an old one, plus $35,000 for a new DC fast charger and $28,000 for a replacement.

Hawaiian Electric has also done its best to quantify how many different types of chargers will be needed going forward and where they should go, says the PUC’s Griffin.

“That has definitely helped us to understand what the trajectory is here. How do you decide how many is too much or too little? It’s a chicken and an egg analogy. But it depends on how many people are buying EVs and putting them on the road, so that charts the path forward. Our intent is to understand how quickly that will ramp up and will help us base approvals (of charging stations and pilot programs) to support that transition.”

This price is based on using Hawaiian Electric’s DC Fast Chargers on O‘ahu to charge a 2018 Nissan Leaf with a 40 kWh battery to 80% capacity.

Like many of the people interviewed for this story, Griffin has an EV and loves it, but is aware of the current shortcomings in the public charging infrastructure. He bought an EV to better understand the issues.

“It’s not as easy or convenient as a gas vehicle today,” he says. “I plug it in at night (at home) and it takes a few hours for a full charge. You’re still having to go and find other places to charge. At our office downtown there’s very little infrastructure nearby and when I’ve gone to it, it’s either occupied or not working. You’ve got to have a couple of backup plans.”

Griffin also closely compared the overall costs of his previous gas-powered vehicle to his EV. He used to spend about $200 a month on gasoline, and now spends $100-$120 extra on his electric bill to cover charging. Plus the EV’s upkeep and repairs tend to be much lower because there’s no internal combustion engine parts to fix or motor oil to change.

The cost of EVs will likely continue to fall, while the choice of vehicles and the demand for public charging both rise. “We’re going to see the demand for charging,” and with that, eventually more charging stations, Griffin says.

“When you go to the fast chargers that HECO has installed, they’re super convenient and they work in 20 to 30 minutes and you can run an errand and get on your way and that bodes well for the future,” says Griffin. “My understanding is that as the capabilities of those chargers continue to improve, convenience will continue to improve and you can charge quick enough that you feel comfortable with your driving range.”

Many Possibilities

Shopping centers and other private entities can also install charging stations in their parking lots – state law requires one charger per 100 parking spaces – and either absorb the cost as a perk for customers or pass it on.

“There are a few different models,” says Griffin. “You see this in the malls. They have chargers installed in their parking lots. Some are free, and basically the mall is paying the electric bill. Or they’re contracting with somebody to run the stations. You swipe your card and it’s charged as you plug in. It’s a private transaction. There are also third-party companies operating these networks but they’re still buying the power from HECO, unless you have PV locally onsite. If you have an electric connection, someone is paying an electric bill to supply that charger.

“(By 2030) there’s a seven times increase in need for public charging over existing development in 2019.” – Aki Marceau, Director of Electrification of Transportation, Hawaiian Electric Co.

“To the person driving up they all look the same. The question is making sure it’s more available, and the cost to do it is worthwhile.”

Carmakers are also looking at installing charging stations, Hawaiian Electric and others say. When that happens, it’s still HECO that sets the rate.

Plenty of electric cars, including sports cars and SUVs, exist and more models are on the way. For truck lovers, a couple of EV pickups have been unveiled by manufacturers and will be out by the end of 2022 or early 2023. President Biden was there for the unveiling of the Ford F150 Lightning in May.

“If you fall in love with the Lightning,” says Heather Cutter, president- elect of the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association, “you could potentially get it at the end of 2022.”

“People love their trucks,” says Glenn of the state Energy Office. “The Toyota Tacoma is a top-selling truck in Hawai‘i and once those go electric, the demand will just flip. … Once that happens it’s game over for gas vehicles and internal combustion engines.”

Cutter agrees. “There are exciting developments because there are no current EV trucks and both GM and Ford are unveiling them. By 2035 every type of vehicle will have an electric version. That gives hope that the consumer demand will grow for EVs.”

