Lānaʻi Culture & Heritage Center works to restore native landscape as part of Arbor Day festivities

Arbor Day Hawaiʻi festivities continue across the state in what has become a month-long celebration in which Hawaiʻi’s communities are urged to plant trees.

On Saturday, Lānaʻi Culture & Heritage Center, the island’s nonprofit cultural legacy leader, took 40 volunteers to Keone, Pūlama Lānaʻi’s native plant restoration lands, that is home to more than 100 wild endangered Abutilon menziesii (koʻoloaʻula) and more than 200 outplanted koʻoloaʻula.

More than 250 plants were installed as part of the joint effort between Pūlama Lānaʻi and Lānaʻi Culture & Heritage Center.

Stewardship of the ʻāina is a core focus of the center that believes that land and its people are inherently tied and by restoring health to the landscape through the outplanting of native species, communities can work towards a healthier future for their island.