UH Maui College celebrates Earth Day as a newly designated Tree Campus

The University of Hawaiʻi Maui College’s Student ʻOhana for Sustainability (SOS) club will host Mālama ʻĀina community and student volunteer activities to celebrate Earth Day on Tuesday, April 22 from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Kauluwehi Garden and WaiPono Farm, both located on the college’s Kahului campus.

“Earth Day isn’t just a day to connect with the land but a day to connect with people. Resiliency in our communities is built through relationships with each other. SOS wants to encourage students and our community to go out and build those relationships with one another in a fun and impactful way,” said Daniel Reyes, SOS Club President.

The volunteer activities will include prepping a new campus composting site, fieldwork and aquaponics greenhouse maintenance at WaiPono Farm, and native nursery seeding and repotting native trees at Kauluwehi Garden.

“We’re also thrilled to report that UHMC has recently been recognized as a Tree Campus by the Arbor Day Foundation, demonstrating our commitment to environmental stewardship, sustainability, and community engagement,” said Program Manager Dr. Nicolette van der Lee.

She continued: “With Governor Green’s proclamations of April as Native Hawaiian Plant Month and 2025 as the Year of Community Forests in Hawai’i, our campus is engaging our students and community to grow native plants and trees in support of regreening Lāhaina through a collaboration with Treecovery. We’ll also be offering free community workshops and volunteer events for native plant propagation and fire-wise landscaping in the coming months, culminating in an Arbor Month event in November in partnership with Maui Green & Beautiful.”

The general public is invited to join the community volunteer activities on April 22 in celebration of Earth Day. Please click on this link to sign up for the Earth Day volunteer sites.

The event is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.