Cutter, who is also president of Cutter Ford, Cutter Chevrolet and Cutter Mitsubishi, and VP of Cutter Management Co., likes the electric Mustang Mach-E, which can run 300 miles on a single charge. She’s on her second Mach-E now, a customized gunmetal gray on the outside with black interior.

“I’d be sitting on King Street at a red light and people would walk around it or take a lap around my car,” she says.

Cutter says it’s great fun to design your own car and tells the story of the husband of a friend who did that for an EV he’s buying. “I don’t think he’s been this happy since he got engaged,” she says with a laugh. “You’re invested in it and you’re willing to be patient and wait for your car to get here.”

The fast charger at Kapolei Shopping Center opened in 2020. | Photo: courtesy of Hawaiian Electric

New Way of Buying and Selling

EV sales are different. You don’t go to a lot and look over the offerings; you reserve a car online, perhaps design the interior and exterior you want, and then wait a year or so for it to arrive.

“We’re transforming the way we do business,” Cutter says. “We don’t have 20 Bolts sitting there. You go online and make a reservation and pay a deposit. And you can build it however you want. When it arrives you get to test drive it and see if it’s everything you hoped. If it’s not, the dealer won’t make you obligated. We’ll sell it to someone else.” Her dealership even returns the deposit if you don’t want the car in the end.

A certification program sponsored by Blue Planet Foundation has created a support system at dealerships. Sales associates earn their EV expert certification by learning about electric vehicle laws, incentives and facts that improve the buying experience for both buyer and seller.

“There are over 70 certified experts, and on different islands, that have the knowledge and resources to sell electric vehicles,” says Miyashiro. “And then we have a digital hub where Hawai‘i residents can go if they’re looking to purchase an EV and can look at a particular dealership, knowing that they have this training and can answer questions about these vehicles.”

Blue Planet is also the local administrator of the Clean Cities Coalition (previously Honolulu Clean Cities) – a program of the U.S. Department of Energy – and part of a nationwide lobbying effort for federal funds.

“There are 90 coalitions across the country, and we convene to talk about applying for federal funding and helping fleets transition,” says Miyashiro. “We can connect with other states that are in the process of transitioning their fleets, so they can share the lessons learned and help them connect to funding opportunities in the federal government.

“One of the challenges is Hawai‘i has a really hard time competing for these national pots of funding because there’s a very large matching component and it could be hard to make up that matching grant. But we’re optimistic with the new Biden/Harris administration that there will be new funding coming down the pike.”

3,000 State Light-Duty Vehicles

Another challenge, will be transitioning the state’s fleet of about 3,000 light-duty vehicles to EVs – about 1,000 light-duty passenger cars, 1,000 light-duty trucks, and another 1,000 multipurpose passenger vans and SUVs across all islands. There are another 2,000 pieces considered medium and heavy duty.

Yunker calls it an “aging fleet.”

“If we can start now replacing vehicles aging out at 10 to 15 years, we can do a natural transition of our fleet,” he says.

HB552, a bill passed this spring by the state Legislature and signed into law by Gov. David Ige, mandates that all state-owned light-duty vehicles will be electric or otherwise zero-emission by the end of 2035.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, all new passenger cars for the state’s fleet will be zero-emission vehicles, Yunker says.

Blue Planet’s Miyashiro says she’s already encouraged about the future.

“We’ve successfully gotten early enthusiasm around adopting EVs, but we need to transition into EVs across the economy,” she says. “That includes the visitor industry too and transitioning our rental car fleets. It has to be comprehensive and systemwide and that’s always a challenge. If rental car companies are able to resell their used rental cars, that would open up more affordable EVs in a secondary market – at a lower price point.

“The trend we’re seeing each month is the number of registered EVs increasing and the number of registered gas-powered vehicles decreasing. Even during the pandemic that trend was happening. It’s not happening fast enough, but it’s happening and that’s why we see the opportunity to create the future by design, and not default – and making sure we’re building a charging network with access for everyone.”

