![\"image\"](\"%%dir[1]%%west_hawaii_vets_cemetery_002.jpg\")
\nThe white vans began pulling up to the West Hawai`i Veterans Cemetery shortly after 8 on a recent startlingly clear Saturday morning. The passengers debarked quickly, laughing and chatting. One began to strum an \u2018ukulele and softly sing along; several others tossed a football in the parking lot next to the groomed lawn where the bodies of veterans of every U.S. conflict since World War I lie under a thick carpet of neatly trimmed grass.<\/p>\n
Altogether, around 40 clients of the Big Island Substance Abuse Council, from all parts of the island, were there to join 100 or so volunteers from the Kona community, landscape crews from the Four Seasons Resort at Hualalai, and officers from the Army\u2019s Pohakuloa Training Area for a work day at the cemetery. The work days have become a regular event over the last two years as Richard Stevens, a Vietnam War veteran and professor at the University of Hawai`i \u2013 West Hawai`i, has pushed to see his vision of the once-desolate graveyard become what he calls the \u201cArlington of the Pacific, Hawaiian style.\u201d<\/p>\n
To prepare for the volunteers, Stevens and others had trekked up the cinder cone, Pu`u O`o, behind the cemetery the week before, placing small red flags at every spot where a seedling was to be planted. When the work days began in 2005, the first order of business was removing from the summit the fountain grass that is ubiquitous in West Hawai`i lava fields. Since then, thousands of seedlings have been planted and are flourishing; the pu`u is, in places, beginning to resemble what the undisturbed dry forests of Kona must have looked like before goats, cattle, sheep, and weeds took their toll.<\/p>\n
\tOn this day, volunteers would be planting more than 300 seedlings representing a dozen or more species of dry forest plants native to the Kona area. Some were donated by nurseries and the Army\u2019s propagation facility at PTA. Others were purchased with funds from the state\u2019s Kaulunani program (itself underwritten by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service). Still other grants, obtained by Angelica Stevens, Richard\u2019s wife and grant-writer for the West Hawai`i Veterans Cemetery Development and Expansion Association, went to purchase food for the work-day participants and to help offset BISAC\u2019s cost of bringing its clients \u2013 all of whom had volunteered for the task \u2013 to the cemetery. The perimeter fence, needed to keep goats and donkeys from browsing the new plantings, was erected with funds from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. A new greenhouse, where seedlings will be grown for outplanting across the entire Kona region, was built with money from the discretionary fund of former County Councilmember Virginia Isbell and the Hawai`i County Council.<\/p>\n
\tThe enterprise is now well established, but Stevens recalls a time when his group\u2019s efforts were just getting off the ground. At that point, he says, the local USDA office provided a grant from its Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program. \u201cThat was critically important in giving us the confidence we needed to start off this journey together,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Rebirth<\/b><\/i>
\nFor Stevens, the enterprise represents the \u201cresurrection of the land\u201d \u2013 \u201crebirth in the heart of the cemetery,\u201d he tells the volunteers as they assemble in a short ceremony at the parking lot flagpole before the planting begins. Just as Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia is famous for its trees, so, too, will the West Hawai`i Veterans Cemetery become renown for its vegetation, he says.<\/p>\n
\tThat vision lies at the core of the group Stevens and other veterans formed out of their frustration at the way in which the West Hawai`i Veterans Cemetery was being managed. \u201cThe situation of the cemetery two years ago was very, very low,\u201d he says. \u201cThe organization really grew from the concern of veterans in the community here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tOn Memorial Day in 2004, a year before Stevens\u2019 group became involved, an article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin<\/i> by Rod Thompson described the cemetery as \u201c59 acres of hot, barren lava rock and 1 acre of badly landscaped gravesites dug into crumbling gravel fill.\u201d The Big Island Golf Course Superintendents Association stepped up to resod the gravesites, using salt-tolerant paspalum grass instead of the Bermuda that had been planted when the cemetery was opened in 1995.<\/p>\n
\tIn March 2005, Stevens and a few other veterans organized the first work day, coordinating their efforts with the Hawai`i County Department of Parks and Recreation, which manages the cemetery on land owned by the state. Stevens has nothing but praise for the support he receives from the county administration.<\/p>\n
\tOther agencies have been less helpful. Stevens has received little support from the federal Veterans\u2019 Administration and from the state\u2019s Office of Veterans Services. \u201cThat\u2019s been a continual frustration, but maybe it\u2019s been a blessing, because it has forced us to go forward on our own. That\u2019s brought a lot of results.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tMore is involved than just restoring the battered landscape of the 62-acre cemetery. Stevens also wants to use the cemetery as an educational instrument. Schools are invited to send classes to the work days. On this day, students from Hualalai Academy, West Hawai`i Explorations Academy, and Hawai`i Community College participated in the plantings. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked with several schools and continue to do so,\u201d Stevens says. \u201cThat\u2019s really a very important part of what we do. We\u2019ll often get students over a wide range of grade levels \u2013 from lower elementary grades up to college.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tStevens tries to give everyone who participates a reason to feel invested in the success of the place. \u201cWe ask people to dedicate the trees they plant to the memory of someone special in their lives,\u201d he said. \u201cThe plantings then take on the character of a forest of beloved souls. All those plants, every one of them, represent someone who is dear to the person who planted it.
