KULA COMMUNITY WATERSHED ALLIANCE

KCWA was founded by fire-affected neighbors in August 2023, days after the Maui Wildfires disaster, to stabilize, protect, restore, and maintain our watershed, increasing our community’s resilience to wildfire.

Nā keiki uneune māmane o Kula.

An expression of admiration for the people of Kula, Maui, who accomplish whatever they set out to do.

—ʻŌlelo Noʻeau #2238

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About the Alliance

The Kula Community Watershed Alliance (KCWA) is a land restoration initiative led by many of the fire survivors living in the burned areas of the August 2023 wildfire that devastated Kula, Maui. With the guidance of subject matter experts and a team of experienced advisors, we have joined together as neighbors in unified support of our land‘s recovery from the fires to establish a safer, more resilient landscape and optimum watershed health in our area. Through the Kula Fire Restoration Project, we are committed to stabilizing and regenerating the disturbed soil, restoring and protecting site-appropriate native flora and fauna, and stewarding the long-term vitality of the lands where we reside, across approximately 120 acres of open, burned lands.

As we recover from the wildfire, we are also looking beyond the bounds of the burn scar to the greater community alongside us and down slope from us, in hopes of supporting the watershed health of the entire Kula moku (district), from mauka (mountain) to makai (ocean). KCWA’s  Kula Fuels Reduction Project works to protect residents residing at the Wildland-Urban Interface who would like to convert their dry, invasive tree forested lands to native tree canopies (shaded green breaks) that that shade out invasive species, naturally increase humidity, and hold water.

VOICES OF OUR COMMUNITY:

  • Every time KCWA comes to our property, I feel like we’re moving forward. Without that, we’d still be standing in the ashes.

    – Kula Fire Survivor

  • KCWA has supported us from the beginning. The work they’ve done here has been a lifeline.

    – Fire-Affected Kula Resident

  • It’s not just the planting or the fencing — it’s the sense that somebody cares about us and our land.

    – Kula Fire Survivor

  • KCWA doesn’t just show up for a day. They’ve been with us for two years, and we know they’ll be here as long as it takes.

    – Kula Fire Survivor

  • The Watershed Alliance has helped heal the family, has helped heal the property. We are back in our homes, our new homes. Without you, we’d be kind of lost, I think.

    – Kula Fire Survivor

Team

Sara Tekula, Limua Maui, Contract Executive Director (Email Sara) 

Elly Swartz, Community Outreach Coordinator & Kupu ‘Āina Corps Intern

Nursery & Tool Library Coordinator (TBD)

Restoration Technician (TBD)

Darla White, GIS Consultant

Council of Neighbors

Dave Albright, President
Sabrina Fehlmann, Vice President
Elizabeth Anderson, Treasurer
Andrea Perkins, Secretary
Pam Albright
Glenn James
Monica Iwalani Kapahua Loui
Dan McEvoy
Anne Rillero

Each member of our leadership Council is a fire survivor living or working in the Kula burn zone. All have committed to restoring the lands they tend back to a more resilient native habitat, and are committed to steering the strategies of the Kula Community Watershed Alliance as stewards of its resources.

Advisors

The following supporters have offered their time, expertise, and wisdom as we return vitality to the land where we live and work:

Steve Anderson, Restoration Ecologist
Danny Boren, Skyline Hawai‘i
Sarah Bryan, Nā Koa Manu Conservation, Pacific Disaster Center
David Chevalier, Waiohuli Mana Foundation
Scott Fisher, Hawaiʻi Land Trust
Paul Gillespie, Green Earth Landscape
Joseph Imhoff, Skyline Conservation Initiative, Limua Maui
Kealiʻi Reichel
Michael Reyes, Maui Environmental Consulting
Rich Tully, Tully Studio

For general inquiries, please reach out to us using our Contact Form.

Explore all the ways to join us and get involved.

Join the Alliance.

Are you a concerned resident living in the fire affected areas of Kula? A potential partner that can bring resources to our effort? Join the Kula Community Watershed Alliance and connect with like-minded neighbors who are dedicated to restoring the lands they call home.

Sign Up

Make a Gift

Post-fire recovery, soil stabilization, and land restoration of this magnitude is a long-term stewardship process that requires hard work, specialized equipment, expertise, and resources to properly execute. Please give what you can to help us make our neighborhood fire-safe, recover the land, and support its vitality.

Donate

Watch the Watershed.

Have you noticed anything new in your watershed? Submit your observations to our crowdsourced citizen science project to get to know our watershed better.

Share Your Observations

Volunteer

The Alliance is currently engaged in large-scale soil stabilization work in the burn areas requiring skilled contractors and machine operators – it is work that’s not quite suitable for volunteers.

Sign up to Join the Alliance, and choose the volunteer option, and weʻll be in touch when the opportunity arises!

Volunteer