New Laws Support EV Infrastructure

The Legislature passed this spring and Gov. David Ige signed into law three bills that support electric vehicle infrastructure.

HB1142: Allocates 3 cents of the $1.05 tax on each barrel of imported oil to subsidize the construction of electric vehicle charging systems.

HB552: Sets the goals that all stateowned light-duty vehicles will be electric or other zero-emission vehicles by the end of 2035.

HB424: Requires state agencies to prefer renting electric or hybrid vehicles for state employees conducting government business.

At the heart of every thriving innovation community is a university or two that conducts research, educates and inspires young minds, generates cutting-edge ideas and fosters startups that take products and services to market.

UH, and especially the Mānoa campus, play that essential role for Hawai‘iʻs startup tech community and one of its recent and growing successes is Nalu Scientific. The company, founded in 2016 by Isar Mostafanezhad after conducting postdoctoral research in Mānoa’s Physics Department, focuses on advanced electronics, including interfacing with sensor applications in fast-timing measurements.

The company says its cutting-edge technology is used in many areas, including electron collider experiments, remote sensing applications in space, medical imaging technologies and underwater distance measurement using a method called lidar.

Ben Rotter, a physicist with Nalu Scientific, helps test a lidar microchip made by Nalu Scientific. Lidar stands for light detection and ranging, an advancement form of precise distance measurement. | Photo: courtesy of Nalu Scientific

Steve Auerbach, interim director of UH’s Office of Innovation and Commercialization, says Nalu has been awarded more than 23 federal Small Business Innovation Research grants and has received more than $10 million in funding in its five years.

“On this journey, Isar has collaborated with a number of UH researchers on research and product development, employed a number of UH students and UH graduates, mentored innovators and entrepreneurs looking to follow in his footsteps, and has volunteered his time in various ways to support UH’s and the state’s efforts to diversify the economy,” Auerbach says.

“As a UH alumnus, Isar is an inspiration to students and researchers and a role model for those looking to join forces with the innovation and entrepreneurship community to create more high-tech jobs for our local students and diversify our economy.”

Kenneth Lauritzen started as a Nalu intern while a UH engineering student and now works there as a junior engineer. “If not for Nalu Scientific, I would have moved out of Hawai‘i for a job in my field. There are very few opportunities in Hawai‘i as interesting as the one that Nalu Scientific provides,” he says.

Senior engineer Ryan Pang had spent 10-plus years on the Mainland working on aerospace, automotive and consumer electronic systems. “Nalu Scientific allowed me to return to Hawai‘i and to remain in an R&D-centric engineering position rather than having to transition into a different engineering role,” he says.

Mostafanezhad calls UH a “first class university” and says he’s glad Nalu has allowed some of its graduates to live in Hawai‘i while working in high-tech jobs. “My family had to come to the United States to have an opportunity to develop our talents and thrive. I understand what a sacrifice it is to leave home in order to build a successful life,” he says.

“I’m grateful that Nalu has made it possible for many locals to study and work toward a career in engineering, and then be able to have an engineering job right here in Hawai‘i.”

“Work from home has a new meaning today, but for kama‘āina, it has been a common and persistent goal to be able to stay in or return to Hawaii. To be able to earn a living here and actually enjoy the quality of life only Hawaii offers is something I hope every local company will be able to provide.”

Part of the process for building one of Nalu Scientific’s custom-made microchips. | Photo: courtesy of Nalu Scientific

Auerbach says UH’s Office of Innovation and Commercialization fosters collaboration between UH and the community to innovate local businesses and create high-quality jobs. “Nalu is a prime example of this and Isar is working with UH OIC to share his knowledge and replicate and scale his successful model,” Auerbach says.

“I view the work that Nalu Scientific is doing as a force multiplier.”

He says UH’s research and academic enterprise brings in more than $400 million in annual outside funding. “Partnerships and collaboration with the private sector is foundational for a thriving innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.”

