Priority Projects

The project focuses on enhancing both the aesthetics and accessibility of the building. Key elements include replacing damaged windows, removing view-obstructing elements, improving lighting, and creating wheelchair-accessible viewing areas. This restoration will ensure visitors have the best possible experience while enjoying the center's new exhibits.

The project aims to preserve a valuable collection of historical audio and video recordings from Haleakalā National Park by transferring them from obsolete media formats (cassettes, VHS, film reels) to modern, archival-safe storage. This will ensure the accessibility and longevity of these important records documenting the park's history, management, and educational programs.

This project aims to create a comprehensive record of the rich scientific history within Haleakalā National Park. Two interns will collaborate to build a geodatabase of past research, conduct oral histories with significant researchers, and develop a public GIS StoryMap showcasing the history of park research, highlighting knowledge gaps, and inspiring future scientific exploration, especially in the context of climate change.

Skilled crew members use pack mules to carry in supplies for visitor and patrol cabins, research and invasive pest control equipment, and to carry out significant amounts of trash that visitors leave behind. This project would fund two pack mules, replacing two that have been retired.

Past census work has shown the high levels of decline of natural populations of silverswords at Haleakalā. This project will enhance efforts to stabilize the Silversword population of this unique Haleakala species.

The park uses passive acoustic monitoring with autonomous recording units (ARUs) to track endangered wildlife like forest birds and seabirds. While effective and cost-efficient, the harsh rainforest environment often damages the equipment, requiring frequent replacements. The park has solid data on Hawaiian Petrel populations but still needs to identify nesting sites for other endangered seabirds like the ʻakēʻakē and ʻaʻo. Plans are underway to expand ARU coverage and use tools like night-vision goggles to locate and protect these critical nesting sites.

The nēnē goslings face high risks from predators, poor nutrition, and road hazards. To protect them, the park proposes building a new specialized holding pen after the previous one was destroyed by severe winds in 2023. Temporary pens have proven highly effective, boosting gosling survival to nearly 100% by providing safety, shelter, and access to food and water. The new pen would temporarily house at-risk families and injured birds, supporting both conservation and rehabilitation efforts.

Haleakalā National Park experiences frequent power outages, some lasting up to several weeks, which jeopardize critical operations like the nursery’s irrigation and temperature control systems. A recent two-week outage, compounded by a road closure, led to the loss of several hundred plants, including Threatened and Endangered species. These losses are preventable with the installation of an automatic backup generator. With this system in place, the nursery can continue operating normally during future outages, protecting vital plant populations.

This project will refurbish the aging Little HaleNet weather station network on the windward slope of Haleakalā to improve climate data collection near the critical tradewind inversion layer. By replacing damaged sensors and collecting 3–5 more years of data, the project will significantly reduce uncertainty in climate models and enhance our understanding of rainfall, drought patterns, and their effects on 25 threatened and endangered plant species. Once complete, researchers and land managers will have access to high-quality data to guide conservation and climate resilience strategies.

Between 4 and 8 young girls who have been within the Honolulu juvenile justice system and are now participating in the Hawaii Girls Court program to reduce recidivism. This program has brought the girls and their parole officers who have completed the program to Haleakalā in years past, providing a transformational experience for the girls, with the program reducing recidivism by 47%.

This project requests funds to purchase 3 outdoor all-terrain self-propelled, non-motorized wheelchairs to be kept at each visitor center in Haleakalā National Park. The main scope of this project is to make Haleakalā National Park more accessible for our visitors who may have mobility issues or disabilities and would benefit from having the option to use a wheelchair.

This program aims to coordinate special events with partnering organizations to expand outreach and enrich astronomy experiences for greater audiences. The project will partner with Native Hawaiian organizations and other community-focused groups to broaden staff and volunteer knowledge of traditional Hawaiian night sky use and moʻolelo through guest speakers, trainings, and workshops.