LIVING LEGACY OF TREES
Perhaps the coolest souvenir from Hawaii these days is one that people always leave behind, some 5,000 feet above the sea. Instead of gathering dust at home, these living mementos provide food for endangered native birds, keep soil from washing onto coral reefs, retain water in the watershed and offset vacationers’ carbon footprint. Some even serve as unique reminders of lost loved ones.
These souvenirs are endemic koa trees, planted on 1,200 acres on the slopes of the Big Island’s Mauna Kea. And thanks to GPS and Google Earth, those who support the Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative can watch online as the koa tree they either personally planted or funded grows taller every year.
The idea for planting “legacy trees” on the Big Island, along with harvestable koa as an investment, came in 2008 from former securities manager and corporate consultant Jeff Dunster and his longtime business partner Darrell Fox, who has a background in oceanography. “When I was in graduate school, I worked with a coral reef biologist, who said the way to protect a reef is to plant a forest,” Fox says.
It costs $60 to sponsor the planting of a koa seedling, and $20 of that price is donated to the buyer’s favorite nonprofits and another $1 to the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust. Small-group tours of the koa nursery and forest, which include the cost of planting a tree, start at $110.
Guests of the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, which was an early partner of the program, have already contributed 20,000 legacy trees. The resort’s new optional $8-per-stay conservation fee also funds legacy tree planting, which offsets the carbon footprint of guests’ travel, according to Robert Whitfield, the resort’s general manager.
Tom Wilmer, a travel writer and podcaster who lives in Morro Bay (San Luis Obispo County) and grew up in Palo Alto, was so impressed by the initiative that he successfully nominated it for the Society of American Travel Writers’ prestigious Phoenix Award, which rewards conservation and preservation efforts.
“The most touching thing to me is there is not only this greatergood component — you’re planting a tree that will never be harvested, and a certain percentage of your donation is donated to a nonprofit of your choice — but also the whole model,” says Wilmer. Dunster and Fox “could have made a fortune just growing and selling koa wood, but (they) made this reforestation component where everyone wins.”
“The legacy we want to leave behind is this beautiful endemic natural forest.” Jeff Dunster, Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative
Wilmer’s wife, Elizabeth Saylor, says she had a mystical experience planting a koa tree in memory of her mother, whose “sparkling eyes had dimmed” years before her death at age 84.
“She, like many others with dementia, had been robbed of her life-affirming essence. But what I found, as I planted the koa seedling, was what can only be described as a rebirth of her spirit within the tree’s DNA,” Saylor recalls. “Her spirit, my spirit and the tree’s all commingled in that split second, and there was an indescribable peace that I’ll never forget. It was transformational and the perfect memorial to honor her life.”
“The legacy we want to leave behind is this beautiful endemic natural forest, and also the impact it has on people’s lives,” Dunster says. “People who have lost a loved one leave their hurt on the mountain, they sprinkle ashes around the trees, and they really feel closure. This gives them a place to go back to — living memorials that get grander and grander every year.”