He says one way to grow the local innovation community is to inspire more young minds. “In my opinion, we need to do more in the area of outreach and engagement with our K-12 and postsecondary students in helping them understand, appreciate and engage in innovation and entrepreneurship.

“When we have cool, deep tech/science/STEM startups like Nalu Scientific for the next generation to see, touch and interact with, great things will come from this.”

The most promising part of Nalu’s work is Mostafanezhad’s team culture, Auerbach says.

“He has embraced and put into practice a culture of innovation, entrepreneurship and community engagement. He spends time working with UH and the next generation of founders to help them navigate their research, technology and startup journey. … Isar combines his deep understanding of complex scientific and technical problems with his business acumen to develop solutions that fit market needs, which in turn, helps our community diversify the economy.”

Pang, the senior engineer, is optimistic about the future for both Nalu and Hawai‘i’s broader scientific community. “I think that Nalu Scientific has a lot of potential to help build Hawai‘i’s high-tech economy,” he says.

“I think there’s a misconception of what it takes to be a technology company in Hawai‘i. In this day and age, the ability to coordinate and collaborate with people around the world is as easy as a click of a button. It’s as easy to develop here in Hawai‘i as in Silicon Valley,” Pang says.

Stump-Toed Gecko (Gehyra mutilata)

Yes, that is a gecko on your coffee mug. And on your bathroom wall, above your computer and just about everywhere else in your home. Why do they feel so at home in your home?

Eight gecko species are found in Hawai‘i, but none are native to the Islands. Most of the eight have colorful names: the mourning gecko (yes mourning, not morning), stump-toed gecko, fox gecko, common house gecko, orange-spotted day gecko, giant day gecko, gold dusted day gecko and the Indo-

Mourning Gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris)

Pacific tree gecko. Another species, the tokay gecko, was once found on the Windward side of O’ahu, though there have not been any recent local sightings.

Geckos are one of the few animal species known as commensal, meaning they can live together with people without harm, even in urban and suburban settings, says Allen Allison, head of the Natural Sciences Department at Bishop Museum.

“Most species are not able to do that. They just will not survive in these habitats,” Allison says.

Orange Spotted Day Gecko (Phelsuma guimbeaui)

Though you may see your home as yours, geckos see it otherwise. They are often highly territorial and usually claim a part of your house as their own. Geckos will harass, fight or injure other geckos to claim what is theirs. If overpowered by another gecko, they will move elsewhere – maybe to your lānai or your neighbor’s living room.

The mourning gecko and fox gecko are the species most commonly found inside local homes. Both are all female species – whose eggs do not require fertilization – and make distinct clicking sounds to fend off other geckos, says Amber Wright, an associate professor in the School of Life Sciences at UH Mānoa.

Fox Gecko (Hemidactylus garnotii)

“You will hear their clicking calls at night. This is to advertise and defend their territories,” she says.

These geckos often appear in unlikely places, like on a picture frame or a house plant. Your old high school yearbook might prove a suitable habitat for a fox gecko, and a vaulted ceiling might replace a natural tree canopy for a gold dusted day gecko.

Indo-Pacific Tree Gecko (Hemiphyllodactylus typus)

A gecko’s toes are expanded at the tips, known as toe pads, which allow them to reach seemingly unreachable spots. The toe pads have ridges with microscopic hairlike structures that cling to any surface.

“All of those structures together result in a lot of surface area on the toe for chemical attraction forces to operate,” says Wright. Those chemical attractions are called Van der Waals forces and “that’s how the lizard adheres to surfaces,” she says.

Giant Day Gecko (Phelsuma grandis)

This mechanism is the inspiration for many adhesive products in development today.

“These traits allow geckos to access arboreal habitats that other lizards can not reach. They

may be able to climb up to areas where they don’t have competition from other lizards for things like food,” Wright says.

