The Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge), on the windward slopes of Mauna Kea, Hawai’i, is an important habitat for Hawaiian forest birds and plants, several of which are listed as endangered. Surrounding lands are managed by a variety of entities for conservation and other purposes. This landscape is experiencing environmental change, and is projected to experience altered temperatures and rainfall patterns in coming decades. In turn, these changes will likely alter the distributions of invasive weeds and mosquitoes, and reduce or eliminate populations of sensitive native species. The Refuge has conducted extensive forest restoration, and adjacent landowners are also conducting restoration activities. However, no assessment has been conducted as to how changing environmental conditions may compromise these restoration efforts, or how restoration should proceed in the future to maximize chances of success.
A variety of scientific studies and tools have recently become available that would inform discussions of future restoration goals and activities, but these may not be familiar to the managers and decision-makers for these lands. This project seeks to familiarize the management community in this area with the available information, to assist them in developing strategies to accommodate environmental change, and to enable them to collaborate across boundaries on a shared restoration plan for the Refuge and adjacent lands.
The basic service objective is to provide expertise in adaptation, meeting facilitation, and plan development. Services to be performed by the contractor require knowledge and expertise in adaptation planning, rainfall and temperature projections and potential impacts in the main Hawaiian islands, the conservation landscape and organizations in Hawai’i, written and verbal communication, and meeting facilitation.
