Resources

Overview of the UH Ecosystems & Landcare Program: mission, team, approach, and role within CTAHR's Cooperative Extension portfolio. Topics covered include native ecosystems restoration, addressing threats (weeds, fire, predators, climate), and connecting ecosystems workers.

In April 2025, the Priority ONE (Oʻahu Native Ecosystems) working group hosted the annual Weed Control and Restoration Workshop. It included presentations from four programs, breakout discussions on three restoration topics (CRB in restoration, Nursery Germination Trials and Field Germination Trials), and an exercise in setting up herbicide trials for eight species of interest.

For more than 10 years, various groups of Natural Resource Management professionals have been gathering to exchange experiences in Weed Control and Restoration efforts across the state. Meetings from Hawaiʻi Island, Maui Nui and Oʻahu over 2015–2022 are archived here.

In October 2024, the Hawaiʻi Island resource management community came together in Volcano over two days to reconnect after a five-year hiatus of the annual Big Island Natural Areas Weed Control Forum. The forum featured prepared talks by researchers and managers as well as interactive sessions to seed future collaboration.

Expanding on conversations at the 2023 HCC and the input from the Native Plant Material Survey, this forum explored building capacity to meet the "need for seed" through presentations, breakout discussions, and a panel representing partners in any plant pipeline.

Climate change and restoration are intricately linked. Changing climatic baselines and Extreme Climatic Events impact restoration project success. This forum engaged managers in strategy development to overcome implementation barriers to climate-resilient restoration.

The Priority ONE Working Group held a forum with CRB Response to discuss managers' experiences with coconut rhinoceros beetle in natural areas — exploring questions of distribution, habitat quality, and management strategies in non-urban contexts.

At the 2023 Pacific Entomological and Botanical Meeting, UHELP collaborated with NTBG and Pacific RISCC to lead a discussion on disaster-ready restoration practices amid shifting Extreme Climate Event regimes (hurricane winds, flooding, wildfire, drought).

The annual Weed Management and Restoration Workshop returned in-person in 2023. Folks from across the state gathered in Kaneʻohe to explore weed management and restoration knowledge, assess resources for communicating management practices, share updates on tools and technologies, and talk-story during the tool-tailgate.

UHELP organized a forum at the 2023 Hawai'i Conservation Conference to gauge interest in bringing back practitioner spaces for weed and restoration issues. Breakout groups discussed county-level meeting interest and challenges.

Forum at HCC 2023 asking attendees to identify requirements and bottlenecks for native seed provisioning and plant production, from the perspectives of Seed Collectors, Plant Producers, and Plant Users.

As a new Extension program, UHELP undertook a needs-finding process with formal and informal methods for understanding how to best serve the Hawaiʻi conservation community.

In May 2022, the Oʻahu Weed Management Group hosted their annual workshop, including presentations and virtual site visits from 15 programs and breakout discussions on the Weed Spreadsheet and community engagement.

The program-level logic model articulating UHELP's theory of change: inputs, activities, outputs, and intended outcomes for conservation and watershed extension in Hawaiʻi.

Documentation of UHELP's ongoing needs-finding process — the formal and informal methods used to identify what the Hawaiian conservation community actually requires from an Extension program.

Proceedings and discussion summary from the Hawaiʻi Island dry forest restoration extension forum.