On November 8, the Surfrider Maui Chapter partnered with Aloha Puʻu Kukui to bring together more than 100 community members in the Puʻu Kukui watershed above Honolua Bay to plant 1,000 native trees. In just under an hour, volunteers restored native forest cover, improving water retention in the watershed and reducing erosion — tangible actions that support clean water and healthy coastal ecosystems.
This workday reflects a long-term, mauka-to-makai approach to environmental stewardship. Clean water at Honolua Bay begins in the watershed above, where partnerships, shared responsibility, and sustained stewardship build healthy ecosystems and landscape level resilience.
Honolua Bay holds a special place in the Surfrider Foundation Maui Chapter’s history, where ongoing programs and campaign advocacy converge — mirroring how actions on land ripple outward to shape the health of our coast and ocean.
For years, the Maui Chapter worked alongside the Save Honolua Coalition and other conservation and Native Hawaiian groups to successfully oppose a proposed luxury development at Lipoa Point. That effort culminated in a landmark victory in 2013, when Hawaiʻi State lawmakers passed legislation authorizing the acquisition of 280 acres surrounding Lipoa Point into a conservation easement — permanently protecting the area from future development.
Honolua Bay is one of the Surfrider Maui Chapter’s Blue Water Task Force (BWTF) monitoring sites, where volunteers regularly test for enterococcus, a fecal indicator bacteria that indicates the presence of human or animal waste in the water. Elevated levels of enterococcus increase the likelihood that other pathogens that can make people sick may be present.
In 2024, 33% of water samples collected at Honolua Bay exceeded Hawaiʻi’s recreational water quality standards for enterococcus, highlighting ongoing clean water challenges at the site. Because Honolua Bay receives stream input from the surrounding watershed, water quality in the bay is influenced by conditions on land, including how runoff, sediment, and nutrients move through streams and waterways to the coast. View our water quality data here.
Healthy native forests play a critical role in this system. Intact forest cover slows runoff, stabilizes soils, and helps retain and filter sediment and nutrients before they reach streams and the ocean. When upland landscapes are degraded or invaded, those protective functions are reduced - reinforcing the importance of watershed restoration in supporting long-term clean water outcomes at Honolua Bay.
Surfrider’s mission is to protect and enjoy our oceans, waves, and beaches. In Hawaiʻi, that mission is directly tied to the health of freshwater systems and upland forests.
While the Surfrider Maui Chapter focuses on coastal stewardship and nearshore water quality monitoring, this work depends on partners like Aloha Puʻu Kukui, whose expertise lies in restoring and protecting West Maui’s upland forests. Each organization plays a distinct role across the watershed, creating a coordinated approach that addresses clean water at its source.
“Aʻohe hana nui ke alu ʻia” — no task is too big when done together (Pukui 142).
Mahalo to everyone who participated and to Aloha Puʻu Kukui for their leadership in restoring the forests that sustain Maui’s watersheds and nearshore environments.