Page 7 - MidWeek Central - Feb 27, 2022

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Civic Club Member Contributes To The Greening Of Wahiawā
Tom Lenchanko seri- ously embraces his role as guardian of the sacred Kūkaniloko Birthstones State Monument in Cen- tral Oʻahu. He and other members of the Hawaiian Civic Club of Wahiawā take meticulous care of the 10 acres of undevel- oped land brimming with historical and cultural sig- nificance. Dating back to 760 A.D., it was the birth- place of royal children during the monarchy. The lightbulb moment for Len- chanko came one day in 2019, while attending a tree-planting event on Oʻa- hu. He became excited by an idea: Why not plant thousands of native Ha- waiian trees at Kūkaniloko to reforest the area while
also improving watershed management? That’s when he approached Camilo Mora, a University of Ha- waiʻi at Mānoa geography professor and principal in- vestigator of the Carbon Neutrality Challenge.
Survival of the seeds and young trees at Kūkaniloko is projected to be about 90%, since there is con- tinuing maintenance of the plantings by HCCW mem- bers.
in Hawaiʻi,” states Mora. “We have already perfect- ed the planting process so that any average person can plant about 20 trees in an hour. Following that math, if we manage to get only 10% of the population to participate — that would be 100,000 people — it is a path to plant 1 million trees a day.”
“When I was contacted by Uncle Tom to help, I could not resist,” states Mora. “He is one of those rare people who is truly connected with the land and the communi- ties surrounding it. I really appreciate all the hard work that he puts into maintain- ing that site and, given its historical significance, I couldn’t be prouder to be part of his effort to reforest Kūkaniloko.”
“Our goal is to reforest the land with 200,000 na- tive Hawaiian hardwoods,” states Lenchanko.
During the 2021 holi- day break, Mora and his family, Lenchanko and
fellow HCCW volunteers mea, wiliwili and mānele spent several Saturdays trees. Funding assistance
Tom Lenchanko is a member of the Hawaiian Civic Club of Wahiawā.
PHOTO COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA
Kūkaniloko is one of the sites supported by Mo- ra’s Carbon Neutrality Challenge, a joint project by UH Mānoa and numer- ous organizations that aims to restore local ecosystems by offsetting carbon emis- sions with tree plantings. Major sponsors include the Marion R. Weber Family Fund and Brodie Lockard.
To contact Mora, email cmora@hawaii.edu. For more information on the UH Foundation Car- bon Neutrality Project in Geography, go to giv- ing.uhfoundation.org/ funds/12724804. For info on HCCW, which hopes to expand the tree-plant- ing effort to a larger area of the protected site, visit kukaniloko.weebly.com.
digging holes and planting seeds and saplings that will grow into sturdy koa, lono-
came from HCCW, the Of- fice of Hawaiian Affairs and private supporters.
“Our ultimate goal is to plant 1 million trees a day
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