Kuu Home o Hawaii
I remember days when we were younger / we used to catch oopu in the mountain streams / 'Round the Koolau hills we'd ride on horseback / So long ago it seems it was a dream / Last night I dreamt I was returning / And my heart called out to you / But I fear you won't be like I left you / Me ke aloha kuu home o Kahaluu
Olomana, “Kuu Home o Kahaluu”
To fall in love with Hawaii – whether from the good fortune of birth or coming here later in life – is a blessing. But that blessing is also bittersweet. Everyone who knows and loves Hawaii for any reasonable length of time also learns to yearn for places, views, and people that now exist only in memory. Olomana’s song of longing for landscapes, like a lot of other Hawaiian music, speaks to this ache that our love costs us.
This past year I turned fifty, finished my ninth year on the Board of the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust and have been wrapping up my two-year term as Board Chair. My involvement with HILT and the land trust movement is a bit older than that, dating back to the efforts to protect Muolea Point on the Hana coastline in 2005, through work to protect Wao Kele O Puna (Hawaii) and Waimea Valley (Oahu), up through joining the Oahu Land Trust Board as they considered joining the merger that created HILT.
It has certainly been long enough time to see big changes to land trusts, to HILT, and to Hawaii.
Nationally the land trust movement has grown in two significant directions. On one hand, the movement has become increasingly professionalized, with an emphasis on accreditation of land trusts. Proudly, HILT is accredited, has had its accreditation renewed, and we await positive word on our second renewal.
At the same time, land trusts across the US have also been increasingly concerned with local engagement. In 2016 the Land Trust Alliance gathered leaders to define and set as a goal “community conservation”: “An authentic, deliberate process that engages a diverse constituency in stating its shared values, needs and goals”. These concepts have increasing attention at each year’s Land Trust Alliance “Rally”.
Fortunately, here in Hawaii, HILT and the other trusts and conservation organizations are far ahead of that curve. The vast majority of our lands protected (and our funding sources!) have come out of local communities who have stepped forward to protect the lands that are dear to them. Yet we also know we are never done, and as our relationships with land and communities continue to develop, we can see no end to the depths possible in this engagement.
HILT has grown and changed in the last decade as well – starting as a mere idea and developed to an organization with impact across Hawaii. We are now beginning our tenth year, post-merger – we will turn 10 in January 2021. Four smallish land trusts chose to merge in 2011, after a couple of years of thoughtful discussion. The leap of faith and hard work has had its challenges, missteps, and successes.
As we enter this tenth year, we are led by a dedicated Board and an amazing, hard-working staff. We have protected many areas across the islands, and helped with other transactions, working with our close partners. Perhaps most importantly in the long run, we have been part of thousands of small discussions regarding the things that a land trust can do for Hawaii. As a community, we are starting to see possibilities we didn’t think existed.
As for the changes to Hawaii in this period – certainly precious places continue to be lost. My increasing years have allowed me to see even more landscapes lost, and friends pass as well. I have a better sense of my own mortality.
Related to those things, I now also have a better sense that most important things we can do with our lives – the ones with lasting impact – often take a decade or more to achieve. Whether it is the parenting of a child into a contributing adult – the steady restoration of a landscape – or building a strong organization – the most important things take time. Steady investment, steady work, steady relationships, over many years, result in unimaginable outcomes.
I am so happy to be part of the HILT ohana on this voyage; ending the first decade and headed to amazing outcomes I am sure will come. Mahalo nunui to all who are part of this journey, and to those who are not yet – join in!
— Dr. Jonathan L. Scheuer, Board Chairman, Hawaiian Islands Land Trust