Pōhinahina, a native shrub being planted in place of fountain grass at the dryland forest near Palamanui’s North Kona campus. This image is in the public domain.
Kona Historical Society's Hanohano 'O Kona Lecture Series continues at the West Hawaii Civic Center Wednesday, October 30, 2019, 5:30pm to 7pm, featuring a presentation about efforts to apply a sustainable management process to the preservation of a dryland forest through Kona’s institutions of higher learning.
Dr. Richard Stevens, Lecturer in History at the UH Center at West Hawaii and HCC-Palamanui, will be joined by Dr. Elliott Parsons, Coordinator of the Na Pu'u Conservation Project based at Pu'u Wa'awa'a, and Ian Shortridge, Academic Advisor at Palamanui, to give a presentation about the connection between institutions of higher learning and bringing students into their environment. This will include exciting recent developments in forming a very large "outdoor campus," a Palamanui Lowland Dry Forest Preserve, the restoration of an ancient trails system near the new campus, and the focus on sustainability at Palamanui and throughout the ten-campus UH system. All these elements are especially significant and urgent as we face the challenges posed by climate change.
Dr. Richard Stevens has been teaching at the UH Center at West Hawaii in Kona for over 30 years. He and his students have planted thousands of native trees at many sites on Hawai'i Island, including most prominently now, the new campus at Palamanui. Dr. Stevens is also a trail hunter who has found hundred of ancient Hawaiian trails. He is the author of several books, including The Trail: A History of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Role of Nature in the War in Vietnam and Tropical Organic Gardening Hawaiian Style.
For the past seven years, Kona Historical Society has offered this community lecture series, spotlighting local and state speakers on a wide variety of cultural and historical subjects. It is a gift from the Society to the community that has supported it for so long and it is presented in cooperation with the County of Hawaii. The lectures are free of charge and open to all, residents and visitors alike.
Kona Historical Society is a community-based, nonprofit organization and Smithsonian Museum affiliate that has spent the past four decades collecting, preserving and sharing the history of the Kona districts and their rich cultural heritage within Hawaii.