#East Maui

A 30-day public review has started for proposed work by the Maui County Department of Public Works to replace two structurally deficient East Maui bridges along Hāna Highway. The new 49-foot Waikakoi and 60-foot South Wailua bridges will be similar to current structures and continue to accommodate single lanes of traffic with widths of 18 […]

East Maui Land Restoration, a nonprofit dedicated to ecological and cultural revitalization, is inviting the public to participate in shaping the future of Honomanū Bay. Now in its seventh year of stewardship, EMLR is developing a community-informed management plan for the County Park at Honomanū, and is seeking input from Maui residents. 

Since becoming director in 2015, Opgenorth and his team have built a new visitor and education center that welcomes over 7,000 guests, education groups, and volunteers each year. He’s expanded efforts to restore the coastal hala forest and protect it from invasive species.

The EMI system, which was used to divert water from East Maui streams to the sugar plantation for nearly 150 years, is one of the last physical — and one of the most controversial — reminders of the sugar plantation and A&B’s outsize influence on Maui.

Community members say there aren’t enough Hawaiian homestead opportunities in East Maui and hope the project can ease the burden on multigenerational households living under one roof.

Motorists are advised that reconstruction of the culvert on Piʻilani Highway near Nuʻu Bay in East Maui begins on Monday May 5, 2025, and runs through October 2025.

Maui United Way and Nuestro Futuro Foundation partnered with the Hāna Farmers Market to deliver nutritious keiki food boxes to East Maui families during the Ho‘oilo and Kupulau breaks — providing fresh, locally sourced foods while supporting area farmers. 

“This bill recognizes that programs like the Hā‘ena State Park access and entry management program, which reinvests its proceeds into environmental and community benefits, shouldn’t be treated like traditional, for-profit carriers,” said House Speaker Nadine K. Nakamura.

A rehabilitation project to improve facilities at the Puaʻa Kaʻa State Wayside, a scenic rest stop and picnic area on Maui’s Hāna Highway, is set to begin on Monday, April 21 and run through May 12, 2025.

Five months after release into the Kīpahulu Forest Reserve in East Maui, a cohort of five ʻalalā (Hawaiian crows) is healthy and continues to discover and practice the instinctual behaviors unique to the species.

“We are seeing record-low flows in terms of the entire period of record on Kawaikōī, that’s about 109 years. In some of the East Maui streams, 105 years. But we’ve not seen low flows like this across the state to this extent ever before,” said Dr. Aryon Strauch, CWRM’s lead hydrologist.

Transportation continues to be the mainstay of MEO Hāna services today, with 1,854 rides provided in December 2024.

East Maui residents can drop off appliances, automobile batteries, tires, propane tanks, scrap metal and electronics during a Hāna metals and electronics recycling event on Friday, Dec. 6, and Saturday, Dec. 7, the County of Maui Environmental Protection & Sustainability Division announced.

The Maui Nui Makai Network today announced a grant award totaling $200,000 that will support the Native Hawaiian community through the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

A new Maui Economic Opportunity 14-passenger bus that will be running through the streets of East Maui was blessed Tuesday in Hāna with community members, Maui County officials and MEO staff attending. 

Mayor Richard Bissen and his administration will host a community budget meeting from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, at Helene Hall Community Center in Hāna.

“We felt it was time to really get a better understanding of how much really should be left in the streams as kind of the starting point and then balance that against the other uses as well,” Maui County Water Supply Director John Stufflebean said.

After a hiatus due to COVID-19 closures, the East Maui Taro Festival is back to showcase the best of Hawaiian culture, cuisine, and the community of Hāna, Maui. The 28th event returns on Saturday, April 20, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Hāna Ballpark.

This week, Hāna vocational training organization Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke was gifted $2 million by billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving, part of a $640 million donation campaign involving 361 small nonprofits.

Today, after nearly 30 years of grassroots community planning and engagement within their moku and across Maui and the state, Hawaiʻi nonprofit organization Kīpahulu ‘Ohana, Inc. saw their Community-Based Subsistence Fishing Area (CBSFA) signed into law.