Outstanding service awards presented to state firefighters and Maui Bird Conservation Center staff

Maui Bird Conservation Center staff work to care for endangered Hawaiian forest birds, not to put themselves in harm’s way fighting wildfires. But that’s what happened Aug. 7, 2023, and the next day, according to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Jennifer Pribble, who manages the conservation center, monitored the fire overnight. When embers crossed the road, she used a garden hose and fire extinguishers to keep it from spreading while waiting for the arrival of Division of Forestry and Wildlife wildland firefighters.

More than two dozen of those firefighters, Pribble and conservation center staff were honored Monday with US Department of the Interior Citizens Awards for Exceptional Service.

Pribble said she was honored by the recognition. While she never expected to be fighting a fire, it was another step in protecting the birds under the center’s care. “We prepare to do everything we possibly can to help save these birds,” she said.

On Aug. 7, 2023, and continuing into the next day, staff at the center, operated by the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance on state land in Olinda, were the first to respond to a fire sparked by a power line directly across the road from the center.

Home to 80 to 90 native forest birds, the facility was at risk of catching fire from airborne embers across the road.

“Our conservationists found themselves on the frontlines with firefighters as wildfire arrived at our doorstep — and they held the line with hoses and fire extinguishers to protect the last of these Native Hawaiian birds from catastrophic disaster,” zoo officials said.

During the extended fire fight, the center served as a place of shelter and respite for fire fighters and rescue workers.

“This award recognizes the quick and decisive actions taken by the Maui Bird Conservation Center and the unyielding valor of the Division of Forestry and Wildlife wildland firefighters and support staff that contributed toward protecting hundreds of species that are culturally significant to Native Hawaiians and are important representatives of the natural and cultural heritage of the Hawaiian Islands,” said Earl Campbell, Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office field supervisor. “The Department of the Interior’s Citizens Award for Exceptional Service recognizes outstanding performance by a private citizen, organizational partner, or volunteer who has contributed significantly to the bureau’s mission.”

Even after flames had been extinguished at the initial ignition source near the bird conservation center, state forestry firefighters continued putting out hotspots and maintained daily fire watches for more than two months.

Division Forester Chris Chow said: “No one in the firefighting community does this work for recognition. It’s our job and our passion, and we will do everything possible to save our native species and to protect our natural and cultural resources, homes and property.”

Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair Dawn Chang said: “The work our wildfire teams put in is inherently dangerous, exhausting, hot and dirty. Yet, you never hear any of the firefighters complain or refuse to respond. They are responsible for fire suppression on more than one million acres of land under (the division’s) jurisdiction. Receiving the Citizens Award for Exceptional Service is richly deserved. Mahalo to the US Fish and Wildlife Service for this recognition.”

The Olinda fire, one of four that sparked on Maui the same day as the deadly and devastating Lahaina wildfires, burned across 1,000 acres of the Waihou Spring Forest Reserve. It was considered contained by Sept. 28, 2023, yet more than a month beyond that date, a four-person Forestry Division fire patrol team continued daily fire watch.

Center staff members are building a population of Hawaiian honeycreepers, and ‘alalā (Hawaiian crow) in the safety of the center. These conservation efforts are part of the Department of the Interior comprehensive strategy to restore critically endangered species and to combat avian malaria through landscape level mosquito control. It’s a disease that is largely responsible for the extinction or near-extinction of seven members of the honeycreeper family.