Year of the Alawi campaign aims to protect Hawaii Island forests

A Hawaii Island bird found nowhere else on Earth has become the face of a push to protect one of the Big Island’s most important native forests. Friends of Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge has launched a Year of the Alawī campaign to raise money for its endowment and fund urgent habitat work inside the 32,700-acre refuge on the windward slopes of Mauna Kea.

The alawī lives in the forest canopy, creeping along koa and ōhia trunks and branches to probe under bark and into lichens for insects and spiders. It nests in cavities and bark crevices, and it survives only in higher-elevation native forest above roughly 4,500 to 5,000 feet, where mosquitoes carrying avian disease are absent or less common. That narrow range makes the bird one of the clearest indicators of whether Hakalau’s forest is still functioning as a healthy native ecosystem.

The stakes go far beyond a single species. Hawaii has already lost at least half of the endemic bird species known from the archipelago, and of the 53 species that persist today, 25 are listed under the Endangered Species Act and 16 more are species of conservation concern. Hakalau itself remains one of the strongest refuges for native birds, with the U.S. Geological Survey describing it as protecting the largest endemic forest bird diversity in Hawaii and noting that the unit includes three endangered species and one threatened species.

The refuge was established in 1985 to protect endangered forest birds and their rainforest habitat. The endowment Friends of Hakalau Forest set up in 2015 was built around a $3.5 million goal, and the fund has now grown to nearly $3 million, bringing it close to the level needed to begin disbursing money for habitat protection and restoration. Island residents can support that work by donating to the endowment, which is managed by the Hawaii Community Foundation.

That funding matters because Hakalau’s forest still faces disease, feral pigs, cattle, rats and invasive birds, even as the refuge remains closed to self-guided public access because of rapid ōhia death concerns. U.S. Geological Survey research from 2012 to 2016 recorded 3,600 birds banded, 1,350 recaptured and 900 nests found, a reminder that Hakalau is both a sanctuary and a working landscape for recovery science. For Hawaii Island, the alawī campaign is really a measure of whether the island’s remaining native forest can still be defended before more of it is lost.