Hanalei Watershed Hui

The Hanalei Watershed Hui supports and protects the natural, cultural, and sustainable economic resources of the Hanalei watershed.

The American Heritage Rivers Initiative was established in 1997 by Executive Order with three objectives: natural resource and environmental protection, economic revitalization, and historic and cultural preservation. In 1998, fourteen American Heritage Rivers were designated out of 126 nominations. The Hanalei River is one of the 14.

With this designation, the community of Hanalei established an organization - eventually called the Hanalei Heritage River Program - to guide the direction and work of the program and in 1999, the Hanalei Watershed Action Plan was developed through a community process.

The Plan reflected a wide array of community concerns and issues. A widely shared concern was the water quality of the Hanalei River and Bay. With this priority, the Hanalei Heritage River Program launched a strenuous water quality testing and analysis regime guided by Dr. Carl Berg and conducted by community volunteers. The partnership included the Environmental Protection Administration and Hawaii State Department of Health which provided oversight and credibility to the effort and results. This project led to revisions of the protocols and sampling regimes practiced by the Hawaii State Department of Health.

With this credibility established, the organization matured into the Hanalei Watershed Hui in 2003 with its IRS 501(c)(3) establishment. Today, our work continues to focus on the Hanalei Watershed Action Plan which is updated and reprioritized as needed. Other projects include the Hanalei Makai Watch, Hanalei to Haena Community Disaster Resilience Action Plan, and the Hanalei Watershed Flood Study. For more information, visit hanaleiwatershedhui.org.

The iconic one-lane Hanalei "black" bridge is a treasured historic resource serving to moderate the pace and scale of life on Kauai's north shore. The Hanalei Heritage River Program provided key support for the designation of the bridge as a National Historic Monument.

Our goal is to raise $6,000 to fully fund the printing and distribution of the Hanalei Moon & Tide calendar to support place-based fishery management, which is linked to our Hanalei Makai Watch Program.

The people of a place know their place better than anyone and when they do the work of fish gonad monitoring, they learn the specific spawning seasons for each popular species in their specific place. This is key to learning about and fostering a healthy fishery.

The Hanalei Moon & Tide calendar will provide specific tide information for Hanalei Bay and will be distributed to community volunteers and used as an instructional tool in the classrooms of north shore and Kapaa. Mahalo for your support!

The inaugural edition of the Hanalei Moon & Tide Calendar in 2016 was well received by local fishers and ocean users.