\n\t\u201cI heard one of the younger students say he\u2019d dedicated his tree to his dog. That\u2019s all right, too. The pu`u takes on another dimension and becomes a place where spirits can come and sit under the trees and congregate. We want people to feel that \u2018part of the cemetery is mine. I\u2019ve got a stake in there \u2013 Grandma\u2019s up on top of the hill.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe community aspect of all this \u2013 that\u2019s been an unexpected benefit,\u201d Stevens continues. \u201cThe cemetery work days have become a wonderful place for the community to meet. We have regulars. [The plantings] generate a lot of community spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tPrivate corporations have become a key part of the restoration process, as well. The Four Seasons Resort at Hualalai donates the use of its earth-moving equipment (and operators). Kuki`o Resort, just across the highway, provides water for irrigation.<\/p>\n
A Model<\/b><\/i>
\nSo far, about 2,500 seedlings representing some 30 to 40 species of native dry forest plants \u2013 trees, shrubs, ground cover \u2013 have been put into the earth at Pu`u O`o. Stevens hasn\u2019t kept track of survival rates, but doing that is on his to-do list. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the things we\u2019re very interested in \u2013 which plants do well, which don\u2019t,\u201d he says. \u201cSo far, there really isn\u2019t anything in the whole dryland forest inventory that hasn\u2019t done well. We\u2019ve planted uhiuhi, and it\u2019s surviving. We had trouble with the erythrina gall wasp on wiliwili trees, but Bryan Kiyabu of the Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden treated the wiliwili trees and they bounced right back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tStudents at the West Hawai`i Explorations Academy are helping with some research at the site. Late last year, the eighth-grade science class of Sylvia Texeira cleared and cast seeds of native plants over two large plots near the summit in an experiment to test the effectiveness of reseeding the area. Students from WHEA now monitor the area to see whether the seeds sprout and, if so, under what conditions. They also search the sere landscape for \u201ckumu\u201d trees \u2013 older, established trees that can be used as a seed source. At the recent work day, Texeira was eager to share the news that her students had spotted several a`ali`i seedlings sprouting near a water line installed to irrigate some of the new plantings.<\/p>\n
\tGoats have posed some of the most difficult management problems at the cemetery. Nearly the entire area is now fenced, but outside the fenced area, trees along the road leading to Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway remain vulnerable to browsing goats.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoats have been our nemesis right from the first,\u201d says Stevens. \u201cThe war with them is never quite over. So far, they have not been a major obstacle, and we\u2019ve been able to mostly keep one step ahead of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tStevens sees the efforts at Pu`u O`o as just the beginning. \u201cWe\u2019re really thinking about regional restoration. The greenhouse is not only for our use, but for making native plants available to others interested in restoring the lowland dry forest,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll be happy to supply plants to anyone who would like to put them into their landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tStevens\u2019 enthusiasm is infectious, as the packed parking lot and steady stream of plant-bearing volunteers scaling the trail to the pu`u summit attest. Last year, the Department of Interior recognized his efforts by selecting him as one of 29 recipients of its \u201cTake Pride in America Award.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBut for Stevens, the real reward lies in the coming-together of the community to repair the land.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIf we\u2019re going to save the world, this is the way it\u2019s going to happen,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
— Patricia Tummons<\/p>\n
April 2007 — Volume 17, Number 10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The white vans began pulling up to the West Hawai`i Veterans Cemetery shortly after 8 on a recent startlingly clear Saturday morning. The passengers debarked quickly, laughing and chatting. One began to strum an ‘ukulele and softly sing along; several … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-april-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}