Your house has its own food chains and geckos are links in those chains. Many geckos enjoy the taste of insects like cockroaches, flies and beetles, whereas other geckos enjoy spiders or

Common House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus)

centipedes. Each gecko’s metabolism is low, so individually they have little impact, but as a species, they can eat many unwelcome creatures in your house.

Without geckos, your household might have even more bugs; so instead of panicking next time you see one, ignore it. If you still want a gecko out, escort it to your front yard or a nearby plant. They do not carry COVID-19, Allison says, but perhaps use a glove or the gecko’s favorite mug to gently move it. After all, these creatures are your houseguests.

BEGINNINGS: Kennedy was born and raised in rural Idaho. She received her doctorate in psychology from Boston University in 1994. “I did my dissertation on men who murdered and I did two subsequent studies on domestic homicide. The staff at the facilities I would visit would call me ‘the murder maven,’ ” Kennedy says.

“I developed an interest in this field after having a year-long placement during my doctoral training at a state hospital for the criminally insane. What attracted me was learning about the dark side of human nature, which is not easily understandable.”

She decided to move to Hawai‘i in 1997 after working on a military murder case here.

WHAT IT TAKES: “This work involves interaction with courts and professionals in criminal, civil and family courts – both state and federal – including military courts. It requires post-doctoral training in psycholegal assessments, as well as in understanding specialized legal questions.

“A good forensic psychologist must have a solid training in normative human development, from cradle to old age, an understanding of what are considered ‘reasonable behaviors’ in the eyes of the court, and what is problematic in human behaviors from a functional as well as a legal perspective.”

CASES: Kennedy stresses she’s ethically bound not to reveal specific details of cases, but says she has been involved in cases running the gamut from rape and homocide to child abuse and child pornography. About half of her cases are local; the rest are Mainland or international – many involve military personnel.

“Sometimes a single Facebook posting tells more about the person than hours of testing and forensic interviewing.” —Reneau Kennedy

DON’T TAKE IT PERSONALLY: “It’s not an easy field. One of my preceptors at Harvard Medical School told me I needed to develop a ‘thick skin.’ I had a case where a fellow who was a heroin addict was soon to be discharged from rehab. He and some of his friends decided to go out on the weekend and have a good time before his discharge day.”

Apparently, the addict’s celebration led him to take drugs again. “I was devastated. My preceptor taught me that this was not about me, and that I shouldn’t overpersonalize it.”

MISCONCEPTIONS: The Hawai‘i Kai resident says she does not participate with the police in criminal profiling, as portrayed in TV shows such as “Law & Order.”

“I interview individuals charged with a crime or who are involved in Family Court or civil litigation. Forensic psychologists review a lot of records. They have to be good writers, as well as good evaluators.”

NEW SKILLS: “I am especially appreciative of digital forensic experts, who are able to provide very important data about human behavior through the analysis of a person’s computer use, including postings on social media. Sometimes a single Facebook posting tells more about the person than hours of testing and forensic interviewing.”

NOTORIETY: In the ’80s, after speaking to the Mystery Writers of America in Los Angeles about her work, Kennedy became the basis for the fictional heroine – a forensic psychologist – in the book, “Sing Sweetly To Me,” by Barbara Pronin. 

PAY RANGE: “The pay varies. Individuals working for a state or federal agency are hired at civil service pay grades. In the private sector, the fee is set based on an hourly rate.”

Today, there are eight gecko species in Hawaiʻi: mourning gecko, stump-toed gecko, fox gecko, common house gecko, tokay gecko, orange-spotted day gecko, giant day gecko and gold dust day gecko. The first five are nocturnal; the other three, as their names suggest, are active during the day.

It seems the day geckos are pushing out the night ones because day geckos are omnivorous – eating plants, insects and even other geckos – whereas night geckos only eat insects. With day geckos added to the already large pool of gecko predators, it’s understandable that the night geckos are having a harder time.

Recommended: Hawaiʻi’s Geckos Play a Positive Role in Your Home